[Pnews] Iron bars, electric shocks, dogs and cigarette burns: How Palestinians are tortured in Israeli detention

[Prisoner News]

middleeasteye.net
<https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/iron-bars-electric-shocks-dogs-and-cigarette-burns-how-palestinians-are-tortured-israeli-detention>
Iron bars, electric shocks, dogs and cigarette burns: How Palestinians are
tortured in Israeli detention
By Ahmed Aziz, Lubna Masarwa and Simon Hooper
March 11. 2024
------------------------------

Men detained by Israeli forces since the start of the war are returning to
Gaza with harrowing accounts of mock executions, constant beatings and
humiliating mistreatment

Palestinian men detained by Israeli forces since the start of the war in
Gaza <https://www.middleeasteye.net/topics/israel-palestine-war> have told
Middle East Eye how they were physically tortured with dogs and
electricity, subjected to mock executions, and held in humiliating and
degrading conditions.

In testimonies to MEE, one man, who was taken by Israeli forces from a
school in Gaza where he had sought refuge with his family, described how he
had been handcuffed, blindfolded, and detained in a metal cage for 42 days.

During interrogations, he said he had been given electric shocks, as well
as scratched and bitten by army dogs.

Other men also described being electrocuted, attacked by dogs, doused with
cold water, denied food and water, deprived of sleep, and subjected to
constant loud music.

“They did not spare anyone. There were 14-year-old boys and 80-year-old
men,” said one of the men, Moaz Muhammad Khamis Miqdad, who was taken
prisoner in Gaza City in December and held for more than 30 days.

As well as three men taken prisoner in Gaza, MEE spoke to a man detained in
a raid in the West Bank city of Qalqilya who said he had been blindfolded,
stripped naked, and hung by his arms during interrogations in which he was
repeatedly beaten and burnt with cigarettes.

He also described being held for days in freezing conditions in which he
was not allowed to sleep and of a soldier urinating in a bottle and handing
it to him after he had requested water.

All four men described being forced to strip naked and being constantly
beaten and abused by Israeli soldiers during their weeks-long detentions.

MEE has also spoken to a number of other former detainees who also
described similar experiences to those of the men in this story.

<https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/sexual-abuse-and-beatings-palestinian-mothers-ordeal-israeli-custody>

Sexual abuse and beatings: A Palestinian mother's ordeal in Israeli custody

Their accounts of torture and abuse follow similar allegations made by
human rights monitors.

Israel’s <https://www.middleeasteye.net/countries/israel> conduct of its
war against Hamas in Gaza is already the subject of an International Court
of Justice case in which it stands accused of genocide and an ongoing war
crimes investigation by the International Criminal Court.

Last week details of an unpublished investigation by Unrwa, the UN agency
for Palestinian <https://www.middleeasteye.net/countries/palestine>
refugees, alleging abuse of hundreds of Palestinian prisoners detained
during the war in Gaza were reported
<https://www.nytimes.com/2024/03/03/world/middleeast/unrwa-gaza-detention-israel.html>
by the New York Times.

Many of those details appear consistent with the testimonies of former
detainees who spoke to MEE.

On Thursday, Haaretz reported
<https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/2024-03-07/ty-article/.premium/27-gaza-detainees-died-in-custody-at-israeli-army-facilities-since-the-start-of-the-war/0000018e-1322-d950-a18e-f3bbaa370000?lts=1709848237012>
that at least 27 detainees from Gaza had died in Israeli military
facilities since the start of the war. It said some of the deaths had
occurred at the Sde Teiman military base in southern Israel and the Anatot
base in the West Bank.

On Friday, Alice Jill Edwards, the UN’s special rapporteur on torture, said
<https://webtv.un.org/en/asset/k1r/k1rov2arj1> she was investigating
allegations of torture and mistreatment of Palestinian detainees by Israel
and was in talks with Israeli authorities to visit the country on a
fact-finding mission.

Ramy Abdu, the chair of Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor which has also
compiled reports
<https://euromedmonitor.org/en/article/6190/Horrific-testimonies:-Israeli-army-tortures-Palestinians-in-Gaza-physically-and-psychologically>
of
torture in custody, said the testimonies of Palestinians released from
Israeli detention were “deeply disturbing”.

Abdu told MEE: “These testimonies reveal a systematic pattern of abuse,
including forced strip searches, sexual harassment, threats of rape, severe
beatings, dog attacks, and denial of necessities such as food, water, and
access to restroom facilities. These acts not only inflict physical pain
but also leave lasting psychological scars on the victims.

