Israeli government spokesperson Elon Levy commented on the images and videos that surged on social media showing the Israeli army arresting dozens of unarmed civilians in Gaza while they were "nearly naked." Levy claimed in an interview with CNN regarding the detention of civilian prisoners in Gaza in such a state, "All the detainees who appeared this week in the dramatic images from the heart of Gaza are suspected of being terrorists." He added, "When we find men of military age in areas we have been requesting to evacuate for over a month, we need to arrest them and identify the terrorists among them; these areas are strongholds for Hamas, and we have witnessed intense battles there."
CNN reported that many of the men detained in Gaza while their hands were shackled "nearly naked" are civilian citizens with no connections to Hamas. A video clip and images showed scenes of the Israeli army detaining dozens of defenseless civilian citizens and stripping them of their clothes in the town of Beit Lahia, in northern Gaza.
According to eyewitness accounts, army forces entered the Al-Qassam street area in Beit Lahia, expelled women from their homes, and arrested all the young men and elders, taking them to an unknown location. The war on Gaza has entered its third month, with Israeli forces continuing to bombard cities and provinces in the region, particularly the city of Khan Yunis in the south, amid fears of a deeper and more severe humanitarian catastrophe.
