In yet another disturbing chapter of ongoing violations against Palestinians, recently released detainees have given harrowing testimonies of brutal physical and sexual abuse inside Israeli detention centres. These statements highlight escalating practices that blatantly violate basic standards of human dignity and constitute a clear breach of international humanitarian law and the UN Convention Against Torture.
According to documentation by the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights, several Palestinian detainees, of various ages and backgrounds, were subjected during their detention to rape, severe physical and psychological torture, beatings, humiliation, and forced nudity. Some of these acts have been described as systematic sexual torture carried out under the supervision and in the presence of Israeli soldiers.
The victims’ accounts reveal a consistent pattern of abuse, involving degrading tools and methods designed to break the detainees’ will, coerce confessions, or instil fear. Some testimonies indicated that assaults took place in closed rooms within interrogation centres, and in some instances, in field areas near military sites.
Among these cases is that of N.A., a 42-year-old Palestinian woman and mother who was arrested in November 2024 while crossing one of the Israeli checkpoints set up in northern Gaza.
In her testimony to the centre’s team, N.A. described being subjected to multiple forms of torture and sexual violence, including being raped four times by Israeli soldiers. She also reported being repeatedly insulted with obscene language, stripped naked and photographed, electrocuted, and beaten all over her body.
She said:
“At dawn, I heard the soldiers shouting, saying that morning prayers were forbidden. I think it was the fourth day after my arrest in Gaza. The soldiers transferred me to a place I didn’t know because I was blindfolded. They ordered me to take off my clothes, which I did. Then they placed me on a metal table, pressed my chest and head down, tied my hands to the edge of the bed, and forcefully spread my legs apart. A man raped me while I screamed; they beat me on my back and head while I was blindfolded. I kept screaming as I was being beaten, and I could hear the sound of a camera clicking, I believe they were recording me.”
She continued:
“The rape lasted about ten minutes. Afterwards, they left me for an hour in the same position, my hands cuffed to the bed frame with iron shackles, my face against the bed, my feet on the ground, completely naked.”
“An hour later, I was raped again in the same way while being beaten as I screamed. There were several soldiers, I could hear them laughing and the sound of the camera taking pictures. The assault was shorter this time, but I was still hit on my head and back with their hands. I can’t describe what I felt, I wished for death every moment.”
She added:
“Afterwards, they left me alone in the same room, handcuffed to the bed and naked for many hours. I could hear the soldiers outside speaking Hebrew and laughing. Later, I was raped again. I screamed, but they beat me whenever I tried to resist.”
Finally, she said:
“After more than an hour, I don’t know exactly how long, a masked soldier entered, removed the blindfold from my eyes, and lifted his mask. He was white-skinned and tall. He asked if I spoke English; I said no. He said he was Russian and demanded that I touch his genitals. When I refused, he hit me in the face and then raped me. That day, I was raped twice. I was left the whole day naked in the room, where I stayed for three days. On the first day, I was raped twice; on the second, twice again; on the third, I remained naked as they peered at me through the door and took pictures. One soldier told me they would post my photos on social media. When I got my period, they finally gave me clothes and moved me to another room.”
In another incident, A.A., a 35‑year‑old Palestinian man and father, was arrested while at Al‑Shifa Hospital in Gaza City in March 2024.
A.A. described the brutal torture he endured over 19 months of detention, including being stripped naked, insulted with obscene language, threatened with rape against himself and his family, and ultimately being raped by a trained dog inside the Sde Teiman military detention centre. He recounted:
“I was taken to an unknown section inside Sde Teiman. During the first few weeks, as the crackdowns intensified, I was taken, along with a group of detainees, in a humiliating manner to an area away from the cameras, a corridor between the sections. We were completely stripped, and soldiers brought in dogs. The dogs climbed over us, urinated on me, and then one of them raped me. The dog acted deliberately, as if trained, while the soldiers beat us continuously and sprayed pepper gas in our faces. The assault by the dog lasted around three minutes, while the overall crackdown continued for about three hours. Because of the severe beating, all of us sustained wounds across our bodies.”
He added:
“I suffered extreme psychological trauma and humiliation. I lost control, I could never have imagined experiencing something like that. Afterwards, a doctor stitched a deep cut on my head, seven stitches without anaesthetic. I also had bruises, minor fractures in my limbs, and a cracked rib.”
Similarly, T.Q., a 41‑year‑old Palestinian man and father, was arrested while seeking refuge at Kamal Adwan Hospital in December 2023. He was subjected to sexual torture during 22 months of detention, including verbal abuse, threats that his wife would be brought in and raped, and his own rape with a wooden stick.
In his testimony, T.Q. stated:
“One of the soldiers raped me by forcefully inserting a wooden stick into my anus. After about a minute, he pulled it out and then pushed it back in more violently. I screamed loudly. After another minute, he withdrew it and forced me to open my mouth and lick the stick. I fainted for a few minutes out of sheer pain and humiliation. Later, a female officer arrived, ordered them to stop beating me, untied my hands, gave me a white overall to wear and a cup of water. I felt blood flowing from my anus and asked to go to the toilet. She gave me tissues and let me use a plastic toilet in the area. When the blindfold was removed, I saw the bleeding. Once it stopped, I put the overall back on. As soon as I stepped out, they blindfolded me again and tied my hands with plastic cuffs.”
