\n<\/p>\n
As criticism mounted of Israel\u2019s mass detention of Palestinian men in Gaza, the government defended the roundup, saying it needed to detain hundreds of men to determine if any of them were connected to Hamas.<\/p>\n
The detentions sparked outrage after photos and video<\/a> of the detainees \u2014 tied up outdoors and stripped to their underwear \u2014 spread widely on social media on Thursday.<\/p>\n On Friday, an Israeli government spokesman, Eylon Levy, said Israeli forces had detained men in Jabaliya and Shajaiye, areas in northern Gaza that have seen punishing airstrikes and fierce fighting in recent days. Israel has described those areas as strongholds for Hamas, which has governed Gaza since it seized power there in 2007.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re talking about military-age men who were discovered in areas that civilians were supposed to have evacuated weeks ago,\u201d Mr. Levy said. \u201cThose individuals will be questioned and we will work out who indeed was a Hamas terrorist and who is not.\u201d<\/p>\n But critics said that mass detentions and humiliating treatment could violate the laws of war, and that many people could not evacuate because of poor health, disability or the expense of fleeing.<\/p>\n In addition, a Washington, D.C.-based fund-raiser for a group that raises money for the U.N. agency that assists Palestinians, Hani Almadhoun, said two of his relatives who were detained, ages 13 and 72, were not of military age.<\/p>\n Brian Finucane, an analyst at the International Crisis Group and a former legal adviser to the U.S. State Department, said on Friday that the treatment of detainees seemed inconsistent with international law.<\/p>\n \u201cThe presumption that military-aged males are combatants is troubling,\u201d he said, and the fact that Israel ordered an evacuation \u201cdoes not mean they can presumptively round up or detain people who disregarded it.\u201d<\/p>\n International law sets \u201ca very high bar\u201d for an occupying power to detain noncombatants, he said, and requires that they be treated humanely. \u201cThat prohibits outrages on personal dignity and humiliating and degrading treatment,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari, chief spokesman for the Israeli military, told reporters on Friday evening, \u201cOver the past 48 hours, we have detained more than 200 suspects, dozens of whom have been transferred\u201d to Israel, including Hamas commanders and fighters.<\/p>\n Israeli authorities, contacted on Friday, declined to address the treatment of the detainees. Speaking to CNN on Friday, Lt. Col. Jonathan Conricus, a military spokesman, said that the men in the video were stripped \u201cin order to make sure they\u2019re not carrying explosives.\u201d<\/p>\n Photos<\/a> and video shared by Israeli media on Thursday<\/a> showed men in the city of Beit Lahia, in northern Gaza, wearing only underwear and lined up in rows, surrounded by soldiers and military vehicles. The location was confirmed by an online researcher<\/a> and independently verified by The Times.<\/p>\n Other images<\/a> of stripped detainees kneeling in a sand pit were also published online. The Times matched these images with an Israeli soldier\u2019s social media posts. It was not clear where they were taken, or if the detainees were the same people seen in the images from Beit Lahia.<\/p>\n