Palestinians raped and tortured in Israeli detention, says prisoners group

New incidents of abuse suffered by Gaza detainees at the hands of Israeli forces have come to light following a news conference held on Monday by the Commission of Detainees Affairs, a Palestinian prisoner’s organisation. 

Speakers at the press conference in Ramallah, in the occupied West Bank, provided updates on the conditions faced by Palestinians taken from Gaza and held in Israeli custody.

Khaled Mhajne, the commission’s lawyer, reported on his conversation with Mohammed Arab, Al Araby TV’s Gaza correspondent, who was detained by Israeli forces during their raid on Gaza’s al-Shifa hospital on 18 March.

“Mohammed Arab, the journalist with Al Araby TV, informed me of cases of rape of inmates as well as torture in front of everyone,” Mhajne said.

Mhajne spoke to Arab in Israel’s Ofer prison in the West Bank, where he was recently transferred along with some prisoners from the notorious Sde Teiman detention centre in Israel’s Negev desert.

Sde Teiman came under scrutiny after investigations and reports exposed severe torture inflicted on prisoners abducted from Gaza.

Despite Israel’s previous announcement to phase out the use of Sde Teiman, Mhajne said that detainees from Gaza continued to be brought to the detention centre.

After speaking to Arab, Mhajne confirmed that the conditions in Ofer are just as bad as those in Sde Teiman.

“Mohammed also spoke of cases of abuse, where detainees were tied up to walls, with dogs released to attack them,” Mhajne said.

Detainees were also beaten with clubs for “hours on end” and “beaten with pistols into their butts”.

In an interview with Al Araby TV following the press conference, Mhajne recounted a case Arab informed him of involving a 27-year-old detainee who was raped, forced to sleep on his stomach, attacked by police dogs “and then raped with a fire extinguisher and had the tube inserted into his butt”.

The extinguisher was then activated to release its contents into the man’s body, Mhajne said.

Arab also reported knowing of a detainee who recently died due to a lack of medical care.

Mhajne stated that it was impossible to know how many Palestinians from Gaza had died in detention, as Israel is concealing this information.

The conditions described by Mhajne have echoed the testimonies of several Palestinian prisoners interviewed by Middle East Eye.

All institutions ‘involved’ in abuse

Mohammed Arab shares a room with over 20 other Palestinians in Ofer prison, where they are forced to remain tied up even when sleeping, eating or using the bathroom.

In Sde Teiman, prisoners are allowed only one minute-long shower per week.

Mhajne also spoke of a case during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan in which Israeli guards tore up the Quran and trampled on it in front of the detainees.

After his latest testimony to Mhajne, Arab was interrogated by Israeli authorities and reportedly threatened against sharing more information. Despite this, he has continued to relay messages to the lawyer.

Qaddoura Fares, head of the Commission of Detainees Affairs, said that all Israeli institutions are complicit in the abuse of Palestinians from Gaza.

“All [Israeli] institutions – the government, the Knesset, the army, the Shin Bet [security agency], the police, and those who call themselves the Israeli judicial system – are involved,” he said.

“If an investigation is done here and there, it would just be for Israel to create misleading assumptions to the world, saying that it is a state that evaluates itself, investigates itself and supervises its performance. This is just to mislead and hide the grave crimes.”