During interrogations, Palestinians are typically subjected to some form of physical or psychological inhuman or degrading treatment, ranging from sleep deprivation, excessive use of handcuffs, beatings and threats of sexual assault, to suffocation and sexual violence. A 2023 report by Save the Children found that Palestinian children also often endure abuse and violence while being detained: four out of five are beaten, over two-thirds are strip-searched, and nearly half are injured at the point of arrest, including gunshot wounds and broken bones. Sexual violence was also reported. More recently, amidst Israel’s genocidal assault on the Gaza Strip, there was renewed global attention on Israeli torture practices. In April 2024, it was reported that Palestinians being held at Israel’s Sde Teiman military base were undergoing amputations due to the extreme use of handcuffs. Later, in June, reports then emerged from Sde Teiman regarding the use of extreme sexual violence against Palestinians. There were widespread reports that those Palestinians who were already being detained in Israeli prisons had been experiencing even harsher conditions than before, including severe beatings, death threats from heads of prisons, and escalating torture. In addition, multiple instances of Palestinians dying in custody and dying from torture emerged.
“I SAW PEOPLE 70 YEARS OLD, VERY OLD. THERE WERE PEOPLE WITH ALZHEIMER'S, OLD PEOPLE WHO WERE BLIND, PEOPLE WITH DISABILITIES WHO COULDN’T WALK, PEOPLE WHO HAD SHRAPNEL IN THEIR BACKS AND COULDN’T STAND UP, PEOPLE WITH EPILEPSY... AND TORTURE WAS FOR EVERYONE.”
SDE TEIMAN SURVIVOR
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