Israel's war on Gaza has revealed an unspoken but deliberate policy that reduces Palestinians from human beings to mere numbers.
Palestinians held in Israeli prisons and in military detention have been systematically stripped of their identities, their names replaced by numbers. The policy, say rights groups and former detainees, is part of a dehumanisation process that makes it easier for soldiers and interrogators to commit acts of abuse, torture and even killing, without moral restraint.
“Dehumanisation is the prerequisite for atrocities,” said Mohammed Shehada, of the Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor.
“Israel has a systematic policy of trying to dehumanise Palestinians in every possible way – linguistically, physically, psychologically – to make it easier for soldiers to kill, to torture and to destroy.”
The Israeli army deliberately replaces human words with sterile military jargon, he said.
“They say 'neutralised' instead of 'killed', 'eliminated' instead of 'executed', 'target' instead of 'person',” Mr Shehada explained. “They even refer to taking civilians as the 'neighbour protocol' when using them as human shields. All of this is language designed to make mass murder sound surgical, acceptable, even necessary.”
This same logic, he says, extends to how Palestinians are treated once in custody or killed. “When Palestinians are detained, kidnapped, tortured, or killed, Israel assigns them numbers instead of names. That way, soldiers can handle them, living or dead, without emotional attachment. Once you take away a name, you take away a person’s humanity. You turn them into an object – and objects can be disposed of.”
Salah Ibrahim, 23, who now lives in the Jabalia refugee camp in northern Gaza, has experienced that system. After losing his leg an Israeli air strike, he was arrested in a raid on Al Shifa Hospital in Gaza city in March last year.
“After my arrest, they gave me a number, 105,” he told The National. “That was my name for a year and a half. No one ever called me Salah again.”
The psychological toll was unbearable, he said. “Turning a human being into a number destroys your soul. I was no longer Salah; I was 105. Every time they shouted that number, I felt less human.”
Since his release, Mr Ibrahim said he cannot stand to hear numbers spoken around him. “They remind me of the prisons, of the humiliation. I've even asked my family not to use numbers near me.”
He said all detainees go through the same process, their names replaced by numbers from the moment they are arrested. “It’s a form of psychological torture,” he said. “Some prisoners even start forgetting their own names.”
The policy is applied not only during imprisonment but also after death. Israel has handed over 315 bodies of Palestinians since the October 10 ceasefire, but bearing only numbers, not names, said Ismail Al Thawabta, director of the Government Media Office in Gaza.
“A total of 182 unidentified bodies have been buried so far,” Mr Al Thawabta told The National. “The Israeli army knows exactly who these people are, their names, their identities, but refuses to release that information. It’s deliberate cruelty."
Mr Shehada agreed, saying Israeli forces photograph everyone taken into custody, whether alive or dead, and document each detail, from their ID cards to their phones. This information is then sent to intelligence units. “So when they claim they don’t know who the victims are, that’s a lie," he said. "They know. They just choose to hide it.”
Only 91 of the 315 bodies have been identified. The task of doing so has fallen on the forensics department at Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis, where they are handed over after being released by Israel. The hospital collects DNA samples to help the identification process, even though it currently lacks the necessary equipment, and also posts photos and details of identifying marks online to help families looking for their missing loved ones.
Among those still searching is Mohammed Taimeh, whose brother Hussein, 29, went missing on October 7, 2023, the first day of the war.
Witnesses reported seeing Hussein near the Beit Hanoun border crossing between northern Gaza and Israel before Israeli forces stormed the area.
“Since then, nothing,” Mr Taimeh told The National. “We contacted the Red Cross and international organisations, but there has been no word.”
When Israel began releasing those detained and returning bodies, the family rushed to hospitals hoping for answers. “We went to Nasser Hospital several times to look at the photos of the bodies and their belongings,” he said. “We even searched the online database the Ministry of Health created. But we never found him.
“We don’t know if he’s alive, a prisoner, dead, or buried somewhere. The not knowing is torture. You drown in it every day,” he said, his voice breaking.
For Mr Shehada, this erasure, from name to number, from person to property, is no accident. It is a deliberate psychological and political tactic.
“When you take away a name, you take away accountability,” he said. “If you return a body with no name, you erase the evidence of who they were – a student, a child, a father – and you erase Israel’s responsibility for killing them.”
Turning Palestinians into numbers, he says, is the ultimate expression of dehumanisation. “It’s how you justify the unjustifiable,” he said. “If they are numbers, not people, then you can bomb them, torture them, burn them, bury them and call it security.”
As Mr Ibrahim put it: “When you stop being called by your name, you start to lose who you are. That’s what they want, for us to disappear, even before we die.”
Terror attacks in Paris, November 13, 2015
- At 9.16pm, three suicide attackers killed one person outside the Atade de France during a foootball match between France and Germany
- At 9.25pm, three attackers opened fire on restaurants and cafes over 20 minutes, killing 39 people
- Shortly after 9.40pm, three other attackers launched a three-hour raid on the Bataclan, in which 1,500 people had gathered to watch a rock concert. In total, 90 people were killed
- Salah Abdeslam, the only survivor of the terrorists, did not directly participate in the attacks, thought to be due to a technical glitch in his suicide vest
- He fled to Belgium and was involved in attacks on Brussels in March 2016. He is serving a life sentence in France
New UK refugee system
- A new “core protection” for refugees moving from permanent to a more basic, temporary protection
- Shortened leave to remain - refugees will receive 30 months instead of five years
- A longer path to settlement with no indefinite settled status until a refugee has spent 20 years in Britain
- To encourage refugees to integrate the government will encourage them to out of the core protection route wherever possible.