“The use of such brutal tactics, particularly against vulnerable groups
such as women, children, and the elderly, is reprehensible and constitutes
a gross violation of human dignity and international law.”

Miriam Azem, an advocacy associate at Adalah, a Palestinian human rights
organisation, said that reports of "pervasive torture and ill-treatment"
inflicted on Palestinian detainees in Israeli custody demanded an immediate
international intervention.

"Hundreds of Palestinians from Gaza remain held incommunicado, their
whereabouts unknown. The urgency of the current moment demands not just
attention but immediate and resolute intervention from the international
community. Any failure to intervene poses a grave threat to Palestinian
lives," Azem told MEE.

The Israeli army had not responded to MEE’s request for comment at the time
of publication. It has said in response to allegations concerning the
mistreatment of detainees that such conduct “violates IDF values and
contravenes IDF orders and is therefore absolutely prohibited”.

It has said its soldiers act “in accordance with Israeli and international
law in order to protect the rights of the detainees”. It has said every
death in Israeli military custody is being investigated, and that some of
those who had died had pre-existing medical conditions or injuries.
‘They placed me facing the wall on my knees’

Naeem Youssef Salem Abu Al-Hassan, a 19-year-old from Jabalia, northern
Gaza, told MEE he had been detained with other young men aged 18 to 25
after remaining residents were ordered by Israeli forces to leave the city
on 27 December 2023.

By then, he said, he and his extended family had endured weeks of air
strikes, tank attacks, and sniper fire which had destroyed much of the
neighbourhood and killed a number of his relatives.

Soon afterward, Hassan said, Israeli soldiers had asked him to identify two
bodies in the street who they said were fighters.

Hassan said he did not know the identities of the bodies and had no
connections with fighters.

“They didn’t believe me and insisted that I recognised them otherwise they
would shoot me and drop me next to the bodies. I didn’t know what to say.
Then they placed me facing the wall on my knees.”

Hassan said the soldiers then kicked him and called him a liar. He was
handcuffed, blindfolded, and dragged to a nearby house where other
detainees were also being held.

“One soldier was smoking a cigarette and trying to burn me on my face. I
told him I can’t take it so he started hitting and kicking me,” he said.

[image: alestinian men rounded up and stripped by Israeli forces in Gaza
seen in a video released on 7 December (Screengrab/X)]
Palestinian men were rounded up and stripped by Israeli forces in Gaza seen
in a video released on 7 December (Screengrab/X)

[image: image.gif]

That night, the men were rounded up and taken out to the street where,
Hassan said, they were surrounded by soldiers and tanks. Deep holes had
been dug in the street and a soldier started to push him towards one of the
holes.

“I felt, that’s it, he will definitely kill me now. This will probably be
my last breath,” he said.

Instead, the men were loaded onto trucks. They were driven around for
several hours, all the while being cursed, kicked, and beaten by the
soldiers guarding them. Then they were moved to a different vehicle and
driven around some more, still being beaten.

'They unleashed them on us. The dogs would attack us, scratching us while
the commander would continue to beat us with utter brutality'

*- Naeem Youssef Salem Abu Al-Hassan*

Eventually, they were dropped at an unknown location. Five soldiers came
into the room where they were being held and continued beating them.

This pattern of being moved around in vehicles between different locations,
all the while being subjected to beatings, continued over several days.

Finally, the men arrived at a location where they were forced to kneel on
the floor, still restrained with handcuffs and blindfolded.

“We all remained like this for 37 days… almost naked in the blistering
cold, our bodies exhausted, our souls drifting away. The food was barely
enough to keep you alive,” said Hassan.

When the men tried to complain about the conditions of their detention,
their captors brought in soldiers with dogs.

“They unleashed them on us. The dogs would attack us, scratching us while
the commander would continue to beat us with utter brutality.”

Every few days the men would be taken for questioning. Hassan said he was
shown images of tunnels and his interrogators would ask him what he knew
about them.

“Whenever I said that I didn’t [know anything] they would slap, punch, hit,
and kick me all over my body,” said Hassan.

“The soldiers with their commander would make a lot of noise… so we were
not able to sleep and remained exhausted and completely strained from
fatigue, starvation, and torture.”

One night in the early hours as he tried to rest, Hassan was kicked awake
by a soldier and dragged to a bus with four other men. The bus took them to
Karm Abu Salem, the main crossing between Israel and southern Gaza, where
they were released.

“The commander screamed at us that we should walk quickly, but I could
barely walk [because of] the beating and kneeling and the lack of food and
sleep. The soldiers started running after us to scare us.”

