Harrowing testimonies reveal Palestinians systematically raped, tortured by Israel

Warning: This article contains graphic descriptions of torture and rape

Testimonies from released Palestinian detainees held in Israel reveal there is a systematic pattern of abuse, including rape and torture used against those held in cells, the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights (PCHR) reported on Monday.

The Palestinians who gave their testimonies were taken from Gaza and were only recently released from Israeli prisons and detention camps.

They said detainees faced systematic abuses, including rape, forced stripping, sexual assault with objects, torture, being filmed without consent, attacks by dogs and deliberate psychological humiliation.

Information obtained by PCHR lawyers and field researchers determined that the examples of torture were not one-off isolated incidents, but rather a recurring pattern.

They noted that detainees taken from different parts of Gaza amid Israel’s war on the enclave were not charged and no formal process was carried out.

PCHR denounced the detentions and horrific torture as a form of collective punishment, with the report on Monday stating the torture was "designed to humiliate Palestinians and inflict maximum psychological and physical harm on them".

A 42-year-old Palestinian woman, who asked to remain anonymous, told PCHR that she was raped four times by Israeli soldiers and electrocuted.

She added she was blindfolded, handcuffed, raped and filmed. The woman detailed her rape to PCHR, some details of which The New Arab declines to reveal due to their extremely graphic nature.

"The rape lasted about 10 minutes. After that, they left me for an hour in the same position, with my hands cuffed to the bed with metal handcuffs, my face on the bed, my feet on the floor, and I was completely naked," the woman continued.

She later added she was raped and beaten again, while she could hear several soldiers stand by and laugh as well as take photos of her.

"I wished for death every moment," she added, saying she was later raped by another man who said he was Russian.

Another 35-year-old Palestinian man said he was detained by Israeli forces at the al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City in March 2024. He endured 19 months of detention, where he was stripped, beaten, threatened and raped by a dog at the Sde Teiman military detention centre.

"Soldiers brought dogs that climbed on us and urinated on me. Then one of the dogs raped me—the dog did it deliberately, knowing exactly what it was doing," he told PCHR.

He added that while this was happening, Israeli soldiers beat him and other prisoners, while also spraying pepper spray into their eyes to blur their vision and irritate them.

"The dog’s assault lasted about three minutes… Afterward, a doctor stitched a wound in my head caused by the torture—seven stitches without anaesthesia. I also suffered bruises, fractures in my limbs, and a rib fracture," the man continued.

Other detainees said that Israeli soldiers had threatened them with the rape and killing of their families.

PCHR has called on the UN Secretary-General, the international community and human rights organisations to take immediate action to stop Israeli soldiers and prison authorities from detaining and torturing Palestinians.

The organisation further called on international rights groups to pressure Israel into releasing all arbitrarily detained Palestinians, and to disclose the whereabout of others who have been disappeared.

They noted that Israel has restricted groups such as the Red Cross from entering Israeli prisons and seeing the condition Palestinians are kept in, calling for this to be reversed.

The latest report is one of many which details the violent torture of Palestinian detainees since October 2023.

Last month The New Arab’s affiliate Al-Araby TV was given access by the Palestinian Prisoners Club to testimonies from prisoners formerly held by Israel, which all included examples of abuse, torture and starvation.

One former prisoner said they were tied down and raped with a stick by a prison guard, leaving them struggling to breathe.

"As my pain and screams increased, the prisoner moved the stick more. I am now in permanent pain, particularly when I sit down, and I can’t talk except in whispers".

The Palestinian Prisoners' Club's head of documentation, Amani Sarahneh, stressed that the testimonies given did not reflect the true extent of what was happening in Israeli prisons, noting only very few prisoners had dared to give testimonies, even anonymously.