Rights group exposes Zionist regime’s 'systematic sexual torture' of Palestinian prisoners

PCHR said in a new report that its investigators have documented extensive sexual violence against both Palestinian women and men detained by Israeli forces across Gaza over the past two years.

According to PCHR, researchers and lawyers interviewed several Palestinians recently released from Israeli custody, who described repeated incidents of rape, forced stripping, filming of abuse, and sexual assault using objects and dogs, along with other forms of psychological humiliation.

One 42-year-old mother, detained while crossing an Israeli checkpoint in northern Gaza in November 2024, told investigators she endured repeated rape and physical abuse over several days.

Another former detainee, a 41-year-old Palestinian man held while displaced at Kamal Adwan Hospital in late 2023, recounted 22 months of sexual torture, including threats to assault his wife.

He told PCHR that a soldier raped him with a wooden stick while he was tied and blindfolded.

The detainee said the pain and terror were so severe that “from sheer anguish I lost consciousness for minutes, until a female officer came and forced them to stop beating me.”

PCHR also interviewed an 18-year-old Palestinian who had previously been detained and was arrested again near a humanitarian aid distribution site this year.

He described soldiers forcing him and others to kneel while assaulting them with a bottle. The man added that this was done repeatedly, including in group assaults.

Another man, a 35-year-old father arrested at al-Shifa Hospital in March 2024, said that he was raped by a dog inside the notorious Sde Teiman military camp after weeks of humiliation, stripping, and threats.

He said soldiers brought detainees to an area away from cameras and set dogs on them.

The assault left him with a head wound requiring seven stitches, along with bruises, fractures to his limbs and ribs.

“I suffered a severe psychological breakdown and deep humiliation. I lost control because I could never have imagined experiencing such a thing,” he said.

The Sde Teiman military detention center came into the limelight after a video leaked in August 2024 showed Zionist troops sexually assaulting a Palestinian detainee from Gaza.

The man was taken to the hospital with broken ribs, a punctured lung, and severe rectal injuries.

At least five soldiers were charged with aggravated abuse, causing serious bodily harm, yet none of them were taken into custody or placed under legal restrictions.

Meanwhile, Yifat Tomer Yerushalmi, the military advocate general who leaked the footage, has since been detained on allegations of "unlawful disclosure of official information."

PCHR said the accounts “do not reflect isolated incidents but constitute a systematic policy” carried out during Israel’s genocide in Gaza.