2024-02-11 09:16:21
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The BBC found videos posted online showing Gaza detainees bound and blindfolded – this video was published on 24 December 2023
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Legal experts say videos showing Gaza detainees stripped, bound and blindfolded, filmed by Israeli soldiers and uploaded online, might constitute a violation of international law.
International law stipulates that detainees must not be subjected to unnecessary humiliation or public curiosity.
The BBC Fact-Finding Service viewed hundreds of videos publicly shared by Israeli soldiers in Gaza since November 2023. The BBC verified eight videos in which detainees appear.
The Israeli army says it has “terminated the service of one of the reservists we identified, and that videos like this have no value.” The army did not respond to any further request for comment.
Dr. Mark Ellis, a senior UN adviser to the ICC, said the footage we showed him from Israeli soldiers may violate recognized rules for the treatment of prisoners of war.
Soldiers on duty
Most of the videos we analyzed show scenes of fighting and soldiers inspecting homes from which residents have been displaced.
One video shows soldiers dressed as dinosaurs shooting, and other clips show soldiers preparing pizza in an empty Palestinian house.
But we found eight of them, filmed and shared publicly, that legal experts say show mistreatment of Palestinian detainees.
These clips were posted by men in military service or who were soldiers, and they did not hide their identity.
We discovered one account by analyzing a photo of a Palestinian detainee that was widely circulated online earlier this week. Reverse image searches show it came from the YouTube account of Israeli soldier Yossi Gamzu Letova.
He has uploaded multiple videos from Gaza since early December, including footage of his forces, which he identified as the 932nd Granite Battalion, part of the IDF’s Nahal Brigade.
In a video clip published on December 24, 2023, the Palestinian detainee appears in the photo, almost naked, bleeding, with his hands tied, and sitting on a chair during his interrogation.
Image source: YOUTUBE
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An Israeli army soldier interrogates a detainee in Gaza
We identified the location as Gaza College, a school located in the northern Gaza Strip, through the distinctive décor and the institution’s logo that appears in the video, which we matched to its page on the social networking site Facebook.
Later in the same video, the detainee is shown walking barefoot through the streets of Gaza.
The Israeli army said in a statement: “The photo was taken during a field interrogation. The suspect was not harmed. A reserve soldier photographed and published the photo in contravention of the orders and values of the Israeli army, and it was recently decided to terminate his reserve service.”
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On the same day, Letova posted another video on YouTube showing hundreds of Palestinian detainees gathered at a sports stadium, which we have geolocated and verified as Yarmouk Stadium in Gaza.
Most of the people who appeared in the video were stripped naked, some were blindfolded and kneeling on the ground in neat rows, while Israeli soldiers watched them.
At one point, a group of three female detainees appears kneeling and blindfolded behind a soccer goal with the Israeli flag hanging above it.
Image source: YOUTUBE
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The detainees appear in a video posted online by an IDF soldier
An Israeli soldier appears in the video several times, and appears to be aware that he is being filmed.
By comparing his uniform and badge with other publicly available images of Israeli army uniforms online, we identified him as a lieutenant colonel, or battalion commander.
Both videos were removed from Litova’s public YouTube page shortly following the BBC contacted the Israeli army.
code of conduct
Two videos uploaded to TikTok by another IDF soldier include images of blindfolded detainees, interspersed with images of soldiers carrying weapons.
One of the two clips, published on December 14 and filmed to the beat of an Israeli rap song, shows detainees blindfolded and piled into a pickup truck, with a soldier standing next to them with a thumbs up.
We identified the soldier from his other social media accounts as Elijah Blank.
Image source: TIKTOK
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An Israeli soldier stands on a pickup truck with blindfolded detainees
This soldier posted another video clip that included a picture of a blindfolded man lying on the ground, surrounded by what appeared to be three Israeli army soldiers.
We have found a number of images used in his videos in northern Gaza. After we contacted the Israeli army and TikTok, the videos were removed.
Article 13 of the Third Geneva Convention stipulates that prisoners of war must be protected at all times, in particular once morest acts of violence or intimidation and once morest “insults and public curiosity.”
Dr Mark Ellis, a senior UN adviser to the ICC, says the key is “not to create public curiosity” towards prisoners of war and not “to insult or humiliate them”.
He added: “The idea of people passing by in their underwear, photographing them, and broadcasting those images over the Internet violates this. The rules that have been established do not allow such behavior in any way.”
Professor Asa Kasher, an Israeli academic who helped write the IDF’s first code of conduct, said sharing photos of half-naked people contravenes the IDF’s code of conduct.
He went on to say that there might be a need for the army to briefly strip a detainee to check if he was armed, but that he saw no reason to “take such a photo and share it with the public.” He added: “The reason they are detained half-naked is to humiliate them.”
Human rights lawyer Michael Mansfield said the footage should be evaluated by a UN court.
He added: “There are very strict restrictions on how to deal with detained persons who are considered prisoners of war or conflict, and this is clearly the case, and the rules here aim to treat prisoners of war with respect.”
We sent six videos to TikTok, who confirmed that all of them violated their community guidelines. They said their guidelines are clear regarding not tolerating content “that seeks to denigrate victims of violent tragedies.” All videos have since disappeared from the platform.
A YouTube spokesperson said it had removed tens of thousands of harmful videos and closed thousands of channels during the conflict between Israel and Gaza, and that it had teams working around the clock to monitor the content of offensive footage.
Additional reporting: Paul Brown, Alex Murray, Paul Myers, Richard Irvin Brown and Daniele Palumbo.
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