Torture, rape, abuse: New Palestinian testimonies reveal horrors of Israel's prisons

Since Israel's war on Gaza began last October, thousands of Palestinians, including residents, medical staff, patients, and captured fighters have been detained and taken to Israel, usually shackled and blindfolded, according to the UN.

Within Israel's network of prisons, Palestinians face arbitrary, prolonged, and incommunicado detention, with documented evidence of horrific torture, rape, abuse, and other cruel and degrading treatment. At Least 53 Palestinians have died in Israeli jails over the past year as a result of these conditions.

The number of prisoners detained from Gaza is in addition to the 11,600 Palestinians currently held in Israeli jails.

Al-Araby Al-Jadeed, The New Arab's Arabic-language sister edition, has published the testimonies of two Palestinian detainees held in Israel's prison network since the war began.

Tariq Abed and Al-Araby TV correspondent Mohammed Arab were detained in Gaza eight months ago. Their testimonies were taken by two lawyers - Khaled Mahajna and 'M. A.' - who visited the prisoners in Ofer jail on 14 July 2024.

This is journalist Mohammed Arab's second testimony and Tariq Abed's first.

Mohammed Arab was transferred to Ofer Prison on 2 July 2024 after being interviewed by lawyers on 19 June 2024. The testimony he gave, which was aired on Al-Araby TV, caused global outrage, leading to calls to close the notorious Sde Teiman army base due to crimes against humanity and war crimes being committed there.

A number of Israeli soldiers were also referred for investigation.

Warning: This article contains details of graphic sexual violence and torture that readers may find upsetting

Mohammed Arab's second testimony

(When Mohammed Arab came in to be interviewed he was blindfolded and his wrists and ankles were shackled. He was wearing clean clothes, which contrasted with the initial visit on 19 June).

How are you, Mohammed? Are you OK? We want to tell you we have spoken with your family, your children are OK, they say hello, and say they can't wait to see you

Mohammed Arab: My family are still alive? Thank God for their safety…I am not OK. I underwent exhausting interrogation and continuous questioning after your last visit before I was transferred.

Did you know I was brought here a few days after your visit? Three soldiers took me for questioning in another ward. Every question concerned what I'd said to you in the interview [...]

They threatened to torture me - on top of the relentless beating. Their final threat was that they'd kill me for the leaks aired on Al-Araby TV, and how the world exploded at what was happening in Sde Teiman prison.

(Mohammed didn't know he was in Ofer prison when asked if he knew where he was)

I believe I'm in Sofa camp near Gaza, no?

You're in Ofer military prison in Ramallah 

MA: It seems they don't intend to let me go. They took us in Israeli army vehicles, me and 100 other prisoners, we were blindfolded […]

Are you still being medically neglected? Are you still being tortured? Interrogated?

MA: What happened to us in Sde Teiman is still happening to us here, but to varying degrees. Like last time, there are threats of beating if we make any movement; we’re forbidden from talking, from turning or raising our heads.

We're still being beaten - we're beaten like it's the first day of our arrest, every day is like day one in everything, the pain, the screaming, the torture, the interrogation, we haven't got used to it and we haven't acclimatised.

There are over 100 sick prisoners here with me, all of them from Gaza. Some have chronic diseases, some have been injured under torture, and all of them scream from the pain, as there is no treatment.

They beat us exactly where it hurts […]. Firstly I want to tell you what happened after your visit. What I saw I can't believe even now.

Do you mean in Sde Teiman prison? What happened?

MA: Yes…one day after your visit, a group of soldiers came with dogs, they came to where we were. They selected prisoners at random from every age group … children, young men, old men. They made them lie on the ground, face down, their hands tied behind their heads.

They made the dogs attack them, tearing at the skin and flesh of the prisoners […], then they stood them up and put them in a corner where there was a big "iron window". They put [the prisoners'] hands on the window, then began beating them on their backs, their buttocks, and their legs from behind.

Then they set the dogs on them again, and then one of the soldiers tried to get one of the dogs to rape one of the prisoners! They teach their dogs to have sex with prisoners! Can you imagine? 

(Mohammed Arab went silent briefly, then carried on hesitantly)

They raped prisoners in front of my eyes, they killed prisoners in front of my eyes!

How? They raped prisoners? You mean they brought female soldiers and stripped the men for example? Do you know who was killed? Do you know who was raped?

MA: No! There were no female soldiers there at all, they brought a prisoner they selected randomly; his name is 'H.M.' and they started torturing him until his screaming echoed in the space - they were hitting him viciously.

Then they stripped him naked, put his body on the ground, and lifted up his buttocks then they brought a fire extinguisher, and started beating his backside with it. Then they inserted the fire nozzle into his anus and opened it…they raped him with a fire extinguisher, and they emptied it inside him, they were saying to him in broken Arabic: "We want to put out your pain and make you forget it"…then he lost consciousness.

