“They sought help from dogs.” An Al Jazeera investigation reveals torture and rape in Israeli prisons | policy

An exclusive report on the Al Jazeera English website reviewed serious testimonies related to the commission of serious violations inside Israeli prisons and detention centers against Palestinian detainees, in the context of the ongoing war since the attack of October 7, 2023.

The report, according to its authors Simon Speakman-Kordal and Awad Jumaa, was based on the testimonies of survivors and former detainees, in addition to reports issued by the United Nations and international and Israeli human rights organizations, indicating the existence of a systematic pattern of physical, psychological and sexual violence during detention and interrogation processes.

A number of witnesses, including former detainees from Gaza, recounted details of being beaten, tortured, and humiliated during detention, including sexual assaults, sometimes with the participation of guard dogs or under the supervision of soldiers, according to their accounts.

These testimonies describe harsh detention conditions that included restraint, stripping, constant beatings, and verbal insults, in addition to violent interrogations, in an attempt to link them to the events of October 7, despite their denial of any connection to them.

Rape

Muhammad al-Bakri, who accurately remembers the date of his rape on April 10, 2024, during the Eid al-Fitr holiday, said he had been beaten, tortured, restrained, and forced to soil himself since his arrest by Israeli soldiers a month ago.

Muhammad, who was a government employee in Gaza, added that soldiers and guard dogs surrounded him that day, explaining, “There were six soldiers on the right and six on the left. They were asking you about your name, and if you said Muhammad, they said: No, say that your name is (deleted offensive word).”

Muhammad indicated that he was detained with 7 other detainees, all of whom were stripped of their clothes, blindfolded, and handcuffed. He said, “We were raped after being stripped of our clothes. We were screaming, Oh Lord, Oh God, but they were laughing and filming us.”

He added: “There was no mercy. We remained in a state of sexual assault and beating for 20 to 30 minutes, then they ordered us to get dressed and took us back to prison.”

The report indicates that these testimonies do not come in isolation from broader reports issued by UN bodies and organizations such as Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International, and B’Tselem, which spoke about the spread of sexual violence and ill-treatment in places of detention, and considered that some of these practices may amount to serious violations of international law.

The report also notes that the United Nations has included Israel on lists linked to sexual violence in conflict, in light of accusations of systematic use of torture and gender-based violence since the outbreak of the war.

Dehumanization

The report also addresses the political and legal dimension of these accusations, noting that the Israeli authorities did not issue internal judicial convictions in most of the cases raised, and that some investigations or trials did not lead to conclusive results.

To date, no Israeli soldier or guard has been convicted in cases related to sexual assault on Palestinians. Israel detained 10 security personnel after a video was leaked showing the rape of a detainee in the “Sde Teman” camp in the Negev Desert in July 2024, but later groups of right-wing protesters, including MPs, attempted to storm the site to free them.

Last July, all charges against the guards were dropped, and the officer who allegedly leaked the video, Major General Yeft Tomer Rushalmi, was later arrested, and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu considered her “crime” – publishing the rape footage – to represent “the most dangerous propaganda attack” against Israel since its founding.

UN Rapporteur Francesca Albanese said that the goal of sexual violence against Palestinian detainees is clear, and it is not only harm, but to destroy the victim psychologically and humanely. She added: “Torture, especially rape and other forms of sexual violence, destroys a person’s mind and his ability to rebuild himself or live his own life.”

International accountability efforts face major obstacles, as no international body has yet succeeded in imposing comprehensive legal accountability for Israeli violations, whether in Gaza or in detention centers.

In a question in the Knesset in July 2024 about whether it was legal to rape a detainee, Likud Party member Hanoch Miloidsky said: “Yes, if he is one of the elite (Hamas fighters), then everything is permissible.”

A daily worker called “Job” (a pseudonym used by Al Jazeera) says that he did not see anything that distinguished him in his life, as he was an ordinary man who lived a life full of movement between checkpoints, bombing, and displacement since the beginning of the war in October 2023, but his life changed when he was arrested and subjected to torture and rape at the hands of Israeli soldiers and dogs, according to his testimony.

“Female soldiers entered my room, tied my hands behind my back with iron handcuffs, then tied my feet, and then stripped me of my clothes,” Job said. He added that he was forced to lie on the ground, soldiers placed on his back and neck, and female soldiers raped him using prosthetic objects.

“The soldiers were clapping and filming the scene. They were documenting the rape,” Job said, adding that the torture continued during his interrogation about the October 7 attack, even though he had nothing to do with it.

Impunity

The report highlighted the existence of a division within Israel itself, as critics believe that there is impunity and political cover-up for violations, while the Israeli government affirms its rejection of these accusations and considers them exaggerated or part of a “propaganda campaign.”

In the same context, the report discussed the impact of political and media discourse on stripping Palestinians of their humanity, through statements by Israeli officials and political leaders who used harsh descriptions against the people of Gaza, which human rights experts believe contributes to justifying widespread violence.

Specialists in sociology and international law indicated – according to the investigation – that this type of discourse could create an environment that allows systematic violations to be committed without effective accountability.

Job: “Female soldiers entered my room, tied my hands behind my back with iron handcuffs, then tied my feet, and then stripped me of my clothes.” He added that he was forced to lie on the ground and soldiers were placed on his back and neck, and female soldiers raped him using artificial tools.

The report pointed out that international accountability efforts face major obstacles, as no international body has yet succeeded in imposing comprehensive legal accountability for Israeli violations, whether in Gaza or in detention centers.

Legal experts confirm that the distinction between “individual incidents” and a “systematic pattern” is what determines the classification of potential crimes, as in the second case they may rise to crimes against humanity according to international law.

The report concluded that the situation in the occupied Palestinian territories is witnessing an unprecedented escalation in levels of violence and violations, as the war continues and conditions of detention and conflict worsen.

At the same time, the site’s report indicates that the Palestinians are still facing an extremely harsh reality in the absence of political solutions or effective legal accountability, which makes the file open to further international and human rights debate about the nature of the violations and the limits of responsibility for them.