- Under core protection there will be no automatic right to family reunion
- Refugees will have a reduced right to public funds
UEFA CHAMPIONS LEAGUE FIXTURES
All kick-off times 10.45pm UAE ( 4 GMT) unless stated
Tuesday
Sevilla v Maribor
Spartak Moscow v Liverpool
Manchester City v Shakhtar Donetsk
Napoli v Feyenoord
Besiktas v RB Leipzig
Monaco v Porto
Apoel Nicosia v Tottenham Hotspur
Borussia Dortmund v Real Madrid
Wednesday
Basel v Benfica
CSKA Moscow Manchester United
Paris Saint-Germain v Bayern Munich
Anderlecht v Celtic
Qarabag v Roma (8pm)
Atletico Madrid v Chelsea
Juventus v Olympiakos
Sporting Lisbon v Barcelona
If you go
The flights
Emirates and Etihad fly direct to Nairobi, with fares starting from Dh1,695. The resort can be reached from Nairobi via a 35-minute flight from Wilson Airport or Jomo Kenyatta International Airport, or by road, which takes at least three hours.
The rooms
Rooms at Fairmont Mount Kenya range from Dh1,870 per night for a deluxe room to Dh11,000 per night for the William Holden Cottage.
Squid Game season two
Director: Hwang Dong-hyuk
Stars: Lee Jung-jae, Wi Ha-joon and Lee Byung-hun
Rating: 4.5/5
The specs: 2019 Haval H6
Price, base: Dh69,900
Engine: 2.0-litre turbocharged four-cylinder
Transmission: Seven-speed automatic
Power: 197hp @ 5,500rpm
Torque: 315Nm @ 2,000rpm
Fuel economy, combined: 7.0L / 100km
COMPANY%20PROFILE
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Results
5pm: Maiden (PA) Dh80,000 (Turf) 1,200m. Winner: Majd Al Megirat, Sam Hitchcott (jockey), Ahmed Al Shehhi (trainer)
5.30pm: Handicap (PA) Dh80,000 (T) 1,600m. Winner: Dassan Da, Patrick Cosgrave, Helal Al Alawi
6pm: Abu Dhabi Fillies Classic Prestige (PA) Dh110,000 (T) 1,400m. Winner: Heba Al Wathba, Richard Mullen, Jean de Roualle
6.30pm: Abu Dhabi Colts Classic Prestige (PA) Dh110,000 (T) 1,400m. Winner: Hameem, Adrie de Vries, Abdallah Al Hammadi
7pm: Wathba Stallions Cup Handicap (PA) Dh70,000 (T) 2,200m. Winner: Jawal Al Reef, Richard Mullen, Ahmed Al Mehairbi
Handicap (TB) Dh100,000 (T) 2,200m. Winner: Harbour Spirit, Adrie de Vries, Jaber Ramadhan.
FIXTURES
All times UAE ( 4 GMT)
Friday
Saint-Etienne v Montpellier (10.45pm)
Saturday
Monaco v Caen (7pm)
Amiens v Bordeaux (10pm)
Angers v Toulouse (10pm)
Metz v Dijon (10pm)
Nantes v Guingamp (10pm)
Rennes v Lille (10pm)
Sunday
Nice v Strasbourg (5pm)
Troyes v Lyon (7pm)
Marseille v Paris Saint-Germain (11pm)
Silent Hill f
Publisher: Konami
Platforms: PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, PC
Rating: 4.5/5
COMPANY%20PROFILE
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Washmen Profile
Date Started: May 2015
Founders: Rami Shaar and Jad Halaoui
Based: Dubai, UAE
Sector: Laundry
Employees: 170
Funding: about $8m
Funders: Addventure, B&Y Partners, Clara Ventures, Cedar Mundi Partners, Henkel Ventures
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
Groom and Two Brides
Director: Elie Semaan
Starring: Abdullah Boushehri, Laila Abdallah, Lulwa Almulla
Rating: 3/5
Farage on Muslim Brotherhood
Nigel Farage told Reform's annual conference that the party will proscribe the Muslim Brotherhood if he becomes Prime Minister.
"We will stop dangerous organisations with links to terrorism operating in our country," he said. "Quite why we've been so gutless about this – both Labour and Conservative – I don't know.
“All across the Middle East, countries have banned and proscribed the Muslim Brotherhood as a dangerous organisation. We will do the very same.”
It is 10 years since a ground-breaking report into the Muslim Brotherhood by Sir John Jenkins.
Among the former diplomat's findings was an assessment that “the use of extreme violence in the pursuit of the perfect Islamic society” has “never been institutionally disowned” by the movement.
The prime minister at the time, David Cameron, who commissioned the report, said membership or association with the Muslim Brotherhood was a "possible indicator of extremism" but it would not be banned.
UAE%20SQUAD
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David Haye record
Total fights: 32
Wins: 28
Wins by KO: 26
Losses: 4
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
Quick pearls of wisdom
Focus on gratitude: And do so deeply, he says. “Think of one to three things a day that you’re grateful for. It needs to be specific, too, don’t just say ‘air.’ Really think about it. If you’re grateful for, say, what your parents have done for you, that will motivate you to do more for the world.”
Know how to fight: Shetty married his wife, Radhi, three years ago (he met her in a meditation class before he went off and became a monk). He says they’ve had to learn to respect each other’s “fighting styles” – he’s a talk it-out-immediately person, while she needs space to think. “When you’re having an argument, remember, it’s not you against each other. It’s both of you against the problem. When you win, they lose. If you’re on a team you have to win together.”
The%20specs%3A%202024%20Mercedes%20E200
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KILLING OF QASSEM SULEIMANI
How to protect yourself when air quality drops
Install an air filter in your home.
Close your windows and turn on the AC.
Shower or bath after being outside.
Wear a face mask.
Stay indoors when conditions are particularly poor.
If driving, turn your engine off when stationary.
