B’Tselem alleges Israeli policy of abuse, torture of Palestinian prisoners
Prison Service, IDF reject report claiming that under Ben Gvir, detainees subjected to ‘systematic, institutional policy’ of ‘unrelenting physical and psychological violence’
Israel has conducted a systematic policy of prisoner abuse and torture since the start of the war in Gaza, subjecting Palestinian detainees to acts ranging from arbitrary violence to sexual abuse, a report from Israeli rights group B’Tselem alleged on Monday.
The Israel Prison Service and military strongly rejected the claims, saying prisoners are treated according to the law and any allegations of wrongdoing are probed.
B’Tselem said the report, titled “Welcome to Hell,” was based on interviews with 55 Palestinians from Gaza, the West Bank and Israel who spent time in Israeli custody, most of whom have not been tried for a crime.
The detainees interviewed for the report were all released in the months since the Hamas terror group’s October 7 attack, when thousands of Hamas-led terrorists rampaged through southern Israel, killing some 1,200 people and taking 251 hostages, and starting the ongoing war.
“The testimonies clearly indicate a systematic, institutional policy focused on the continual abuse and torture of all Palestinian prisoners held by Israel,” the report said.
“The new policy,” which allegedly began in the wake of October 7 under the leadership of National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir, “is applied across all prison facilities and to all Palestinian prisoners” in “utter defiance of Israel’s obligations both under domestic law and international law.”
“Among its main tenets are unrelenting physical and psychological violence, denial of medical treatment, starvation, withholding of water, sleep deprivation and confiscation of all personal belongings,” B’Tselem said in a summary of the report.
Palestinian prisoners have been subjected to arbitrary beatings, degrading and humiliating treatment and sleep deprivation, as well as “the repeated use of sexual violence, in varying degrees of severity,” the group alleged.
A spokesperson for the Israel Prison Service said Monday that all prisoners have been treated according to the law and their basic rights have been fully provided by professionally trained guards.
“We are not aware of the claims you described and as far as we know, no such events have occurred under IPS responsibility,” the spokesperson told Reuters in response to a query about the B’Tselem report, adding that detainees had the right to file complaints that would be fully examined and investigated.
A prison service spokesperson noted that after the October 7 attack, Ben Gvir ordered that prison conditions be made more strict to reverse an improvement in conditions allowed previously.
The IDF told The Guardian it “rejects outright allegations concerning systematic abuse of detainees” and that it acts “in accordance with Israeli law and international law.” Any claims of abuse are examined thoroughly, it said.
The Association of Rape Crisis Centers in Israel responded to the report, saying, “The series of testimonies of sexual abuse at security detention centers is horrifying and demands action. Sexual abuse does not have a ‘context,’ and there are no circumstances in which it is allowed, not even for the investigation and punishment of the worst of our enemies.
“Our duty is to protect our legal and moral boundaries, even when rage and pain are bubbling. Investigation and the full application of the law are not a ‘prize to the murders’ or the opposite side — they are a stance made for the character of our society. Since October 7, we have been crying out on every stage in the world against Hamas’s criminal sexual violence in the war. This will never be our way.”
The report was issued one week after Military Police investigators raided the Sde Teiman detention facility in southern Israel, arresting nine soldiers accused of sexually abusing a Palestinian terror detainee there. Another suspect was detained separately, and five have since been released from custody following new information.
The Israel Defense Forces has been responsible for the detention of most Palestinian suspects since October 7.
The arrests last week drew outcry from elements of the Israeli political right, and ultranationalist mobs and several elected officials broke into Sde Teiman and the Beit Lid base in the West Bank, where the soldiers were taken, seeking to disrupt the legal proceedings against the soldiers accused of abuse.
Police are yet to issue any arrest warrants or summon suspects over the break-ins.
Sde Teiman has been the object of ongoing legal controversy following reports of abuse published by CNN and The New York Times earlier this year. In the wake of the reports, several human rights organizations petitioned the High Court of Justice, demanding the facility be closed.
The state then announced that the military would phase out use of Sde Teiman, and began to transfer prisoners to other facilities.
The military advocate general said in May that the IDF was investigating reports of abuse and torture at Sde Teiman, and had opened 70 investigations that it was treating “very seriously.”
In July, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told the High Court that Sde Teiman should only be used for short-term detention and questioning of Palestinian security detainees caught in Gaza, a stance strongly opposed by Ben Gvir
The B’Tselem report came as 10 United Nations officials, mandated by the Human Rights Council but not speaking on its behalf, warned in a press release Monday that the reports from Sde Teiman “only represent the tip of the iceberg.”
The officials included Francesca Albanese, the controversial Special Rapporteur on human rights in the Palestinian territories, who has a history of making comments considered antisemitic and recently endorsed a social media post comparing Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to Adolf Hitler.
“Countless testimonies by men and women speak of detainees in cage-like enclosures, tied to beds blindfolded and in diapers, stripped naked, deprived of adequate healthcare, food, water and sleep, electrocutions including on their genitals, blackmail and cigarette burns,” the officials said.
“In addition, victims spoke of loud music played until their ears bled, attacks by dogs, waterboarding, suspension from ceilings and severe sexual and gender-based violence,” their statement continued.
Alleged torture and sexual violence in Israel’s Sde Teiman prison grossly illegal & revolting and only the “tip of the iceberg” – UN experts
Israel’s escalating use of torture against #Palestinians in custody is a preventable crime against humanity.https://t.co/f3WQckKNKt pic.twitter.com/yTawEw3uaB
— UN Special Procedures (@UN_SPExperts) August 5, 2024
The officials “received substantiated reports of widespread abuse, torture, sexual assault and rape, amid atrocious inhumane conditions, with at least 53 Palestinians apparently dying as a result in 10 months,” the press release said, echoing claims made in a report published last week by the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights.
“We are not aware of the claims described and as far as we know they are incorrect,” the Israel Prison Service said of the report last week.
The Prime Minister’s Office and the Foreign Ministry declined to comment on the report, and referred The Times of Israel to the IDF.
The IDF said that abuse of detainees contravenes the law, and that concrete examples of such behavior are investigated by the relevant authorities, including criminal investigations when necessary.
The military also acknowledged that there had been incidents of detainees dying since the beginning of the war, including detainees who were injured or sick when they were captured.
It added that all incidents in which detainees die are investigated by the Military Police Criminal Investigations Division. The file is then passed to the Military Advocate General for a decision as to whether initiate a prosecution.
Emanuel Fabian, Sam Sokol, and Jeremy Sharon contributed to this report.
