Torture during the Israel–Hamas war

During the Israel–Hamas war, the systematic torture of Palestinians by Israel was reported by the United Nations, Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International, and several Israeli nonprofit organizations. Israel was accused of sexual violence against both male and female Palestinian detainees, as well as torturing United Nations staff in order to extract forced confessions. From October 2023 to March 2024, 27 Gazan detainees died in Israeli military facilities. There were further reports of the Israeli torture of accused militants. In response, Shin Bet officials stated they conduct militant interrogations within the Israeli legal framework, which allows torture only under specific circumstances.

Background
Torture, ill-treatment, and sexual violence of detained Palestinians by Israel, have been reportedly prevalent for years before the 7 October attacks and invasion of Gaza, with documentation recorded by the Public Committee Against Torture in Israel (PCATI) and Amnesty International. There has been extensive sexual violence against both male and female detainees, with the most notable case of imprisoned Lebanese Amal leader Mustafa Dirani who sued Israel on the claim of rape.

Reports of Israeli torture
Doctors reported humiliation, beatings, and being forced to kneel for hours. One released man from Shuja'iyya, Gaza City reported beatings, stating that a female Israeli soldier would beat a 72-year-old man. Another stated soldiers forced detainees to bark like dogs. A twenty-year-old man detained in the West Bank stated that he was blindfolded, beaten, burned with a cigarette, and treated "like an animal". Three brothers detained from the Gaza Strip described similar treatment in Israel prison, stating they were beaten, stripped to their underwear, and burnt with cigarettes. One released man stated, "They let dogs urinate on us and shoved sand on us. They threatened to shoot us."

Others described both physical and psychological torture. Five men reported being tortured over ten hours, including being beaten and submerged in cold water. One man stated that Palestinian prisoners were being "tortured relentlessly". He stated the detainees had been starved for three days. In a report by the Ministry of Detainees and Ex-Detainees Affairs, a detainee stated, "I heard the sound of detainees who are getting tortured and beaten, as they are being cursed on by soldiers".

Amnesty International
On November 8, Amnesty International reported on cases of torture and degrading treatment by Israeli authorities, which it described as "horrifying", "gruesome", and "a particularly chilling public display of torture and humiliation of Palestinian detainees." Amnesty's Secretary General, Agnès Callamard, stated, "Arbitrary detention and torture and other ill-treatment are war crimes when committed against protected persons in an occupied territory."

United Nations
The United Nations Human Rights Office in the occupied Palestinian territories called for an investigation into allegations of torture. In a statement, the Office said: "The massive rise in number of Palestinians arrested and detained, the number of reports of ill-treatment and humiliation suffered by those in custody, and the reported failure to adhere to basic due process raise serious questions about Israel's compliance with international humanitarian law and international human rights law." On 19 January 2024, the Human Rights Office stated they had interviewed detainees who "described being beaten, humiliated, subjected to ill-treatment, and to what may amount to torture... consistent with reports our Office has been gathering of the detention of Palestinians on a broad scale." On 19 January 2024, Ajith Sunghay, a Human Rights Office official stated, "There are reports of men who are subsequently released but only in diapers without any adequate clothing in this cold weather."

In March 2024, a UNRWA report reported "countless" instances of torture documented in Israeli prisons, including beatings and sexual assault. The UN stated that Israel had tortured its employees to extract forced confessions. In an April 2024 report, UNRWA stated, "Male victims reported beatings to their genitals, while one detainee reported being made to sit on an electrical probe."

Israeli NGOs
The Public Committee Against Torture in Israel (PCATI) stated that there was a "lot of evidence of cases of violence and cruel and humiliating treatment by prison guards", and called for an investigation into the deaths of detainees in Israeli custody. PCATI stated they had documented nine clear instances of torture, including sexual violence. Addameer reported that prisoners remained blindfolded and handcuffed during their detention and people were being killed in the military camps. Addameer further reported, "Statistics and documented testimonies from child detainees indicate that the majority of detained children have been subjected to one or more forms of physical and psychological torture." Adalah reported, "We’re seeing really widespread and systemic use of many, many tools in order to inflict torture and ill-treatment on Palestinians".

Human Rights Watch
On 3 January 2024, Human Rights Watch reported that Palestinian workers from Gaza detained in Israel since October 7 had been photographed naked, attacked by dogs, and dragged faced down in the gravel.

Other reports
In a report on allegations of torture in Israeli prisons, Euro-Med Monitor stated prisoners were being treated like animals. The Wall Street Journal found detainees underwent psychological and physical abuse, including beatings during interrogations. The Commission for Detainees' Affairs alleged that prisoners and detainees were subject to bans on going outside, confiscation of belongings, reduction in food, torture and beatings, and deprivation of medical attention by Israeli authorities. A Defence for Children International report included the testimony of an incarcerated child who stated, "Around 18 children were severely beaten, screaming in pain. I saw police dogs attacking them, bleeding from the mouth and head."

In December 2023, the New York Times reported that Israel had interrogated medical personnel in Gaza under duress. Gaza’s Ministry of Health similarly stated that Israeli interrogations of hospital staff were conducted "under duress". Following reports on the physical and psychological abuse of Marwan Barghouti, the U.S. Department of State requested Israel to "thoroughly and transparently investigate credible allegations of and ensure accountability for any abuses or violations". In a letter to Israel's attorney general, a doctor at an Israeli field hospital for detained Palestinians stated, "Inmates are fed through straws, defecate in diapers and are held [in] constant restraints, which violate medical ethics and the law."

