Since the beginning of its aggression against the Gaza Strip, the Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) have detained hundreds of civilians and faced numerous accusations of waging an abusive war of revenge against Palestinian detainees, including torture, rape, and other sexual abuses in Israeli jails. According to testimonies from released Palestinian detainees and doctors working in Israeli prisons, gathered by several local and international human rights groups and investigations conducted by international media outlets, some detainees were ordered out of their homes and seized, while others were taken as they fled their neighborhoods on foot with their families in an attempt to reach safer areas. However, Israel denied the international abuse accusations, describing them as Hamas-inspired propaganda.
On May 24, the Israeli Occupation Forces responded to questions from The New York Times with a statement claiming that Israeli authorities were treating detainees in accordance with international law. They asserted that they detain individuals suspected of involvement in terrorist activities and release those who are cleared. Human Rights Watch refuted this claim, accusing Israel of treating Palestinian detainees inhumanely.
Israel Weaponizing Arbitrary Arrests of Palestinians
Since the beginning of the brutal war on Gaza, Israel has carried out a wide-scale retaliatory arrest campaign and has detained men, women, and children by the thousands. The IOF has rounded up hundreds of Palestinians across the northern Gaza Strip, separating families and forcing men to strip to their underwear before transporting some to detention camps, where they spent hours subjected to hunger and cold, according to human rights activists.
In early December, images from Gaza circulated on social media showing a mass detention by the IOF, with men forced to strip to their underwear, lined up in rows, blindfolded, and packed into the cargo bed of a military vehicle.
Israel's Channel 12 shared another footage, reporting that it is from a mass 'detention of prisoners' in the Gaza Strip.
Other footage published by Israeli media outlets appears to show Palestinians kneeling on the ground, stripped, blindfolded, and surrounded by IOF troops.
Consequently, the Palestinian Prisoners Affairs Authority and the Palestinian Prisoner’s Society (PPS) clarified in a joint statement that the Israeli occupation forces have detained more than 9,450 Palestinians from the West Bank, including occupied Jerusalem, since the start of the ongoing Israeli onslaught on the Gaza Strip on October 7.
Accordingly, far-right Israeli National Security Minister and member of Benjamin Netanyahu's government, Itamar Ben-Gvir, has said he wants to kill Palestinian prisoners by shooting them in the head.
Israel's extremist has publicly reiterated a controversial statement in a video about Palestinian detainees: “Prisoners should be shot in the head instead of being given more food.” He added that until such actions are legalized, "we will give them little to live on."
Furthermore, the far-right minister took to X to respond to accusations that Israel had ignored months of warnings about prison overcrowding, with at least 21,000 Palestinian detainees held since October 7.
"Since I assumed the position of Minister of National Security, one of the highest goals I have set for myself is to worsen the conditions of the terrorists in the prisons and to reduce their rights to the minimum required by law," Ben-Gvir said.
"Everything published about the abominable conditions" of Palestinians in Israeli jails "was true," Ben-Gvir said, boasting that he had reduced food and shower times for prisoners, removed electrical devices, and stopped financial deposits.
Relatedly, Itamar Ben-Gvir has ordered a reduction in food rations for Palestinian prisoners as a “deterrent” measure.
“The Palestinian detainees will receive the minimum rights and the minimum food, and I will ensure that this policy is implemented,” said the extremist minister. “This policy is to reduce the food ration for security prisoners to the minimum food and calorie ration required by law, and that security prisoners must receive a smaller ration than criminal prisoners.”
Ben-Gvir added that when the Israeli war against the Palestinians in Gaza broke out last October, it was decided to reduce activity in prisons. “In this context, we decided to stop [allowing] purchases from canteens and to change the method of purchasing and providing food to security prisoners.”
Germany has sharply condemned Ben-Gvir’s statement. “It is a disgusting comment which we condemn,” Deputy Foreign Ministry spokesman Christian Wagner said.
Furthermore, Israeli authorities have banned celebrations surrounding the release of Palestinian prisoners after Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir said that “expressions of joy are a support for terrorism” and that “celebrations of victory give strength to those same human scum.”
The minister appeared to boast about the squalid conditions that Palestinians are kept in, in remarks some observers have called an open admission that Israel is running concentration camps.
Palestinian Prisoners of War Face Systematic Starvation and Torture by the IOF
For months, Palestinian detainees released from Israeli occupation prisons have shown signs of significant weight loss and severe effects on their physical and mental health.
On June 26, the Israeli newspaper Haaretz published an eyebrow-raising piece that cast doubts on Israel's humanitarian norms regarding the treatment of prisoners. Haaretz reported that Palestinian prisoners who are not members of Hamas lost weight due to the Israeli security service reducing their food portions to starvation levels. The revelation came to the forefront following a petition by the "Association for Civil Rights in Israel" (ACRI), which has brought this critical issue before the High Court of Justice, raising serious questions about the conditions of Palestinian detainees.