They transferred him with me here, and he is in a bad psychological state, in shock until now - he doesn't speak to anyone.

They attacked another prisoner called "J.M." in the same way - they beat him and abused him, and brought in dogs to rape him. They stripped him naked and put the dogs on top of him, they were ripping at his flesh, then a soldier came carrying an "electrical baton", which emitted high-voltage electric shocks, and they started beating the prisoner on his genitals.

They also electrocuted his backside, then they stood him up on his feet and took hold of his genitals and started yanking them down violently until he fainted. Then they took him to an unknown location.

One of the prisoners, from the "S" family - an older man of around sixty who had health problems - was always asking them for treatment and asking to be transferred to a hospital or the health ward.

They ignored his request. The soldiers assaulted him because he wasn't sitting correctly, they beat him savagely until he lost consciousness. They then kept beating him, until he died in their hands. When they realised he was dead, they picked him up and took him to an unknown location - no one knows anything about him.

(A soldier entered and said it was the end of the visit)

Tariq Abed's testimony

Tariq Abed is a prisoner from the Gaza Strip. He was kidnapped over 160 days ago, kept in an Israeli military camp in the Gaza envelope for 45 days, and then taken to an unknown location for 20 days. When asked about where he was before, he said he didn't know, but that he had been in Ofer since 4 August 2024.

He was interrogated once. The questions were about Hamas, rockets, and fighters, and were accompanied by beating and torture. To each question he would answer: I'm a civilian, I'm a civilian. Tariq was brought before a court once during the month of Ramadan, and the interview was conducted via a soldier's smartphone.

The judge extended his detention indefinitely, on charges of communicating and dealing with Hamas.

How are you? Are you ok?

Tariq Abed: I'm not OK, thanks be to God for all his trials. They torture us constantly, they beat everyone all the time, there is no place to rest here. I don't know what we've done to deserve all this death, beating and torture! How [would they be] if it were us occupying them? How [would they be] if it were us besieging them and killing them?

We're sorry to hear this, we hope that God will ease for all of us, as you said, this trial. Can you tell us about your situation in the prison?

TA: Compared to what I hear from prisoners they've transferred here? I'm in bliss! Ofer prison differs to prisons I've been in before, in appearance.

It consists of small concrete rooms, without any ventilation, and each room is around 6x5 metres in size. The room contains iron bedframes, and 16 prisoners are in each [room]. The beds have no mattresses or pillows, and there are no blankets. At times, the number of prisoners in the room rises to around 25 [...]

There is a small opening in the room's door which is used to give food to us. Most of the time our wrists are tied. The food is passed through this opening (he gestures towards the opening in the door), and we eat while our hands are still tied. Some of the others eat like camels, God strengthen them, as their hands were broken.

The food is terrible, even worse than in previous prisons I've been in […] each prisoner gets 100g of bread, a cucumber or a tomato, and a small bag of yoghurt, and this meal is given to us three times a day as breakfast, lunch, dinner.

In the rooms, the toilet is exposed to everyone and we relieve ourselves in front of each other. The toilet is the Arab type, not the Western type. The rooms are monitored by cameras which stay on overlooking the toilet. There's a tap over the cubicle, but the water from it is drinking water… We're only allowed to shower for one minute. My clothes have only been changed once since I arrived, so there's no point in showering if your clothes themselves are dirty… so I am not dishonest, I did change my shirt and had a haircut a few weeks ago.

How were you and the prisoners treated? Were you tortured?

TA: During Ramadan, they said to us: "We've prepared a play for you"…they brought three Qurans into the room we were in. Then they chose three young men, made them sit on clean mattresses, and took pictures and videos of them like that. When this ended, the officer started ripping up the Qurans in front of the prisoners, before trampling on them.

In Ofer, there are two wards which the soldiers called "Hell" and "Purgatory", which are designated for torture.

We can't see what happens from inside the rooms, but we hear the screaming of other prisoners being tortured.

A few days ago, the prisoners in rooms 5, 6 and 7 were badly beaten. The soldiers went in with their dogs and attacked all the prisoners, breaking the hands of most of them.

I was in the opposite room and watched what was happening through the small opening and heard the prisoners' screams and the sounds of the assault. I heard them crying. The reason for the beating was that they were making noise.

The soldiers are always coming in wearing masks, uttering obscene insults, mocking our symptoms, cursing God and religion, insulting Islam, describing us with the worst words, and threatening us with rape and murder.

They have raped prisoners here, sexually humiliated them, and filmed everything. There was a prisoner called "M.N." who had been suffering from severe pains in his body for days. He asked to be taken to the clinic, and he was taken, but instead of receiving treatment, he was beaten and then returned to his place, and whenever he cried out from the pain, they beat him more.

(A soldier entered, and said it was the end of the visit and took Tariq)

This is an edited translation from our Arabic edition. To read the original article click here.

Translated by Rose Chacko