Testimonies of Torture

xposé: Rakefet Prison
⚠️ This video exposes the alarming conditions inside Rakefet Prison, highlighting the serious mistreatment faced by detainees.

UN adds Israeli entities to blacklist over sexual violence allegations in conflict
11,043 views May 29, 2026 #WestBank #Israel #SexualViolence
The United Nations has added Israeli entities to its annual global blacklist of perpetrators of sexual violence in conflict zones. Israel’s Prison Service will be included in the 2026 report, while other Israeli agencies have been placed under strict monitoring for future inclusion. The unprecedented UN designation comes after years of documented reports detailing widespread and severe sexual abuse against Palestinians in Israeli prisons.

Al Jazeera’s Nida Ibrahim reports from Bethlehem in the occupied West Bank.

 

Francesca Albanese on Israeli sexual violence against Palestinians | UpFront
27,740 views May 18, 2026 #francescaalbanese #israel #aljazeeraenglish
A recent New York Times article highlighted the sexual violence suffered by Palestinians at the hands of Israeli forces. But the allegations have been documented for years by human rights groups and Palestinian organisations. So why does the world only seem to pay attention when a Western news organisation does?

This week on UpFront, Redi Tlhabi speaks with UN Special Rapporteur Francesca Albanese about sexual violence, Israeli impunity – and the double standards of Western attention.

 

Palestinian detainees expose torture and sexual violence in Israeli prisons
5,500 views May 7, 2026 #Trauma #SexualViolence #AlJazeeraEnglish
Warning: This report includes details of abuse that some viewers may find distressing.

Former Palestinian detainees are speaking out about the torture and sexual violence they faced inside Israeli detention centers.

Al Jazeera’s Tareq Abu Azzoum has been speaking to survivors, who say the trauma has not ended with their release.

What Happens Inside Israel’s Detention System | Bird’s Eye View
5,157 views Apr 10, 2026
Human rights groups, UN investigators and Israeli legal organisations say torture and sexual violence of Palestinian detainees is part of a wider system of repression.

A warning: What you’re about to see and hear might be disturbing.

 

UN rapporteur Albanese says Israel’s torture of Palestinians has become ‘state policy’
35,393 views Mar 25, 2026 #WestBank #FrancescaAlbanese #Israel
UN Special Rapporteur Francesca Albanese has warned that torture has become “state policy” in Israel, describing its use against Palestinians as “strategic, deliberate, and integral to Israel’s genocide of the Palestinians.” In her latest report to the UN Human Rights Council, Albanese documented the systematic use of psychological and physical torture in the occupied territories, stating that such practices are “not exceptional.” She revealed that more than 18,500 Palestinians have been arrested in the past two years, including 1,500 children. The report highlights what Albanese called Israel’s “license to torture” Palestinians, framing the practice as a deliberate tool of oppression rather than isolated incidents.

The findings add to growing international scrutiny of Israel’s treatment of Palestinian detainees.

LIVE: Francesca Albanese Briefs UN Rights Council in Geneva | DRM News | AC1F
1,128 views Streamed live on Mar 24, 2026 #FrancescaAlbanese #WorldNews #InternationalNews
LIVE: Francesca Albanese briefs the United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva on the situation in the Occupied Palestinian Territories. The independent expert is expected to present findings and updates on human rights conditions, as well as address ongoing developments in the region. Follow live coverage from the UN session. For more details, watch our story and subscribe to our channel, DRM News.

LIVE: Francesca Albanese Briefs UN Rights Council in Geneva
UN Expert on Palestinian Territories Addresses Council | Live
LIVE From Geneva: Albanese Presents Human Rights Update
UN Human Rights Council Briefing on Occupied Palestinian Territories

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‘Living hell’: B’Tselem exposes systematic torture of Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails
10,278 views Feb 5, 2026 #LivingHell #Israel #AlJazeeraEnglish
More than 9,000 Palestinians are held in Israeli prisons.
A report by Israeli rights organisation B’Tselem reveals the inhumane treatment they endure.
The report finds at least 84 Palestinians have died in Israeli detention centres since the war on Gaza began in October 2023.
Israel has yet to hand over 80 of the bodies.
Testimonies gathered by B’Tselem indicate Palestinians face systematic physical, psychological and sexual abuse. The organisation describes Israeli prisons as a network of torture camps.
It says the denial of medical care is a method of torture itself, and leads to irreversible harm, such as amputations and loss of hearing and eyesight.
The report states living conditions in Israeli prisons remain inhumane, with overcrowding, prolonged shackling, deliberate starvation and the denial of basic hygiene.