In a similar context, a Palestinian organization has accused Israel of starving more than 9,100 Palestinian detainees in its prisons. “Israeli prison authorities continue to starve more than 9,100 detainees, including women, children, and the sick,” the Palestinian Prisoner Society, a local NGO, said in a statement. “Israel is also restricting their freedom to practice their religious rituals,” it said. “Starvation is the most dangerous policy pursued by the Israeli occupation since October 7, in addition to torture and abuse,” the Prisoner Society said.
Similarly, the Prisoners and Ex-Prisoners Affairs Commission said in a statement that “the prisoners are facing extremely difficult detention conditions and are subjected to intensified punishments that are increasing daily” since October.
“All of whom were subjected to torture and abuse from the moment of arrest until entering prison, whether through beating and insults, or naked searches, along with solitary confinement and deprivation of basic rights.”
In April, Israel released 150 Palestinians detained during its military operations in Gaza back into the enclave, and many have reported they were abused during their time in captivity, Palestinian border officials said.
The detainees, including two members of the Palestine Red Crescent Society (PRCS) who had been detained for 50 days, were admitted to hospitals, complaining of abuse and ill-treatment inside Israeli jails.
Furthermore, Palestinian detainees released by the IOF spoke of the brutal and inhumane use of Israeli army dogs to attack prisoners and detainees. The trained dogs were used to intimidate, beat, and sexually assault prisoners in Israeli detention facilities.
Jeremy Laurence, spokesperson for the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), criticized Israeli soldiers for releasing dogs on detained Palestinians.
“We are aware of reports that dogs have been released on detainees, in some cases resulting in attacks and bites,” said Laurence. “Such actions constitute serious violations of Israel’s obligations under occupation law concerning protected persons and under international human rights law concerning individual rights to life and health, and the absolute prohibition of inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment,” Laurence noted.
Several released detainees had their wrists’ skin worn down with deep cuts from the tight restraints that Israeli occupying forces kept on them, sometimes for weeks at a time.
The United Nations Human Rights Office reported that Israel’s treatment of Gazan detainees might amount to torture. It estimated that thousands had been detained and held in “horrific” conditions before being released, sometimes with no clothes on, only diapers. Human rights defenders say Israel’s detention and demeaning treatment of Palestinians in Gaza could violate international laws of war.
“Since the beginning of the Israeli bombardment and ground invasion in Gaza, the Israeli Army has arrested hundreds of Palestinians in a barbaric and unprecedented manner and has published pictures and videos showing the inhumane treatment of detainees,” said a recent report by several Palestinian rights groups, including the Palestinian Prisoners’ Commission and Addameer.
“So far, Israel has concealed the fate of detainees from Gaza, has not disclosed their numbers, and has prevented lawyers and the Red Cross from visiting them,” the report added.
In a press release, the Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor reported that Palestinian prisoners and detainees from the Gaza Strip held by the Israeli army are being subjected to premeditated murder and arbitrary execution outside the purview of the law and the judiciary. According to Euro-Med Monitor, Israeli prisons and detention centers have become brutal replicas of Guantanamo. Ill-treatment, degrading disregard for human dignity, deprivation of basic rights, and horrific forms of torture, including those resulting in death, have been documented despite numerous international condemnations and demands to ensure the rights and safety of prisoners and detainees. Euro-Med Monitor expressed horror and shock at the ongoing reports of intentional killings of Palestinian prisoners and detainees, while others were tortured to death in the Sde Teiman camp and other Israeli detention centers and military facilities.
Israel Commits Secret Genocide Inside Sde Teiman Prison
Israel’s genocidal war on Palestinians since October 7 has extended beyond the daily mass deaths and starvation of civilians. Behind the bars of the Sde Teiman prison, Israel has been waging war against Palestinian detainees, creating conditions that make the survival of human life much more uncertain.
Since Israel’s brutal war on Gaza, the Sde Teiman military base has been filled with blindfolded, handcuffed detainees held without charge or legal representation. Sde Teiman is a military installation in southern Israel, which has gained notoriety as a site likened to a "New Guantanamo," where the Israeli army reportedly engages in the torture and killing of Palestinian civilians of all ages, including children. Reports of abuse at Sde Teiman have already emerged in both Israeli and Arab media, following an outcry from local and international rights groups about the horrific conditions.
Before October 7, the Sde Teiman military base, now containing a detention center, held only small numbers of captured Palestinians. A command center and warehouse for military vehicles, the base was selected because it is close to Gaza and houses an outpost of the military police, who oversee military detention facilities.
