Disturbing video shows Palestinian men stripped, handcuffed by Israeli forces

A video surfaced online on Monday showing a group of Palestinian men forcibly stripped naked and handcuffed by Israeli forces at an undisclosed location in Gaza.

In the video, seen by The New Arab, the men - who appeared wearing only their underwear - could be heard making anti-Hamas comments under duress.

The nearly two-minute-long clip showed the Palestinian detainees chanting insults at Hamas under duress. 

An Israeli soldier can be heard instructing the visibly scared and bound men: "Whose fault is all of this?". The detainees chant in unison: "Hamas".

"We had been waiting for you to come and liberate us from this oppression," one detainee could be heard saying

The video raised fresh concerns about the fate of detained Palestinians after previous images and footage showed a mass detention by the Israeli troops of men who were made to strip to their underwear, kneel on the street, wear blindfolds, and pack into the cargo bed of a military vehicle.

Since the release of the latest video, many said it reinforced claims of Israel’s war crimes against Palestinians amid its relentless war on Gaza. 

Researcher Amar Mustafa decried the video for its display of the Palestinian detainees’ treatment, as he reinstated that "these men deserve their dignity to be respected". 

"But highlighting the depravity of the [Israeli forces] has no limit when it has impunity," Mustafa wrote in a post on X.

The New Arab has decided not to share the video due to the humiliating conditions of the detainees and the likelihood they were forced to speak under duress.

Israeli forces have been seen conducting mass arrests and forcible disappearances of Palestinians in Gaza, following the images of dozens of men and teenagers stripped and blindfolded in December last year which sparked global outrage. 

On 7 December, photos and videos circulated online showing large groups of Palestinian men stripped down to their underwear, blindfolded, and arrested under the supervision of Israeli soldiers. 

One of those detained was Diaa Al-Kahlout, the Gaza bureau chief of The New Arab’s Arabic language channel Al-Araby Al-Jadeed, who was taken from his home in Beit Lahia and beaten by Israeli soldiers. 

He later appeared in a video, stripped of his clothes with his hands bound, along with other men whom Israel accused of being part of Hamas. 

Press freedom groups - including the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) and Reporters Without Borders (RSF) - have urged Israel to immediately release Kahlout, while the UN said it was "very concerned" about his condition. 

Israel’s devastating war on Gaza has killed 23,084 people, mostly women and children, and left at least 58,926 critically injured. 

It has also caused unprecedented destruction and "shocking living conditions", according to local and international NGOs and eyewitnesses.