Al Jazeera’s Nida Ibrahim reports on the toll these abuses have taken on Palestinians.

Leaked video shows Israelis sexually assaulting Palestinian prisoner

The video only proves the many stories told by Palestinian prisoners regarding Israeli forces’ abuse and misconduct.

Leaked footage of Israeli occupation forces (IOF) sexually abusing a Palestinian prisoner from Gaza at the notorious Israeli concentration camp Sde Teiman has surfaced.

Israeli Channel 12 broadcasts surveillance footage of a squad of IOF selecting a detainee from among more than 30 others who are all blindfolded and lying on the ground. The inmate is then led to a corner.

According to the report, “it is clear that they know about the surveillance cameras, and try to hide their act with shields. The video contains documentation of the felony of the reservists: the act of sodomy in these circumstances.”

“The injury was caused by the insertion of an object,” the station stated, citing a medical report.

According to Israeli media reports, Israeli troops deployed in the camp to guard Palestinian detainees have been torturing them and sexually abusing them for their own amusement.

Last week, dozens of settlers from far-right settler groups, some masked and armed, joined by other political activists, breached an Israeli military base, the site where Israeli occupation soldiers, were detained for severe moral violations and the extreme torture of the Palestinian detainee, were being questioned.

Zionist MP Hanoch Milwidsky from Netanyahu’s Likud party says it is legitimate to rape Palestinian prisoners.

The West endorses rape.

Reports confirm that one Palestinian detainee was subjected to gang rape by 9 or 10 Israeli soldiers and endured severe torture, resulting in paralysis and hospitalization. According to an Israeli Army Radio report, the abuse occurred approximately three weeks ago at the Sde Teiman detention facility.

Haaretz claimed that more than 30 detainees have died at the institution since October 7. Following widespread condemnation, the IOF began closing the site in recent weeks, and human rights organizations have petitioned the occupation’s Supreme Court for a myriad of abuses at the facility.

Ben-Gvir audaciously stated that it was “shameful” for “Israel” to arrest “our best heroes,” while Smotrich said that IOF soldiers “deserve respect” and must not be treated as “criminals”.

Torture, sexual abuse of Palestinian detainees ‘war crimes’: Amnesty

“Israel’s” brutal treatment of Palestinians at Sde Teiman Israeli Prison, which includes torture and sexual abuse, constitutes “war crimes”, an Amnesty International official asserted.

Sara Hashash, Amnesty International’s deputy regional director for the Middle East and North Africa, told Anadolu Agency that “in its recent research, Amnesty International documented the harrowing torture and other ill-treatment of Palestinian detainees at Sde Teiman military camp and other detention facilities.”

Torture and other forms of ill-treatment, including sexual abuse, are considered “war crimes” during an “armed battle”, as per Sara Hashash.

She also stated that when interviewed, 27 former detainees, including six women and one child, described being subjected to “torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment,” adding that those held at Sde Teiman were “blindfolded and handcuffed for the entire time.”

The detainees were also held in straining positions for long hours and forbidden from communicating or raising their heads, and their stories corroborate other human rights groups’ conclusions and countless reports from freed prisoners.

Regarding the purported gang-rape of a Palestinian detainee at the institution, she stated that the event gave more proof of the horrible torture and other ill-treatment of Palestinian detainees that Amnesty International had already uncovered in its recent study.

She called for an impartial investigation by the International Criminal Court’s (ICC) Prosecutor’s office to ensure those guilty of abuses are brought to justice, urging the occupation to grant access for independent monitors to prisons.

Released Palestinians recount worsening abuse in Israeli prisons

This recent interview with the Associated Press comes after the recent arrest of Israeli soldiers sexually abusing Palestinians in the Sde Teiman facility.

Frequent beatings, sexual assault, and violation of basic human rights characterize the conditions of Israeli prisons, which have significantly worsened since the beginning of the occupation’s daily aggression in Gaza on October 7.

The Associated Press (AP) conducted interviews with five recently released Palestinian prisoners, recounting their harsh experiences in Police Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir’s facilities, who has boasted that prisons will no longer be “summer camps” under his leadership.

Although AP included accounts from five Palestinians in its article, one of the prisoners, Muazzaz Abayat, was too weak to recount his experience following his release in July after serving a six-month sentence at the Naqab prison, due to the regular beatings he faced. The former detainee was described as frail-looking, unable to focus, and barely had the energy to speak for several minutes.

“At night, he hallucinates and stands in the middle of the house, in shock, or remembering the torment and pain he went through,” his cousin, Aya Abayat, said.