Once Israel invaded Gaza at the end of October, Sde Teiman began receiving hundreds of Palestinians. The military refitted three other hangars to detain them and converted a military police office to create more space for detainees.
Under Israeli legislation, detainees at Sde Teiman can be held for up to 75 days without judicial permission and 90 days without access to a lawyer, classified as “unlawful combatants.”
In mid-May, CNN released an exposé based on the testimonies of Israeli whistleblowers who worked at the Sde Teiman desert camp about the horrific treatment of Palestinians at the Sde Teiman detention center. The whistleblower testimonies detailed several inhuman practices to which Palestinian prisoners have been subjected, including being strapped down to beds while blindfolded and made to wear diapers, having unqualified medical trainees conduct procedures on them without anesthesia, having dogs set on them by prison guards, being regularly beaten or put into stress positions for offenses as minor as peeking beneath their blindfolds, having zip-tie wounds fester to the point of requiring amputation, being forced to sit handcuffed in silence on a mat for up to 18 hours a day, and a host of other horrific measures.
On June 6, The New York Times published another story about Sde Teiman based on interviews with former detainees, Israeli military officers, and doctors who worked at the prison, bringing new horrors to light about the treatment of Palestinian prisoners. Detainee testimonies included additional disturbing accounts of sexual violence, including testimonies of rape and forcing detainees to sit on metal sticks that caused bleeding and “unbearable pain.”
In parallel, the Israeli daily Haaretz reported in March that 27 Palestinian detainees had died in detention in two facilities, including Sde Teiman. According to the paper, the Israeli military did not detail the circumstances of the deaths but said that some suffered from prior health conditions or were wounded during the war.
According to Palestinian prisoners’ rights groups, Israel has arrested no fewer than 8,800 Palestinians since October. Many have been released, including as part of a prisoners’ exchange between Israel and Hamas. Currently, about 9,300 Palestinians continue to be held behind bars, including 78 women, 250 children, and more than 3,400 detainees without charge or trial under the military legal system of administrative detention.
Along the same lines, a report by U.N. experts in February concluded that some Palestinian prisoners had been subjected to sexual abuse and that at least two female prisoners had been raped in Israeli jails.
In addition, the U.N. experts highlighted the treatment of female Palestinian detainees in Israeli prisons.
“Many have reportedly been subjected to inhuman and degrading treatment, denied menstruation pads, food and medicine, and severely beaten. On at least one occasion, Palestinian women detained in Gaza were allegedly kept in a cage in the rain and cold, without food,” the statement said.
“We are particularly distressed by reports that Palestinian women and girls in detention have also been subjected to multiple forms of sexual assault, such as being stripped naked and searched by male Israeli army officers. At least two female Palestinian detainees were reportedly raped while others were reportedly threatened with rape and sexual violence,” the experts said, adding that photos of Palestinian female detainees in “degrading circumstances” were also reportedly taken by the Israeli army and uploaded online.
Itamar Ben-Gvir, Israel's far-right national security minister, has praised the arrest of a Palestinian female activist who was brutally detained over a social media post.
“Well done to the IDF and the other security forces who arrested the terrorist and ‘human rights activist’ Ahed Tamimi from Nabi Saleh, who was previously convicted of attacking IDF soldiers and, since the outbreak of the war, has expressed sympathy and support for the human animal Nazis on social media,” the far-right minister wrote on X.
Other forms of torture mentioned by former detainees include the use of loud music to prevent detainees from sleeping and forcing them to spend hours in uncomfortable positions. There were also reports that prisoners were routinely humiliated and that their medical needs were not met at the facility’s hospital.
Human Rights Watch Accuses Israel of War Crimes Over Inhumane Treatment of Detainees
Human rights organizations have raised concerns over reports of systemic torture and cruel, inhuman, and degrading treatment or punishment of Palestinian detainees in prison facilities since October 7. These reports include severe beatings and humiliation of detainees, such as forcing them to keep their heads down, kneel on the floor during inmate count, and sing Israeli songs. Palestinian prisoners in Israeli prisons have been subjected to severe physical and verbal torture, deprivation of medicines, and neglect of necessities.
A new report conducted by the international nongovernmental organization Human Rights Watch found Israel guilty of war crimes against humanity. The organization reported that Israeli soldiers have routinely filmed and published footage of half-naked Palestinian detainees, often sharing it on social media sites with demeaning and derogatory captions.
Human Rights Watch said on Tuesday that Palestinian detainees have faced inhumane treatment at the hands of Israeli forces, including the publishing of degrading videos and images of detainees that amount to war crimes. The human rights organization stated that forced nudity followed by the capturing and sharing of sexualized images on social media constitutes sexual violence and is a war crime.
