UN report says Palestinians detained after Oct. 7 faced torture, including waterboarding and electric shocks

The UN human rights office issues a report saying Palestinian detainees taken by Israeli authorities since Hamas’s October 7 massacre have faced waterboarding, sleep deprivation, electric shocks and other torture and mistreatment.

The report on detention says Israel’s prison service held more than 9,400 “security detainees” as of the end of June, and some have been held in secret without access to lawyers or respect for their legal rights.

A summary of the report, based on interviews with former detainees and other sources, decries a “staggering” number of detainees — including men, women, children, journalists and human rights defenders — and said such practices raise concerns about arbitrary detention.

“The testimonies gathered by my office and other entities indicate a range of appalling acts, such as waterboarding and the release of dogs on detainees, amongst other acts, in flagrant violation of international human rights law and international humanitarian law,” says UN Human Rights chief Volker Türk in a statement.

Findings in the report, one of the most extensive of its kind, could be used by International Criminal Court prosecutors who are looking into crimes committed in connection with Hamas’s October 7 attack and its aftermath, including Israel’s military campaign against the terror group, which is ongoing in Gaza.

Authors of the report says its content was shared with the Israeli government.

Times of Israel staff contributed.