Though the other four accounts couldn’t be independently verified by the news agency, the victims detailed similar experiences through their lengthy interviews, with one interviewee requesting anonymity for fear of being re-arrested. According to AP, the descriptions matched reports from human rights groups that have documented abuse in Israeli prison facilities.

60 Palestinians have died since Oct. 7

Over 60 Palestinians have died in Israeli prisons between October 7 and July, according to a recent report from The Wall Street Journal.

Physicians for Human Rights-Israel provided AP with autopsies of five detainees, detailing two of the Palestinians died from physical trauma, such as broken bones, while the death of the third prisoner “could have been avoided if there had been greater care for his medical needs.”

Severe and frequent beatings are a recurring theme shared by the interviewees recounting their sentences in Israeli prisons.

Munthir Amira is a political activist from the West Bank who was held in Ofer prison. He told the news agency that his fellow prisoners underwent regular beatings from guards as punishment, typically without reason.

Amira also recounted an incident where he and his cellmates watched another inmate attempt suicide by jumping off a high fence due to the atrocious conditions prisoners faced.

The interviewee shared how he and his fellow detainees were bound by their hands, lined up in the corridor, and beaten by soldiers with two large dogs for attempting to get help. He added that they were also subjected to abuse of their genitals.

When Amira was first arrested in December, the Israeli guards commanded him to strip naked and spread his legs, beating him into submission when refused. The former Palestinian prisoner highlighted that during the examination, one of the guards jabbed his genitalia with a metal detector.

Imposition of harsher conditions from Oct. 7

Mohamed al-Salhi was serving a 23-year prison sentence in Al-Quds for “forming an armed group”. Due to his lengthy punishment, al-Salhi highlighted that harsher conditions were imposed after October 7.

He said that days after the beginning of the Israeli aggression on Gaza, the prison guards stripped his cell of everything, including televisions, radios, and clothing. In addition, he recounted cells became more crowded, growing from six to 14 inmates, alongside the removal of curtains from communal showers, forcing prisoners to expose themselves in front of their inmates.

Amira shared similar experiences to al-Salhi, who completed his sentence in June, telling the news agency that he and 12 other inmates shared a cell that contained six beds and very few thin blankets, leaving them freezing during the winter season. Additionally, prisoners were handcuffed and bent over when they needed to use the bathroom, and they were only allocated 15 minutes to go outside, twice a week.

Intense weight loss, small food portions

During his three-month detention, Amira lost 33 kilograms due to the small food portions provided in Israeli prisons.

All four former prisoners recounted their experiences of experiencing hunger, stating it was potentially the greatest challenge they faced during their sentences.

“You didn’t see the color of fruit … not a piece of meat,” said Omar Assaf, a retired Arabic language professor based in Ramallah, detailing his story at the Ofer prison where he was interrogated over his social media posts.

Assaf told the AP that breakfast consisted of 250 grams of yogurt with a single tomato or pepper rationed among five people, while each person received two-thirds of a cup of rice and a bowl of soup for lunch and dinner, which was also shared with cellmates.

‘I don’t want to go back’

Mutasim Swalim embraced his father upon his release from the Ofer prison early this month, where a half-dozen Palestinian families were anticipating the release of their relatives.

“The taste of freedom is very nice,” Swalim said after spending a year in prison over a Facebook post.

The released detainees included skinny-looking men with rough beards and disheveled hair who immediately dropped to their knees and prayed after the prison gates were opened.

“I just spent two months in prison,” one released detainee said as he passed by, asserting, “I don’t want to go back.”

Leaked Sde Teiman video proves IOF have documented crime archive: PPS

The Palestinian Prisoners Society (PPS) affirmed on August 8 that the leaked video exposing Israeli occupation soldiers sexually abusing a Palestinian prisoner from Gaza proves that “Israel” possesses a vast documented archive of all of its crimes in the notorious Sde Teiman concentration camp.

According to the PPS, the Israeli occupation intentionally leaked the footage to direct all focus on Sde Teiman, amid talks of shutting it down.

This could show the Israeli strategy of shedding light on Sde Teiman to sidetrack backlash from other prisons and detention centers, as confirmation from the PPS further proves that the IOF commits systematic and equally horrific crimes against Palestinian detainees in all their prisons.

The PPS gave the example of the Naqab prison, where Palestinian detainees suffered various and extreme forms of sexual abuse.

IOF soldiers recount how Palestinians were tortured at Sde Teiman Prison

Israeli volunteers and recruits at Sde Teiman recount the vile mistreatment and abuse enforced on Palestinian prisoners abducted from Gaza and shackled at the concentration camp.