Hassan said the men managed to drag themselves to nearby UN buses that were
waiting to collect them.
‘They wanted us to stay between life and death’

Moaz Muhammad Khamis Miqdad, 26, told MEE he had been rounded up at
gunpoint by Israeli soldiers on 21 December while sheltering in a school
with his family in the Sheikh Radwan neighbourhood of Gaza City.

Along with other men, he was forced to strip to his underwear. They were
then taken to a nearby mosque where their hands were tied behind their
backs and they were made to kneel.

“Then they threw us in a truck, where more soldiers and security forces
railed at us with massive beatings and cursing,” recalled Miqdad.

The truck took them to a detention centre where the beatings continued
relentlessly.

“They tortured us for hours, spraying us with cold water while we were
almost naked. They were determined to torture us and break us.”

Eventually, one by one the men were taken to an interrogation room where,
Miqdad said, the torture got worse.

“The soldiers asked where I was on 7 October and what I did. I told them I
had nothing to do with the events of 7 October but they didn’t care. They
attacked me with even more excessive punches and kicks, and this time with
their weapons as well.”

Bruised and bleeding, the men were put in another truck and taken to a
dark, cold room.

“I was naked, cold, beaten, starving, exhausted and completely drained. If
any prisoner fell asleep the soldiers would viciously beat him on the head
or chest to keep him awake. They wanted us to stay between life and death.”

After a couple of days, the men were put on a bus, this time with about 50
other prisoners. As the bus drove them to a detention centre in another
area, they were beaten by soldiers, this time armed with iron bars.

<https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/israel-palestine-war-prisoners-died-detention-found-bruises-bodies>

Israel-Palestine war: Bruises found on bodies of Palestinians who died in
Israeli detention

Read More »
<https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/israel-palestine-war-prisoners-died-detention-found-bruises-bodies>

“If anybody would scream in pain, they would beat him even harder,” said
Miqdad.

After two weeks in detention, Miqdad said he was allowed to take a shower.
But even this risked incurring a humiliating beating.

“The shower time was limited to four minutes. I was afraid to take off my
underwear and never have it back. If you were a second late in the shower
the soldiers would tie you to metal bars and beat you for four hours.
Soldiers and commanders would come and hit you with their weapons, metal
bars, and boots.”

At night, the detainees were forced to sleep naked without any covers on
the floor of what Miqdad said appeared to be an army barracks. Loud music
would play at full volume.

During one interrogation, Miqdad said he was asked why he had remained in
Gaza City, rather than going to the south, as Israel had told residents to
do. He said he told them that he did not have the money to make the journey.

“They didn’t like my answer. They sent me back to the dark prison room,
blindfolded. We were forbidden from making any movement or gesture. If we
tried to adjust the blindfold to wipe away our tears and blood the soldiers
would go crazy, shouting at us and beating us insanely.”

Following the interrogation, Miqdad said he was placed in a chair.

“They placed electric bands all over my body and electrocuted me with
powerful shocks all the way to my head.”

After several more days of this treatment, Miqdad was told he was being
transferred. He was blindfolded and put on a bus. Many of the other men on
the bus were sick and elderly, he said.

The bus drove for a while and then stopped.

“They kicked us all out and threatened to shoot and kill anyone who moved
from the line, or looked back, or tried to help one another.”

“A young man was totally paralysed from the harsh conditions so I carried
him despite the fact I could barely carry myself. The soldiers saw me and
started yelling and shooting but I did not care, I just kept walking and
didn’t look back. In those moments he was not heavy.”
‘You think you will die a thousand times’

Omar Mahmoud Abdel Qader Samoud had also been forced to seek refuge in a
school with members of his family after their house was destroyed by an air
strike on 14 November.

After several weeks, Israeli soldiers came to the school and detained
Samoud, his wife, and their children including their two-year-old son.

“They handcuffed us and blindfolded us and took us to a nearby hill,” said
Samoud.

“Tanks were roaming around us, creating a deadly scene of horror and fear.
In those moments you think you will die a thousand times.”

Samoud said he remained blindfolded and handcuffed for the entire 42 days
of his detention, barely being given enough food to survive.

“The soldiers forced us to kneel for 24 hours. They would storm into the
barracks where we were kept as hostages, make a lot of noise with their
iron bars, kicking and breaking everything.

“The temperature was freezing, as [the cell] was made of iron, very similar
to cages used for animals… The soldiers’ aim was to torture us, to break
us, to show us who is the boss, and that our lives depended on them.”

Prisoners who raised their heads risked being sent to the “ghost room”,
Samoud said.

