UN alarm: Imprisoned Palestinians are being tortured

 

Israel
UN report: Palestinian prisoners are subjected to torture and violence

Martina Karpmyr

Published 2024-07-31 20.30

Imprisoned Palestinians in Israel are subjected to torture, humiliation and sexual violence, according to a new report from the UN human rights agency OHCHR.

The situation has, according to the UN, "worsened dramatically" since October 7.

- He said there were 20 soldiers on standby in the room and that they would rape me one by one, testifies a woman who was threatened with rape during an interrogation.
 

Quick version

• The UN human rights body reports that Palestinians detained by Israel are subjected to torture, humiliation and sexual violence, and that the situation has "deteriorated dramatically" since 7 October.
• Several Israeli reservists are suspected of abuse, which has led to far-right protests, condemned by the IDF and the government.
• The UN emphasizes that many Palestinians are imprisoned without trial, and former prisoners testify to lack of food, electric shocks, and other violence.
  

This week, several Israeli reservists have been arrested, suspected of serious abuses against imprisoned Palestinians.

In protest, a far-right mob stormed two Israeli military bases, which was later condemned by Israel's  military, the IDF, and the government.

After the terror-labeled Hamas attacks in Israel last October, thousands of Palestinians have been imprisoned by Israeli authorities, the UN writes in a new report.

Although the situation for Palestinian prisoners in Israel was already "very worrying", it has now "worsened dramatically", writes the UN. At least 53 Palestinians have since died in captivity since 7 October.

Several of those who were taken hostage by Hamas and other armed Palestinian groups in October last year have, after their release, testified to terrible conditions in captivity - including beatings,sexual and gender -based violence , the UN writes.

"International law requires that all persons deprived of their liberty be treated with humanity and dignity and strictly prohibits torture and other ill-treatment, including rape and other forms of sexual violence," said UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk.

Bombed buildings in Gaza. Photo: Leo Correa / AP

Imprisoned without trial

Thousands of Palestinian women, men, doctors, journalists, human rights activists and children have, according to the report, been arrested in Gaza, the West Bank and Israel and then imprisoned by Israel since October 7.

Most without prosecution, trial or defense, the UN writes.

Israel has chosen not to release information about where many of the detainees are and what their situation looks like. The International Red Cross has been denied access to the facilities where Palestinians are held captive.

Most of those detained in Gaza are men and teenage boys who have taken shelter in schools, hospitals or residential buildings, according to the UN. According to the report, the families of those imprisoned receive no information about how their family members are doing or where they are.

Drowning and electric shocks

In the report, formerly imprisoned Palestinians testify about how they were forced to sit in "cage-like spaces" and were for long periods naked or only wearing diapers.

Several prisoners testify that they were subjected to electric shocks, burned with cigarettes and forced to wear blindfolds - during periods without access to food, water.

"Male Palestinians interviewed by OHCHR estimated that they had lost between 35 and 50 kilograms of body weight during their time in detention," the report states.

Some prisoners have said that dogs were let loose in cells. Others were subjected to mock drowning or hung from ceilings with their hands tied.

“I was often moved to an isolation cell where loud music was played for several hours, which meant that I could not sleep. Then I was moved to a cold room, I remember how cold air blew at me for long periods, to be moved to an interrogation room after that," says an interviewee.

"Electric shocks to the sex and anus"

According to the report, "sexual and gender-based acts of violence" are committed against Palestinian men and women in captivity.

Both men and women testify about how they were abused when they were naked and were beaten and given "electric shocks to, among other things, the sex and anus".

There is also video material showing how undressed men, blindfolded and handcuffed, were filmed and photographed in "deliberately humiliating positions".

OCHR also writes that they have received several reports of rape and threats of rape.

A man says that he and a group of prisoners were taken to a kitchen and forced to strip naked. The man was then filmed being anally raped with a vegetable.

"It felt like I was broken inside," he testifies.