Washington, DC – “Confirmed receipt.” That is the one message Yasmeen Elagha acquired from the United States authorities after two of her cousins — each Palestinian Americans — had been detained by Israeli forces as they sheltered close to Khan Younis in southern Gaza.
Now, she is asking on the administration of US President Joe Biden to do extra to guarantee their security and safe their launch. Elagha mentioned her two cousins, 18-year-old Borak Alagha and 20-year-old Hashem Alagha, are being held with out cost.
“We’ve pleaded with the US government,” Elagha, a legislation scholar at Northwestern University in Chicago, defined. “The administration is fully failing in its duty.”
Hers is one in every of a number of households pushing for the safety of Palestinian Americans taken into Israeli custody, because the conflict on Gaza stretches on. They gathered in Washington, DC, for a information convention on Monday to press for motion.
From the rostrum, Elagha defined that she realized of her cousins’ abduction in a February 7 telephone name along with her aunt in Gaza. Through tears, her aunt recounted how Israeli troopers broke into their shelter in al-Mowasi, close to Khan Younis, and tied up the ladies and kids.
The males met a special destiny. Elagha’s aunt described how the 2 cousins, together with their father, their uncle and two different male family had been all taken away. The troopers left the shelter trashed and the household’s automotive tyres slashed, based on Elagha’s aunt. None of the boys have been heard from since.
In the times since, Elagha has despatched a flurry of emails, to US embassies in Jerusalem, Tel Aviv and Cairo, in addition to a US activity power on Gaza. She has acquired solely the one reply confirming her enchantment had been acquired.
The anticipate info has been excruciating, she mentioned. “The minutes feel like hours, so it feels like it’s been already a month since they’ve been gone.”
Allegations of trumped-up prices
Suliman Hamed, a Louisiana resident, shared the same expertise on the occasion, hosted by the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR).
He mentioned his Palestinian American mom, 46-year-old Samaher Esmail, was taken into Israeli custody within the occupied West Bank final Monday, and he has not been capable of converse along with her since.
He defined he has solely acquired one name from an embassy official within the aftermath of her detention. Days have handed, however nonetheless, consular workers haven’t visited her the place she is being held on the Damon jail in Haifa, Hamed defined.
“Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday and now Monday again. Nobody from the US embassy has visited or spoken with my mother, a US citizen,” he mentioned.
While she waits in jail, Hamed worries about his mom’s well being. Her lawyer instructed him that she has not acquired her treatment since she was arrested.
“It’s been seven days and she still has not received a single medication. This has resulted in her condition worsening greatly,” Hamad mentioned. “We have repeatedly asked the US embassy to send a consular officer to my mom, so we can get an update on her condition.”
His mom was arrested on allegations of “incitement on social media”, he defined. Hamed and his brother Ibrahim concern she was focused in retaliation for a lawsuit she filed towards the Israeli army, after allegedly being crushed throughout a visitors cease in 2022.
Rights teams have lengthy accused Israeli authorities of utilizing trumped-up prices of “incitement” to crack down on Palestinians and suppress free speech.
But arrests general within the occupied West Bank have surged because the begin of the conflict on October 7. The Palestinian Prisoners Club, an advocacy organisation, has documented 6,870 detentions as of final week.
“Israel is trying to use my mother as an example,” mentioned Hamed. “They’re trying to scare Palestinians and Palestinian Americans. If this can happen to a Palestinian American woman, this could happen to you.”
Reports of beatings, humiliating therapy
Since the beginning of the conflict in Gaza on October 7, allegations of enforced disappearances, abuses and torture by the hands of Israeli forces have additionally been rampant.
In January, Ajith Sunghay, the pinnacle of the United Nations Human Rights workplace for the occupied Palestinian territories, printed a report the place he collected accounts of detainees being “beaten, humiliated, subjected to ill-treatment and to what may amount to torture”.
Many had been held between 35 and 55 days, Sunghay wrote. His report, and others, have sparked fears among the many households of these in custody.
“With everything we’ve learned happens to Palestinian men when they’re detained by Israel, especially since October 7, we’re just imagining the torture that they are facing,” Elagha mentioned of her cousins.
Hamed, in the meantime, recalled how his mom’s lawyer described bruises on her arms and again. He and his brother consider she was crushed by Israeli forces. The lawyer instructed them that Esmail even misplaced consciousness twice throughout a jail interview.
Not following protocols
When requested concerning the US residents detained abroad, the State Department mentioned it’s working to make sure their truthful and humane therapy.
“As you know, we have no higher priority than the safety and security of American citizens overseas,” spokesman Vedant Patel instructed reporters on February 8.
But Maria Kari, an immigration lawyer, instructed Al Jazeera the State Department’s stance doesn’t go far sufficient. She is working with the household of Borak and Hashem Alagha to file a lawsuit towards the federal government.
She instructed Al Jazeera the Biden administration seems to haven’t adopted the right protocol for conditions the place a US citizen is taken hostage or forcibly disappeared, both by a non-state or state actor.
“Here, we have Israeli soldiers having wrongly detained [the Alagha siblings] in an enforced disappearance, all very illegal and in direct contravention of both domestic US laws and international laws,” she mentioned.
That state of affairs ought to “require consular access right away”, she defined. “The president’s supposed to be engaged. The State Department’s supposed to be coordinating all of these teams.”
“And none of that has happened here,” she added, “which is appalling.”
The State Department didn’t reply to a request for remark from Al Jazeera concerning the circumstances.
Suliman and Ibrahim Hamed mentioned the dearth of response they acquired left them feeling “brushed over”. At Monday’s information convention, they known as on the US to rethink its unwavering assist for Israel, as allegations of human rights abuses in Gaza and the West Bank proceed to mount.
The brothers are from Gretna, Louisiana — a metropolis already scarred by the violence. Theirs is similar hometown as Tawfiq Ajaq, a 17-year-old Palestinian American who was killed in a January capturing involving an Israeli settler and an off-duty police officer within the occupied West Bank.
The Hamed siblings questioned whether or not the US’s backing of Israel is denying their group justice.
“We, as taxpaying Americans, are funding this imprisonment of not just my mother but of innocent people, especially the Palestinians,” mentioned Ibrahim.
“If we were white Christian or Israeli Americans, would the embassy have responded sooner?” Suliman added. “This is the question I have asked myself on a daily basis.”
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