GAZA CITY, Palestine

Fatema Tambora can’t forget the moment of being strip-searched by Israeli forces in the northern Gaza Strip.

“Israeli soldiers forced me to completely remove my clothes and underwear,” the Palestinian mother, who did not give her age, told Anadolu on Friday.

“They forcibly removed my hijab, aggressively examined me through an electronic device, and placed it on sensitive parts of my body.”

The Israeli army has waged a deadly military offensive on the Gaza Strip following a cross-border attack by Hamas on Oct. 7, 2023, which Tel Aviv said killed nearly 1,200.

On Dec. 24, Israeli forces raided a school in Gaza City, where Tambora, her family, and hundreds of Palestinians took refuge.

“Soldiers separated men from women and children and forced them to take off their clothes,” Tambora recalled.

They were all ordered by soldiers into a nearby mosque in the Sheikh Radwan neighborhood in Gaza City for investigation.

“Soldiers first ordered my husband into the mosque,” the Palestinian mother said. “I was later separated from my children to be questioned by Israeli soldiers.”

The Palestinian woman was later handcuffed, blindfolded, and dragged into a military jeep.

“I appealed to the soldiers to know the fate of my husband and children, but one soldier shouted at me and ordered me to remain silent and only follow orders."

Abuses

Tambora and other detainees were transferred to an Israeli military prison.

“Israeli soldiers deliberately left women detainees with their hands and feet handcuffed for long periods of time,” she said.

“Detainees were beaten, tortured, their hijab and clothes removed, and forced to kiss the Israeli flag while being interrogated,” the Palestinian woman recalled.

They were questioned about Hamas, its leaders, and other Palestinian resistance factions.

“Whenever we said we didn’t know anything, we were beaten, tortured, and insulted with obscene words,” she said.

"We were freezing in the cold, but they refused to give us blankets,” Tambora said. “They forced us to wear very light clothes without underwear, and they refused to allow us to wear the hijab."

After 11 days, Tambora was transferred to Damon Prison near the city of Haifa in northern Israel.

“Women detainees were forced by soldiers to take off their clothes in front of everyone, and they examined us in an immoral manner, focusing on private areas,” she said.

"They threatened us with five years in prison if we refused to give information,” the Gazan woman said.

“Female soldiers deliberately woke us up in the middle of the night to disturb us and prevent us from sleeping. They did not allow us to leave the room except for one hour to use the bathroom."

Beaten, tortured

After 47 days in detention at the prison, Tambora was ordered released.

“We were transferred to another prison where we were left in the cold weather until midnight,” she said.

“We were beaten and tortured on the bus by Israeli soldiers until we reached the Karam Abu Salem (Kerem Shalom) crossing in the morning when the soldiers removed our handcuffs and blindfolds and set us free.”

“We were received by delegates from the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) at the crossing and they transferred us to Rafah city in the southern Gaza Strip,” Tambora said.

More than 30,700 Palestinians have been killed and over 72,000 others injured in Israel’s ongoing offensive in Gaza amid mass destruction and shortages of necessities.

Palestinian groups estimate that thousands of Palestinians have been detained by Israeli forces in the Gaza Strip since Oct. 7.

Israel has also imposed a crippling blockade on the seaside enclave, leaving its population, particularly residents of northern Gaza, on the verge of starvation.

The Israeli war has pushed 85% of Gaza’s population into internal displacement amid acute shortages of food, clean water, and medicine, while 60% of the enclave's infrastructure has been damaged or destroyed, according to the UN.

Israel stands accused of genocide at the International Court of Justice. An interim ruling in January ordered Tel Aviv to stop genocidal acts and take measures to guarantee that humanitarian assistance is provided to civilians in Gaza.

*Writing by Ahmed Asmar in Ankara