A top Hamas official charged on Friday that Israeli soldiers were committing a “heinous crime against innocent civilians” in response to social media posts featuring imprisoned Palestinian males in Gaza with only their underwear on.

Izzat El-Reshiq, an expatriate living overseas, has called for international human rights organizations to step in and document the men’s mistreatment in order to aid in their release.

In line with international humanitarian law, all detainees must be treated with decency and dignity, according to the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), which expressed alarm over the photographs.

Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian, whose country backs Hamas, also criticised Israel, accusing it on X of “barbarity in the treatment of innocent captives and citizens”.

Israeli TV On Thursday showed footage, which Reuters has verified, of what it said were captured Hamas fighters, stripped to their underwear with heads bowed sitting in a Gaza City street.

“We are talking about individuals who are apprehended in Jabalia and Shejaiya (in Gaza city), Hamas strongholds and centres of gravity,” Israeli government spokesperson Eylon Levy told a briefing when asked about the images.