Human Rights Groups Demand Answers on Abducted Gaza Baby by Israeli Soldier
The soldier, identified as Captain Haret Itach of the Givati Brigade, allegedly took the baby to occupied territories after hearing her cry and assuming that her family was killed in a raid on a house in northern Gaza, according to a story broadcasted on the regime's Army Radio station on December 31.
The story was revealed by Shahar Mendelson, a friend of Itach, in an interview on Army Radio, also known as Galatz. Itach was later killed in action during the war on Gaza on December 22.
According to Al-Araby Al-Jadeed, human rights groups are trying to verify the fate of the baby girl, whose name and status remain unknown. The Galatz interview segment has since been removed from its website.
The Palestinian Ministry of Foreign Affairs condemned the abduction as a "heinous crime" in a statement issued on Tuesday, and called on the Israeli authorities to hand over the baby to the Palestinian National Authority without delay.
"The abduction of the infant girl from the Gaza Strip is evidence that the occupation army is committing the most heinous crimes against civilians without oversight or accountability," the statement said.
Geneva-based Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor said that it is looking “very seriously at what was revealed by the Israeli media about the kidnapping of an Israeli officer a Palestinian baby girl from the Strip after killing her family."
The International Union for Muslim Scholars, an organisation of Muslim Islamic theologians, also joined calls demanding an explanation as to the fate of the infant.
"We call on governments and leaders in the Arab and Islamic world to take back this newborn," Secretary-General Ali al-Qaradaghi wrote on X.
Human rights organizations have urged the international community to intervene and pressure Israel to release more than 3,000 Gazans, including children and women, who are believed to have been detained from their homes and shelters by Israeli forces in recent weeks.
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Palestinian news agency Quds News Network reported on Sunday that one of the detainees, Rushi Al Zaza from Zeitoun in Gaza City, was separated from his wife and two sons, aged 4 years and 6 months, when they were loaded onto a truck by Israeli soldiers. Rushdi was freed after 25 days, but he has no information about his family's whereabouts.
Human rights groups have expressed grave concern over the violations of international humanitarian law and human dignity by the Israeli military forces in Gaza, and have called for an independent investigation into the incidents.
Source: Agencies
