Testimonies of Palestinians who were sexually abused and tortured in Israeli prisons

By Humaira Ahad

“They ordered all of us, men and women, to take off our clothes and move on, and instructed us to look only forward,” said a Palestinian prisoner in an Israeli jail in a harrowing statement.

“I was running around naked between the tanks, not even in my underwear. An Israeli soldier spat in my face. I forced myself not to react because I knew they would break every bone in me.”

The testimony of a Palestinian prisoner from the Gaza Strip, published in a recent report by the United Nations Independent International Commission of Inquiry, exposes the horrific mistreatment of Palestinians – men and women – languishing in Israeli prisons.

The report mentioned several cases of sexual abuse, including Israeli security forces publicly removing veils and clothing from Palestinian women, subjecting them to sexual harassment in front of their male relatives and close family members.

The UN body stated that Israel’s genocidal war against the Palestinians in the besieged coastal area has now taken the form of sexual violence, the aim of which is to degrade and humiliate the Palestinians.

Sexist and degrading graffiti was painted in various locations in the Gaza Strip. Palestinians were forced to perform degrading acts in their underwear.

“When it comes to ordering women to remove their veils, they face a choice between shame and abuse, possibly death,” said a Palestinian woman who works for an NGO that provides psychosocial support to women in the Gaza Strip.

“The forced removal of the veil has profound psychological effects on women, which are exacerbated by the loss and grief of a war the likes of which they have never experienced before.”

The report details several cases of sexual abuse and harassment of women on Salah al-Din Street, Gaza City’s main thoroughfare.

“Several reports of women being subjected to sexual violence and abuse during their evacuation and being stopped at a checkpoint on Salah al-Din Street between October 22 and December 28, 2023,” said a Gaza women’s rights activist.

“This included being stripped down to their underwear in public by male soldiers and having soldiers touch their bodies.”

Palestinian men were ridiculed and harassed for failing to protect women from sexual abuse. According to the report, there were cases of abuse even of pregnant Palestinian women.

“At a makeshift checkpoint, women, men, girls and boys were ordered at gunpoint to undress, form a ball of their clothes and throw it at the Israeli forces,” the UN commission report said.

“They were told to hold their identification papers high in the air and walk away naked. The men walked completely naked and the women wore only underwear.”

Injected with unknown substances

“I was beaten and tortured with electric shocks because I refused to be injected with an unknown substance,” said Samir Abdullah, a 23-year-old Gaza resident held captive by Israeli forces, according to the Geneva-based rights group Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor.

“I saw people suffering from serious health problems; some even became ill and did not receive medical care. Some prisoners were also given unknown injections by the army.”

Abdullah, who was recently released from an Israeli prison, said he was subjected to electric shocks.

“One of the officers gave me electric shocks because I exceeded the permitted time in the toilet. The effects are still visible on my body today. Anyone who spends more than four minutes in the toilet is subjected to electric shock.”

The young Palestinian was also attacked by dogs, kept in solitary confinement and deprived of food for almost two weeks.

The Geneva-based human rights organization published shocking statements from Palestinians imprisoned in the Gaza Strip and pointed to an escalation in the regime’s abuse and torture of Palestinians.

“This abuse has reached such a level that it now includes sexual violence, forced injections of unknown substances and deliberate scarring and marking of the body on those victims who were lucky enough to survive,” Euro-Med Monitor reported.

In one incident on June 11, the Israeli army opened fire on Palestinian prisoners released from the Zikim area in the north of the Gaza Strip, forcing the prisoners to run hundreds of meters to return to their homes.

“Due to their exhaustion, they arrived in a deplorable state, which aggravated the pre-existing health problems they had suffered as a result of the torture and ill-treatment they suffered during their detention.”

Following the incident, 33 Palestinian prisoners were admitted to Kamal Adwan Hospital in Beit Lahia, north of the Gaza Strip.

Torture of elderly Palestinians

The apartheid regime has not even spared the elderly. Israeli forces have detained hundreds of elderly people. A 65-year-old Palestinian man said he was arrested in his home in the Jabalia refugee camp, tortured and imprisoned in appalling conditions.

“The Israeli army stormed the Jabalia camp last month. They expelled us all and took us to an unknown location on May 21, 2024. We were blind from the beginning and had no idea where we were going,” the 65-year-old man was quoted as saying.

After the man recovered from his trauma, he realized that they had been held for about 20 days, which seemed like 20 years to him.

“There was daily abuse, beatings and humiliation. As bedtime approached, doors would slam and threatening music would blare from the speakers. Food was so scarce that you could barely get a loaf of bread and some cheese. Using the toilet was a difficult and humiliating experience,” he said.

“They didn’t take into account that I was 65 years old and not the oldest person there. There was someone who was over 70 years old. We were in a kind of ‘barracks’. The occupying army was busy deporting to unknown locations many people who arrived at this place, which seemed to be an internment camp.”

Former prisoners described gruesome details of how the regime’s forces tortured a deaf-mute young man and forced him to speak.

“There was a mute man in custody. For many days they did not stop beating and torturing him and demanded that he answer oral questions even though he was mute,” said a released prisoner.

Revelations in the UNRWA report

Previously, a leaked draft report by the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) had mentioned similar cases of torture and sexual abuse by the Zionist regime’s forces.

Muhammad Al-Hamlawi, a 39-year-old nurse, described a brutal ordeal in which a female officer ordered two soldiers to lift him up and press his rectum against a metal stick attached to the ground.

The stick penetrated his rectum for about five seconds, causing bleeding and “unbearable pain.”

Al-Hamlawi also described being subjected to electric shocks while sitting on a chair connected to electricity, which resulted in him being unable to urinate for several days.

One inmate died “after they inserted the stun gun into his anus,” the report said.

Palestinian prisoners described the inhumane conditions they were subjected to, including being blindfolded, handcuffed and stripped down to their underwear.

The prisoners were crammed into military trucks and driven to the Sde Teiman detention camp, where they were held in open hangars and handcuffed for up to 18 hours a day.

Exhausted prisoners who fell asleep were punished and beaten by the occupying forces.

Since October last year, 35 of the 4,000 inmates at the Sde Teiman internment camp have died, the New York Times recently reported.

In line with the gruesome details described by Palestinian detainees to Euro-Med Monitor, the UNRWA report also mentioned cases of physical torture with dogs and electricity, mock executions and degrading and humiliating conditions of detention of prisoners.

“Reported methods of ill-treatment included physical beatings, being held in restrained positions for prolonged periods, threats of violence against detainees and their families, attacks by dogs, insults to personal dignity and humiliations such as behaving like animals or being urinated on, the use of loud music and noise, denial of water, food, sleep and toilets, denial of the right to practice religion and the long-term use of tightly locked handcuffs causing open wounds and friction injuries.”

The report also included reports of widespread sexual assault. Female prisoners reported being groped while blindfolded, and some male prisoners reported suffering injuries to their genitals.

One former prisoner reported being held in a metal cage for 42 days, handcuffed and blindfolded. During interrogations, he said, he was given electric shocks and attacked by army dogs that scratched and bit him.

“At an off-site location, several people reported being forced into cages and attacked by dogs. Some people, including a child, had dog bite wounds when they were released,” the UN body for Palestinians found.

“The beatings included blunt force trauma to the head, shoulders, kidneys, neck, back and legs with metal bars, rifle butts and boots, resulting in broken ribs, dislocated shoulders and permanent injuries.”