“They brought Israeli civilians to watch our naked torture”

“They brought Israeli civilians to watch our naked torture”: Israeli army’s torture of Palestinian prisoners turned into entertainment for Israeli viewers

The Israeli military has introduced groups of Israeli civilians into detention centers and prisons housing Palestinian prisoners and detainees from the Gaza Strip, allowing civilians to witness crimes of torture against detainees, and many ‘of them were allowed to film them with their own phones.

The Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Observatory has received shocking testimonies from recently released Palestinian prisoners and detainees, in which they report that the Israeli army invited a number of Israeli civilians during their interrogation sessions to that they witness the acts of torture and inhuman treatment to which they were deliberately subjected in the presence of civilians.

Arrested during ground incursions by Israeli armed forces into the Gaza Strip, the prisoners and detainees were held for varying periods in two detention centers: one located in the Zikim area on the northern border of the Gaza Strip. Gaza Strip, and the other affiliated with Naqab prison in southern Israel.

The released detainees told Euro-Med Monitor that Israeli soldiers deliberately presented them in front of Israeli civilians, falsely claiming that they were fighters affiliated with Palestinian armed factions and that they had participated in the October 7 attack. against Israeli towns located on the border of the Gaza Strip.

According to testimonies received by Euro-Med Monitor, groups of ten to twenty Israeli civilians at a time were allowed to watch and film laughing Palestinian prisoners and detainees in their underwear while Israeli army soldiers subjected them to physical abuse, including hitting them with metal batons, electric batons and pouring hot water on their heads. Detainees also suffered verbal abuse.

This is the first time that these illegal practices have been brought to the attention of Euro-Med Monitor. They add a new crime to the list of those committed by the Israeli army against Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, and more particularly against prisoners and detainees who are subjected to cruel torture, forced disappearances, arrests arbitrary actions and denial of a fair trial, among other atrocities.

Palestinian Omar Abu Mudallala, 43, told the Euro-Med Monitor team: “I was stopped at the checkpoint set up near the Kuwait roundabout, which separates Gaza City from Gaza. central region, as part of Israeli campaigns of random arrests. I was subjected to all kinds of torture and abuse for about 52 days,” pointing out that Israeli soldiers “brought Israeli civilians to witness our naked torture.”

Abu Mudallala added: “The Israeli army brought a number of Israeli civilians into our detention centers while beating us and telling them: ‘These are Hamas terrorists who killed you and raped your women. on October 7,” while Israeli civilians filmed us being beaten, mistreated and tortured while mocking us.”

“This happened five times during my detention. The first time was in Barkasat Zikim, where we were blindfolded. However, one of the detainees who speaks Hebrew told us that the soldiers interacted with Israeli civilians by pretending that we were armed fighters. The other four incidents took place in the Negev detention center, where successive groups of Israelis were taken inside tents to witness our mistreatment and record the methods of torture to which we were subjected without allowing us to talk or interact with them. Since we didn’t wear blindfolds at the time, I saw the four times with my own eyes.

Abu Mudallalasa said that “one of the detainees who speaks Hebrew tried to explain to Israeli civilians that we are civilians and have nothing to do with military activities, but that didn’t help either. He was nevertheless subjected to severe psychological and physical torture. It was truly shameful to get Israeli citizens to record our torture for allegedly being involved in murder and rape.”

DH, 42, also told Euro-Med Monitor: “Israeli civilians were brought in to testify about the abuse and torture we suffered, which the army deliberately started when they were present. These Israelis sometimes brought their dogs with them to bark at us. They also took photos of us and posted them on social media apps, especially “TikTok,” and the soldiers themselves did the same. ”

Euro-Med Monitor was surprised by the obvious falsity of the Israeli military’s claim that Palestinian civilians subjected to torture in the presence of Israeli civilians were combatants involved in the October 7 attack – while the release The detainees’ subsequent detention serves as proof that this narrative is false and was designed as a means to take revenge on Palestinian civilians and undermine their dignity.

According to Euro-Med Monitor, the torture and inhumane treatment inflicted by the Israeli army on Palestinian prisoners and detainees is illegal under the Rome Statute and constitutes crimes against humanity. The military’s staging of these abuses as entertainment for Israeli civilians and subsequent photography of the victims constitutes a grave violation of the dignity of these individuals, as well as the commission of war crimes.

Euro-Med Monitor warns of dire consequences of introducing Israeli civilians into arrest and detention centers, showing them Palestinian detainees being tortured, and letting them use their personal phones to document these practices inhumane. This is a retaliatory approach that is part of promoting false Israeli propaganda, perpetuating a state of extremism, fueling hatred and inflaming of Israeli public opinion in order to incite more crimes and rights violations against Palestinians.

The Euro-Med Human Rights Observatory says the vast majority of those arrested in the Gaza Strip have been subjected to arbitrary detention without being charged or brought to justice, and that no legal measures have been taken. taken against them. They do not have the right to a fair trial and are subjected to enforced disappearances, torture and inhumane treatment. Euro-Med Monitor calls on the International Committee of the Red Cross to inspect Israeli detention centers and prisons where Palestinian prisoners and detainees are held, to investigate the horrific violations and crimes to which they are subjected, and to work to that these conditions be immediately brought to light.

Furthermore, Euro-Med Monitor asserts that Israeli practices against Palestinian detainees constitute flagrant violations of international conventions and standards, in particular the Fourth Geneva Convention of 1949, which prohibits an occupying authority from transferring prisoners from the occupied territory to detention centers located on its territory, as well as to torture, attack or otherwise degrade the human dignity of those detained.

Translation: AFPS