“You become a ghost, unseen and unheard,” he said. “They tie your hands and
legs, forbid you from going to the bathroom. They deny you water and food
and leave you like this for a few days.”

Another room was known as the “disko”.

“A soldier dragged me on the floor, naked and handcuffed and placed me on a
piece of rug,” Samoud recalled.

“The soldiers sprayed freezing cold water on me and placed a fan in front
of me. They would leave me for a few days, without food or water or the
possibility to get up and go to the bathroom. I urinated on myself and
pleaded for mercy but they didn’t care.

“The soldiers would kick me on all parts of my body. Imagine yourself
naked, handcuffed on the floor with five or six soldiers kicking you with
their boots, hitting you with weapons and bats.

“Then they asked me to sit up. How could I possibly sit up? When I couldn’t
follow their orders they would beat me even harder. They completely smashed
me. I thought this nightmare would never end.”

[image: A man awaits treatment at Rafah's al-Najjar hospital after being
returned to Gaza from Israeli detention in December 2023 (Said Khatib/AFP)]
A man awaits treatment at Rafah's al-Najjar hospital after being returned
to Gaza from Israeli detention in December 2023 (Said Khatib/AFP)

[image: image.gif]

Sometimes soldiers would unleash dogs on the captive men as they were
forced to lie face down on the ground, still handcuffed and blindfolded.

“The soldiers would close the door and let the dogs torture us for the next
two or three hours,” said Samoud. He said he had also been subjected to
electric shocks.

During interrogations, detainees were restrained in their chairs by clamps
on their arms and their legs. Sometimes these sessions would last from 9am
until midnight, and in one of these Samoud said that his toes had been
broken.

“Part of the torture technique was breaking the clamps while they are still
on your legs. [The interrogator] came to remove them but started banging on
them so fiercely that I cried out in pain. My toes were breaking but he
kept on banging them. The pain was unbearable.

“They left me like that, my toes broken and bloodied for 20 days, lying
around like a rug. I lost over 25 kilos while being held hostage and I
cannot walk because of the torture.”
‘All were brutalised, tortured and humiliated’

Ali Nayef Muhammad Al-Masry, 34, was among a group of men rounded up during
a night raid by Israeli forces in the northern West Bank city of Qalqilya
in January.

Masry, who is from Gaza, and the other men had previously been working in
Israel but had been displaced to Qalqilya when their work permits were
withdrawn at the start of the war.

Following an army raid on the building where they were staying, the men
were blindfolded, handcuffed, and dragged to a space alongside the fence
separating the West Bank from Israel.

“They kept us there for about a month. We were workers but there were also
sick people there, people with cancer, some of them were elderly. All were
brutalised, tortured, and humiliated. There was no regard for human life,”
said Masry.

'When I asked for water, the soldier would laugh, go to the corner, urinate
in a plastic bottle, and bring it to me to drink'

*- Ali Nayef Muhammad Al-Masry*

One day, Masry was among 10 men separated by soldiers from the rest of the
detainees. The men were made to strip naked and kneel by the fence.

“An army commander came and waged a psychological war against us. He
shouted at his unit, ‘Kill them all, every single one of them.’ Then the
soldiers started shooting and we heard live ammunition all around us. I had
no idea if I was dead or alive.”

The men were then taken to a room for questioning.

“The first question was: ‘Who do you know?’. And he showed me photos from
my neighbourhood. If he didn’t like my answers, he would hang me by my
arms, still handcuffed. My interrogation lasted for 10 days. All this time,
I didn't know when it was day and when it was night. I was freezing all the
time. Naked, freezing, and cuffed.”

Other times, Masry said, his interrogator would burn cigarettes on his skin
and kick him. He was made to sit on a chair that delivered electric shocks
and was prevented from sleeping.

“The soldiers and their commander were monsters. When I asked for water,
the soldier would laugh, go to the corner, urinate in a plastic bottle, and
bring it to me to drink. When I refused, he would drop the whole thing on
me.”

After several weeks, Masry and the other men were handcuffed and
blindfolded, put on an army truck, and driven for six hours to Karm Abu
Salem.

“Before they released us, they undressed us again and took our clothes.
When they dropped us off there were 55 male detainees and six female
detainees. They made us walk north and after walking a long distance the
soldiers started shooting at us.

“Later we learned that the six women had been kidnapped from inside Gaza
and were held hostage for three months. We didn’t know anything about them.”

*Photo: Israeli soldiers stand by a truck packed with shirtless Palestinian
detainees in the Gaza Strip, 8 December 2023 (Reuters/Yossi Zeliger)*
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