The harrowing tales from the Sde Teiman concentration camp continue to be exposed as more reports and testimonies highlight the dehumanization of Palestinian prisoners by the Israeli occupation and its forces.

After October 7, data shows that at least 4,500 Palestinians have been abducted from Gaza and taken to Sde Teiman.

While Sde Teiman is notorious for its practices against Palestinian prisoners, the concentration camp continues operating as usual, even after investigations were launched against Israeli occupation soldiers involved in the maltreatment, torture, and sexual abuse of prisoners.

A recent report initially published by Israeli newspaper Haaretz details the acocunts of multiple Israeli settlers, soldiers, and medics who volunteered at the torture camp, relaying the brutal, systematic, and multifaceted forms of psychological, physical, and environmental torture Palestinian prisoners are subjected to and forced to endure.

‘Tear them apart’

In Haaretz’s report, Israeli occupation soldiers recount what they witnessed during their deployment as prison guards at the Sde Teiman concentration camp, and recall the stories they heard before being transferred, ranging from the beatings the Palestinian prisoners would take, to more excruciating forms of torture they had to endure at the hands and discretion of the occupation forces.

One reservist from the occupied North described the hangars where Palestinians were kept as “dog parks”, due to the architecture of the rooms, which was formed of three walls and a fourth fence to keep them visible to the guards.

The occupation soldier said he oversaw two hangars: One included 70 prisoners, while the other held 100. Palestinian prisoners were all blindfolded and seated [on the ground], and none were allowed to peak through their blindfolds, move, or speak, otherwise, it was permitted to “punish them”.

Methods of punishment varied, according to the reservist, and ranged from standing still for no less than half an hour, to being beaten with a club.

He recounts an incident during which a female soldier falsely accused a prisoner of peeking at her and “doing something” beneath the “scabies [rough] blankets” they were given during winter. The occupation soldier admits that prisoners would normally scratch their bodies, clarifying that the accused prisoner had been arrested for 20 days and was not allowed to shower or change his clothes.

The prisoner was taken to a private room, bludgeoned, and returned bloodied and bruised. Upon his return, he swore he did not look at the female guard.

The reservist also revealed that despite the horrendous odor coming out of the pens [due to the prevention of hygiene], Israeli guards managed to amuse themselves by filming detainees, ridiculing them, and making jokes about them and their conditions.

A reservist from Tel Aviv said prisoners were allowed to shower for a few minutes twice a week but were never given a change of clothes. He also described one defining incident during his service at Sde Teiman, which would later dictate his decision to leave the camp.

According to the reservist, a force of 10 occupation soldiers would come into the prisoner pens and pull aside 10 prisoners per round, beat them up, then throw them back onto the ground when they are done. He stressed that the beatings would go on for “as long as the soldiers pleased”. But the most horrifying incident was when the force barged in and declared they were going to “take the prisoners apart” amusingly. He said the Force 100 soldiers doing the beatings would grab the prisoners and bash their heads against steel doors.

He also said soldiers would sneak into the pens at night, when no one was guarding them, and torment prisoners from Gaza about their lives, their families, and children, and laugh at them as they start crying.

Medical torture at Sde Teiman

An Israeli doctor who served at Sde Teiman also reported on the medical conditions of Palestinian prisoners, saying cases of sepsis, gunshot wounds, and those that required surgery and treatment were unconventionally kept in pens, which violated protocol.

When prisoners were taken for consultations or check ups at the medical facility, they were stripped naked, blindfolded, and forbidden from moving or talking. They could not describe their pains to the medics and could not receive adequate treatment.

The doctor recalled the case of a Gazan prisoner who was shot by the occupation forces only a few hours before being taken to Sde Teiman, noting that it usually takes surgery and at least two days of intensive care before a “regular case” could be discharged from the hospital. However, the Palestinian patient was denied medical treatment and was kept in a tent at the camp.

He also said the conditions the prisoners were subjected to represented a different form of torture than beatings and crushing cigarettes on their skin. According to the doctor, Palestinians were chained from all limbs, even those who suffered from severe injuries. Everyone was shackled to steel beds at all times, forced to remain silent and blindfolded for days, weeks, and months.

The doctor further stated that prisoners were given disposable diapers instead of being allowed to go to the bathroom regularly.

Another nurse volunteering at Sde Teiman justified the use of diapers, saying they were given to prisoners who “could manage without a pot”. She also said some other prisoners were given a rubber cover with a tube connected to a bag because they were “more comfortable than wet diapers”. Other prisoners were only given bottles.

