A detainee reported that during the torture, a rifle butt was inserted into his buttocks while he was blindfolded and handcuffed.

Israeli prison authorities have systematically used sexual assault and rape as a means of torture against Palestinian detainees, the Palestinian rights group, Addameer Foundation said on Thursday.

According to testimonies obtained from a number of detainees in Ofer Prison, near Ramallah in the occupied West Bank, many detainees had been subjected to rape and sexual assault during their detention, the group said.

‘Foreign Object’ 

One detainee reported that one night, the prison repression unit took him and a number of detainees to a barracks while they were handcuffed and blindfolded.

“They ordered us to sleep on our stomachs. One of the soldiers took me to a corner of the barracks and ordered me to raise my handcuffed hands and open my feet. He beat me with a stick on my back and all over my body. He pulled down my pants and then inserted a foreign object into my buttocks. I suffered from pain for more than two months. I was unable to sit on my buttocks and I bled for two months, in addition to blood coming out with my urine,” he said.

Leaked Video – Israeli Soldiers Sexually Assault Gaza Detainee

Another detainee reported that during the torture, a rifle butt was inserted into his buttocks while he was blindfolded and handcuffed, which caused him severe pain. 

Leaked Video 

On Tuesday, a leaked video showing Israeli soldiers sexually assaulting a Palestinian detainee from Gaza in the notorious Sde Teiman Israeli detention center was aired.

The footage from surveillance cameras, aired by Israel’s Channel 12, shows a group of Israeli reservist soldiers picking a detainee out of more than 30 others, who were all laid on the ground blindfolded. The detainee is then taken to a corner.

“It is clear that they know about the surveillance cameras, and try to hide their act with shields,” the report said. “The video contains documentation of the felony of the reservists: the act of sodomy in these circumstances.”

The report said the detainee was bleeding and was taken to the hospital after several hours, where his condition was described as “complex”.

“The injury was caused by the insertion of an object,” the channel said, quoting a medical report.

He subsequently died of his injuries.

•⁠ ⁠Israeli soldiers try to hide their act with shields
•⁠ ⁠Hours later, detainee taken to hospital, bleeding
•⁠ ⁠Clinical decision confirmed injury caused by insertion of object

Israeli soldiers at Sde Teiman prison committing rape against blindfolded Palestinian… pic.twitter.com/jsT5V9JsM3

— Anadolu English (@anadoluagency) August 7, 2024

Calling on Red Cross

Addameer confirmed that the Israeli occupation’s use of sexual assaults as a means of torture constitutes a flagrant violation of international humanitarian law.

The ground demanded the United Nations and relevant international institutions open an investigation into the Israeli occupation’s practice of sexual assaults against Palestinian detainees and bring the perpetrators to justice.

It also demanded the International Committee of the Red Cross shoulder its responsibilities, conduct visits to all prisons, monitor the detention conditions, and expose the violations practiced inside prisons. 

The ICC prosecutor, it added, must expedite the issuance of arrest warrants against Israeli leaders.

(MEMO, PC)