The report analyzed dozens of viral social media posts from Israelis that showed Palestinian men from Gaza and the West Bank, often half-naked, handcuffed, and blindfolded. It added that in many cases, detainees were stripped of their clothing, sometimes fully, then photographed or filmed, with the images published by Israeli soldiers, media outlets, or activists. Forced nudity followed by capturing and sharing sexualized images on social media is a form of sexual violence and also a war crime.
While Israeli military officers have allegedly acted against individuals exposed in previous investigations, the government has not publicly condemned or introduced any public hearings related to these incidents, Human Rights Watch noted.
Balkees Jarrah, acting Middle East director at Human Rights Watch, added: "Israeli authorities have for months turned a blind eye as members of their military published dehumanizing fully or semi-nude images and videos of Palestinians in their custody."
"Senior officials and military commanders can be held criminally responsible for ordering these crimes, or for failing to prevent or punish them, including at the International Criminal Court."
Two separate investigations by the BBC into the conduct of Israeli soldiers—one in February in Gaza and one in May in the West Bank—found that Israeli soldiers uploaded dozens of images and videos to social media platforms intended to humiliate Palestinians. These included images of detainees who had been stripped to their underwear and others who had been draped in Israeli flags.
Israel’s Systematic Denial of Inhumane Treatment of Palestinian Detainees
Israel has repeatedly denied accusations of torture and human rights abuses of Palestinian detainees despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary, investigated, compiled, and shared by international human rights organizations and news organizations.
A lengthy statement by the IOF on May 24 claimed that mistreatment of detainees was strictly prohibited and that the IOF acts in accordance with Israeli law and international law, and protects the rights of individuals held in detention facilities under its responsibility.
The report added that the IOF has various oversight mechanisms designed to ensure that the detention facility at Sde Teiman is run in accordance with the law.
“Detainees are allowed regular access to toilet stalls located in the detention facility, which are cleaned regularly to maintain hygiene and health, and they shower regularly. Contrary to the claims, the use of diapers is very exceptional, and they are only used by detainees who have undergone medical procedures for which their movement is limited, or have other medical reasons that require maintenance of personal hygiene. The only purpose of using diapers in such rare cases is to preserve the personal hygiene of those individuals,” the statement alleged.
The statement claimed that handcuffing of detainees in the Sde Teiman hospital was examined individually and daily, and carried out in cases where the security risk was deemed necessary, which contradicted an Israeli doctor's statement regarding two Palestinian prisoners who had their legs amputated due to severe injuries caused by handcuffs.
The Israeli Occupation Forces denied that “systematic abuse” had taken place at Sde Teiman. Presented with individual allegations of abuse, the IOF said the claims were “evidently inaccurate or completely unfounded,” and might have been invented under pressure from Hamas.
The IOF also denied playing extremely loud music to prevent detainees from sleeping, and claimed that the music was “not high and not harmful.”
However, the Israeli intelligence officer and the director of the Israeli Security Agency, Ronen Bar, said in a letter sent to top Israeli leaders, including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Minister of National Security Itamar Ben-Gvir, and reported by Israel's Channel 12, that the physical and mental living conditions may lead to acts of violence inside the jails and prisons, and some inmates are already planning acts of violence and revenge.
Ronen Bar added that Israeli prisons, which have a capacity of 14,000, were currently holding 21,000 prisoners.
Ronen Bar reported that he had been warning for a year that there were not enough cells to hold suspects, but that National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir and others in the government had ignored his concerns.
In parallel with increasing complaints by Palestinians, a petition was submitted to the High Court of Justice by the Association of Civil Rights in Israel, urging it to order the state to close the facility after reports emerged of abuse at the facility.
In response, the High Court gave the state 10 days to respond to the petition, and the state’s representatives laid out a plan to transfer 140 prisoners from the controversial military Sde Teiman facility.
As a result, the Israel Prison Service has begun absorbing 140 prisoners in accordance with a government decision from last week, the agency announced on Sunday.
Israel Places Hundreds of Palestinian Children in Military Detention
The Palestinian Prisoner's Society (PPS) said in a report that 640 Palestinian children have been detained by the Israeli Occupation Forces since the start of the war on Gaza, with many of them tortured and abused.
Palestinian children are being detained without cause and subjected to violence in Israeli military prisons, charities have warned. Testimonies have been gathered by several organizations from minors detained across Palestinian territories and shared with Save the Children. They allege “inhumane treatment,” with reports of starvation, beatings, and bones being broken by officers.
Israel is the only country in the world that systematically prosecutes children in military courts, according to the humanitarian organization Save the Children.
A psychological specialist working with the East Jerusalem YMCA said that cells previously used for 10 detainees are now hosting up to 30 prisoners, including a combination of adults and children. The organization reported that children held in detention have been prevented from talking to their parents and families.
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