Israel investigates after killing of own soldier

Israel is repeatedly criticized for its treatment of captured Palestinians. One case in particular could stand out. A soldier is suspected of shooting a man in custody. He is now under investigation.

In Israel, the army has launched an investigation into one of its soldiers in connection with the killing of a detained Palestinian in the Gaza Strip. The soldier is suspected of having shot the Palestinian while he was in Israeli custody on suspicion of terrorism, the army said in a statement.

The Palestinian was reportedly captured and questioned as a "suspected terrorist" in the city of Gaza. According to the army, he was then placed under the "supervision of a soldier", who is said to have opened fire on the man. The military police are now investigating the circumstances under which the shot was fired.

Since the beginning of the war between Israel and the radical Islamic Hamas in the Gaza Strip on October 7, hundreds of Palestinians have been arrested. The Palestinian organization accuses Israel of unlawfully "executing" at least 137 people in the Gaza Strip since then and is calling for an international investigation.

Israel rejects UN accusations

In December, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights called on Israel to investigate the "possible commission of a war crime" by its soldiers following reports of the killing of at least "eleven unarmed Palestinian men" in the city of Gaza. Israel rejected the accusations as "slander" and accused the UN of bias. During an operation in mid-December, the Israeli army had also accidentally killed three Israeli hostages.

The Islamist Hamas had attacked Israel on October 7 and committed unprecedented atrocities in several places, mainly against civilians. According to Israeli reports, around 1140 people were killed and around 250 people were abducted in the Gaza Strip. Israel then announced the destruction of Hamas and has been massively attacking targets in the Gaza Strip ever since. 129 Israelis are said to still be in the hands of the Islamists in the Gaza Strip.

According to Hamas, which rules the Gaza Strip, more than 22,100 people have been killed in the Palestinian territory since the beginning of the war with Israel, most of them women and children. The figures cannot be independently verified.