The nurse also admitted that the conditions at Sde Teiman could be considered torture, but saw it as necessary. She did not seem to have any remorse for the prisoners, saying, “They are terrorists and I have no pity for them. Because of us, because when we behave like that, it hurts us. We must think about ourselves, only about ourselves.”

The dehumanization of Palestinians

Several other accounts reveal that newly deployed soldiers, medics, and guards were taught to dehumanize Palestinian prisoners. They are instructed to “not look at them as humans”, and the mentality is widely normalized and embraced.

One soldier documented what he heard while being recruited, transcribing what other recruits around him were saying to justify their participation in the dehumanization of Palestinians. Several settlers said they wanted extra money, or that they were in between jobs and the positions at Sde Teiman were suitable for them, while others detailed what they would do to the prisoners once in contact with them. Some explicitly stated that they would beat them up, and others said they would spit on them.

During the Q&A, one participant said “What bothers me is that morally, I don’t see myself bringing them food. I can’t imagine myself seeing to their needs.”

Recruits were assured that prisoners would “not be pampered” at Sde Teiman, and were encouraged to do what was needed in return for “really good pay” and additional benefits and rewards. In other words, “Israel” would monetarily motivate its forces to abuse Palestinain prisoners.

Sde Teiman usually allows “sadists” and “Arab-haters” who enjoy torturing and humiliating the prisoners to volunteer, one reservist said. While prisoners starved, guards would host barbecues on facility grounds. The reservist said he was not comfortable eating good food while Palestinians were not allowed to eat or drink, to which one of the guards said, “Why? For me, it’s a lot tastier like this, when they’re suffering.”

Moreover, he shared how certain volunteers would claim a prisoner was dangerous, even though they could not actually harm the soldier because they were tied up, blindfolded, and weak, to vent their anger out on them, as an idea of amusement, and savagely beat them up with rubber clubs.

One case detailed the beating of a 40-year-old Palestinian man with a club against his back. He did not attempt to defend himself, but tried to cover his neck to avoid a fatal blow. As he was consistently hit and thrown around, his blindfold slipped under his eyes, which angered the occupation officer, triggering escalatory beatings until the prisoner’s eyes bulged out his sockets.

As the officer continued bludgeoning the prisoner, the latter cried and kept asking “Why? Why?”

Israeli Megiddo prison torture ‘expression of hatred, sadism’: Hamas

The Israeli occupation continues to torture, intimidate, and humiliate Palestinian detainees being held in Israeli occupation prisons.

The Palestinian Resistance movement, Hamas, described the Israeli occupation’s practices in Israeli prisons against Palestinian detainees as an “expression of hatred and sadism”.

After video footage showing Israeli occupation soldiers humiliating Palestinian detainees in Megiddo Prison and the use of police dogs to intimidate them was leaked, the Islamic Resistance movement said in a statement on Friday that these practices by the occupation are “an expression of the hatred and sadism levels that the Zionist jailers hold toward Palestinian detainees.”

The statement further highlighted that these actions are part of the Israeli occupation’s ongoing brutal treatment of Palestinian detainees held in Israeli prisons, which includes torture, mistreatment, starvation, medical neglect, and the deprivation of basic human rights. As a result, the number of Palestinians who have been martyred due to neglect and torture has exceeded sixty.

Hamas called upon international human rights organizations and the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) to document these abuses and other horrific crimes against Palestinian detainees.

They urged these international bodies to take immediate action to pressure the Israeli occupation’s government and its leadership to cease their blatant violations of international laws concerning detainees and to hold Israeli occupation leaders accountable for their continuous crimes.

On its part, the Commission of Detainees and Ex-Detainees Affairs in Gaza stated, “The occupation government, under the supervision of the extremist Ben-Gvir, has turned prisons and detention centers into death chambers.”

What is happening in Megiddo?

Leaked footage by the Israeli newspaper Haaretz circulating on social media shows the Israeli occupation torturing Palestinians in one of its prisons infamous for human rights abuses and inhumane treatment.

Reports indicated that the video was filmed in the Israeli occupation’s Megiddo prison in occupied Palestine.

The Palestinian detainees are forced to lie face down on the ground with their hands zip-tied behind their backs as the soldiers move around dogs to terrorize and abuse them.

If inspected closely, many of the detainees seem to be young as the occupation is known for detaining Palestinian youths.

 

Testimonies of Torture
Aug 23
A hint of appalling testimonies of torture documented by HWW from released Palestinian healthcare workers who were detained by IOF.