Footage shows Israeli soldiers raping Palestinian prisoner amid systematic use of torture

Tel Aviv, Israel - Israeli media has published security camera footage of a Palestinian detainee being raped in a notorious prison, amid reports of the systematic use of torture and abuse.

After nine Israeli soldiers were arrested for raping a Palestinian prisoner at the Sde Teiman detention center, angry mobs stormed the facility and demanded their release.
After nine Israeli soldiers were arrested for raping a Palestinian prisoner at the Sde Teiman detention center, angry mobs stormed the facility and demanded their release.  © IMAGO / ZUMA Press Wire

At the end of July, nine Israeli soldiers guarding Palestinians held at the infamous Sde Teiman detention center were arrested by military police and charged with rape.

The case caused outrage – not over the accusations, but over the arrests, with angry Israelis led by politicians storming the facility and demanding the soldiers' release.

On Tuesday, Israel's Channel 12 released footage showing a group of soldiers picking out one of many Palestinians lying on the detention center floor, blindfolded and restrained. They then take the man aside and appear to rape him with an unknown object, while trying to hide the abuse behind their riot shields.

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The prisoner suffered "a ruptured bowel, a severe injury to his anus, lung damage, and broken ribs," and had to undergo surgery, according to Haaretz.

UN slams "escalating use of torture" against Palestinians

Thousands of Palestinian, like Moazaz Obaiyat (c.), have been abused in Israeli prisons since October 7.
Thousands of Palestinian, like Moazaz Obaiyat (c.), have been abused in Israeli prisons since October 7.  © REUTERS

Sde Teiman has already been the subject of multiple investigations revealing widespread torture of Palestinians, including regular beatings, ritual humiliations, as well as other forms of mental, physical, and sexual abuse.

Many if not most of those held in detention have no connection to Hamas or the October 7 attack on Israel led by the group.

The "escalating use of torture" against prisoners in Israeli detention centers has also been confirmed by a report published by the UN human rights office in July.

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Thousands of Palestinians – including medics, patients, residents, and captured fighters – have been taken from Gaza to Israel, "usually shackled and blindfolded".

Calls for international intervention

Palestinians in the West Bank protest for the release of their friends and relatives from Israeli prisons.
Palestinians in the West Bank protest for the release of their friends and relatives from Israeli prisons.  © Jaafar ASHTIYEH / AFP

On Monday, 10 UN experts, who are mandated by the Human Rights Council but do not speak on its behalf, said that Israel's actions "a preventable crime against humanity."

They denounced the "absolute impunity," as well as "the silence by Member States following the emergence of testimonies and reports of alleged maltreatment and torture."

The experts called for pressure to be put on Israel to implement a system of access, surveillance, and protection of Palestinian detainees.

"What is required now is nothing short of an independent, international presence of human rights observers. They must become the world's eyes," they said in a statement.

For their part, the experts claimed to have received "substantiated reports of widespread abuse, torture, sexual assault and rape, amid atrocious inhumane conditions, with at least 53 Palestinians apparently dying as a result in 10 months."

Reports from men and women described detainees "locked in cages, tied to beds, blindfolded and wearing nappies, undressed, deprived of adequate health care, food, water, and sleep" and subjected to "electrocution, including of the genitals, blackmail, and cigarette burns."

These accounts were bolstered by a harrowing report produced by B'Tselem, an Israeli human rights organization, and countless testimonies of Palestinians released from Israeli prisons over the past months.

Israel has killed over 39,000 Palestinians since it began its war on Gaza in October.

Cover photo: IMAGO / ZUMA Press Wire

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