In May 2024, an employee of the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit stated she had been subject to beatings and abusive treatment in Israeli prison. The Commission for Detainees’ Affairs stated that doctors at the Ramon prison were neglecting the medical needs of Palestinian detainees. In June 2024, a Palestinian man stated he had been tortured after being held for a month with no charges. The same month, the family of a mentally unwell man stated he was tortured during Israeli custody. Save the Children released a report stating, "Children are also among those recently found in mass graves, according to UN experts, with many showing signs of torture and summary executions".

In July 2024, a Palestinian man from Gaza stated he experienced "severe torture" in Israeli prison, stating, "The beatings focused on sensitive body parts. Female soldiers stomped on our heads with their metal-toed boots." The same month, the director of Al-Shifa Hospital was released from Israeli prison, stating also that Palestinian detainees experienced "almost daily torture" and abuse. Following his release from Israeli prison, a Palestinian detainee from Bethlehem stated, "We were unjustly detained, killed and severely beaten with iron clubs and subjected to all kinds of torture".

Posted to social media
Videos posted to social media, appearing to show IDF troops subjecting Palestinian detainees to physical, sexual and verbal abuse. One such video was posted at around 31 October and showed a group of Palestinian men blindfolded with their hands and feet bound and mostly stripped naked being physically assaulted by uniformed IDF soldiers. The soldiers involved were reportedly being investigated by IDF officials, per a later statement. A Palestinian woman recounted that about 30 minutes after her husband was arrested by IDF troops she was sent a link to a video on social media, depicting her husband in IDF custody bound and kneeling before a soldier who can be heard yelling expletives in Arabic while kicking him in the stomach.

In a Telegram group created after the 7 October attacks, by the IDF Influencing Department and had over 10,500 subscribers as of December 2023, videos of Palestinians being degraded and mocked with dehumanizing language. In one video two Palestinian men are defaced to be made to look like pigs with the caption exclaiming: "Here we see the al-Qawsami brothers, who we are sure their mother (who probably conceived them with her brother) is very proud of her breathtaking two roaches.”

Torture of United Nations staff
According to February 2024 UNRWA report, Israeli officials detained and tortured UN staff, coercing them into falsely stating that agency staff had participated in the 7 October attack. The allegations of torture came from staff who stated they were forced to make confessions under torture and ill-treatment, including "beatings, sleep deprivation, sexual abuse and threats of sexual violence against both men and women" in Israeli detention. Detainees reported being stripped down to their underwear and forced completely naked. The report found that UN staff were "pressured to make false statements against the Agency, including that the Agency has affiliations with Hamas and that UNRWA staff members took part in the 7 October 2023 atrocities" through beatings, waterboarding, and threats to their families.

In a statement, the UNRWA communications director stated, "When the war comes to an end there needs to be a series of inquiries to look into all violations of human rights". The Israel Defense Forces stated it was investigating "complaints of inappropriate behavior".

In response to the report, the World Organisation Against Torture condemned Israel, stating, "Both torture and the use of any such information violates the UN Convention Against Torture".

Torture of militants during interrogation
Numerous Palestinian detainees have reported torture during interrogations by Israeli forces, which has raised significant alarm among international human rights groups such as Amnesty International. One detainee told Amnesty that Israeli interrogators beat him severely, resulting in three broken ribs, and ordered Palestinian detainees to "praise Israel and curse Hamas". Dr. Shai Gortler, who studies incarceration and torture, stated that Shin Bet allows media exposure "to put forward its own narrative about its actions, torture included", among other reasons.

The Associated Press analyzed six interrogation videos released by Israel and said the militants may have been speaking under duress. In the videos, the militants appear to be bloodied and wincing in pain. Likewise, on 29 October, an article in Global News said some of the confession videos of Hamas militants could have been produced under duress. AP additionally found that a confession video Israel released showed the captured militant was speaking "clearly under duress".

Public Committee Against Torture in Israel stated Shin Bet uses extreme heat and cold, sleep deprivation and stress positions during interrogations. In an analysis, NBC News stated that in one of the confession videos, the militant had blood on his shirt and bruises on his face, which Israel stated came from capture in combat. In November 2023, a Palestinian man (accused by Israel to be a militant) was released as part of the prisoner exchange and said he was repeatedly asked by Israeli soldiers to make confessions with "a gun to his face".

Israeli explanations
In November 2023, Shin Bet said they have conducted interrogations under strict legal frameworks, aiming to gather confessions and intelligence for immediate and future use. The interrogation settings, as reported, were intense, with the suspects often bound and held in improvised facilities. They cited a 1999 Israeli Supreme Court ruling that prohibited torture except for a “ticking bomb” scenario.

Reactions
Following the death of Adnan al-Bursh, the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights, Addameer, Al Mezan, and Al-Haq released a joint statement calling for "immediate and concrete action" by the international community to ensure investigative access into Israeli prisons. In May 2024, Addameer called on the International Criminal Court to investigate Israel's "systematic torture" of Palestinians as a war crime. Basil Farraj, a professor at Birzeit University, stated, "We are now talking about an intensification of the torture practices, including systematic medical negligence and systematic starvation." Alice Jill Edwards, the UN special rapporteur on torture, called on Israel to allow "access to international human rights and humanitarian observers". Former Guantanamo Bay detainees compared images they were seeing from Israel to their experiences in Guantanamo. An attorney who visited the Sde Teiman detention center in June 2024 stated, "The situation there is more horrific than anything we’ve heard about Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo." In July 2024, the UN human rights office stated the abuse and torture of Palestinian detainees in Israeli prisons was "unacceptable" and called for an independent investigation.