Palestinian inmate likely won’t be charged with raping female guard — reports

A Palestinian inmate suspected of raping and sexually harassing female guards will likely not be charged with rape, according to reports in Hebrew language media.

Mahmoud Atallah may still be charged with other sexual offenses, Walla reports.

Atallah has been in solitary confinement since 2018, over a scandal in which intelligence officer Rani Basha allegedly “pimped” female guards to him and to other Palestinian inmates, at his request.

In July, a female former IDF soldier who had served as a prison guard, alleged that she was repeatedly raped by a prisoner, later named as Atallah.

Reports of female soldiers and prison officers being sexually harassed and assaulted in Israeli prisons surfaced several years ago, but then were largely dropped until last year when a probe was reopened following new allegations that emerged during an investigation into a prison break at Gilboa.