The image depicts a man sitting with his legs drawn up and his head bowed, and to one side it reads: System of Sexual Torture of Palestinians. Photo: The Electronics Entifada.
By Ali Abunimah and Tamara Nassar – May 1, 2026
“We suddenly found ourselves dealing with hundreds of testimonies where released detainees said they were subjected to sexual violence,” Maha Hussaini told The Electronic Intifada Livestream for 30 April.
Hussaini is head of media and public engagement at Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor, which has published a report documenting systematic sexual violence, including the widespread use of rape, against Palestinian detainees held in Israeli prisons and military detention camps since October 2023.
The report, “Another genocide behind walls,” concludes that the horrific abuses are not isolated acts but part of an organized state policy enabled by Israeli legal, medical and judicial institutions.
Almost every released Palestinian detainee “spoke of at least one form of sexual violence they were subjected to, or they witnessed others being subjected to,” Hussaini added.
You can watch Hussaini’s conversation with The Electronic Intifada’s Ali Abunimah in the video above.
The Euro-Med investigation is based primarily on firsthand testimonies from Palestinians detained in Gaza and later released, corroborated by visual evidence, medical findings and external reporting.
It covers the period from 7 October 2023 through October 2025 and focuses on detention sites including Ketziot, Megiddo and Ofer prisons and the Sde Teiman detention camp.
Dogs trained for rape
Israeli detention facilities have been transformed into “spaces isolated from oversight, akin to legal and physical ‘black holes,’” where torture, including rape, genital mutilation and other sexual violence, is carried out systematically and with impunity.
Survivors recount being raped by male and female Israeli personnel using their genitals or objects, forced nudity, genital torture and threats of sexual violence, in addition to numerous other forms of physical torture, abuse and degrading treatment.
These acts – often carried out publicly in front of other detainees, soldiers and visitors, or recorded – are described as deliberate methods “to break both individual and collective will and inflict serious physical and psychological harm.”
Survivor testimonies describe extreme forms of abuse.
Wajdi, 43, recalled that “during interrogation, they tied me naked to a metal bed, and one of the soldiers asked me how many Israeli women I had raped in Israel.”
This suggests that Israeli forces used Israel’s debunked claims of a mass rape campaign by Palestinian fighters on 7 October 2023 as a pretext for committing sexual crimes against Palestinians.
“I denied that I had even entered Israel. Then a soldier raped me,” Wajdi said. “I felt severe pain in my anus and screamed, but every time I screamed, I was beaten.”
“The soldier left after ejaculating inside me. I was left in a humiliating position. I wished for death. I was bleeding,” Wajdi said.
“Later, they untied me and brought a dog, which also raped me.”
Multiple survivors also reported being raped by dogs, or witnessing other detainees being assaulted in this way, describing the animals as appearing to be trained for that purpose and used deliberately by soldiers in detention settings.
“One of the dogs then raped me, penetrated my anus in a trained manner while I was being beaten,” Amir, 35, said.
In a separate testimony, A.S., also aged 35, recalled that his captors “forced me to lie down, and a dog climbed on top of me and tried to insert its penis into me. At first, I did not understand what was happening, but then I realized that I was being raped.”
The report presents these accounts alongside other testimonies describing rape with objects.
Hassan, taken captive in northern Gaza, recalled being stripped and mocked while he was shackled by four female soldiers.
“Then, one of them pushed me, and I fell to the ground. Another grabbed a stick and inserted it into my anus,” Hassan said.
“I cried out in pain as they laughed,” Hassan recalled. “I was in pain for over two weeks after the incident.”
Women raped
The report also documents horrific sexual violence against women. A 42-year-old detainee testified that she was raped repeatedly at the Sde Teiman detention camp while soldiers filmed the assault.
“Two soldiers took turns violently raping her, and the other two documented the assault on film,” Euro-Med states.
After being repeatedly raped over days, the woman was “suspended by her hands and subjected to repeated electric shocks until she lost consciousness, while being shown photos of her rapes and nude images, and threatened with their publication if she did not ‘cooperate’ with Israeli intelligence.”
The woman called her experience “another genocide behind walls.”
The report also documents cases in which detainees lost one or both testicles as a result of torture or suffered other serious permanent injuries.
One detainee said he lost consciousness after a soldier pressed violently on his testicles.
“When I regained consciousness, I found myself on a hospital bed with my genitals wrapped in gauze, and I realized that one of my testicles had been removed as a result of the violent pressure,” said Khalil, 48.
Euro-Med says such accounts are corroborated by other evidence, including leaked footage, medical reports of severe genital injuries and testimonies from Israeli whistleblowers.
“Collective humiliation rituals”
The victims of Israel’s sexual violence include men, women and children from Gaza, as well as healthcare workers, journalists and civilians detained during raids, at checkpoints or in so-called “safe corridors.”
Israel’s mass arrests targeted broad segments of the population. Detainees were frequently stripped, blindfolded and transported to unknown locations, where many were held incommunicado.
Euro-Med found that Israel subjected Palestinians to “repeated collective humiliation rituals designed to dehumanize detainees in front of each other.”
The methods used include “collective forced nudity, crowding detainees naked, using obscenities and breaching social norms, such as stripping men in front of women and children or threatening women with rape while their husbands watched.”
Israeli forces also forced detainees to witness rapes and sexual assaults.
This, according to Euro-Med, was to “break family bonds and create a sense of helplessness, impacting both the victims and the witnesses.”
Israel Is Routinely Raping Palestinians in Its Torture Dungeons
Testimony under threat
Euro-Med Monitor conducted confidential interviews with released detainees, ensuring informed consent and anonymity. Identities were concealed using pseudonyms to protect victims from reprisals.
Researchers cross-referenced testimonies with leaked videos, photographs, medical evidence and reports by UN bodies and human rights organizations.
The report emphasizes the difficulty of documentation: Many victims refused to testify due to fear of re-arrest or threats against their families. Others were constrained by stigma associated with sexual violence, affecting both male and female survivors.
Some testimonies were cut short due to severe psychological distress, including breakdowns during recounting of abuse.
Genocide and impunity
Euro-Med concludes that these systematic abuses constitute war crimes and crimes against humanity under the Rome Statute.
Given their scale and intent, it argues that these acts “fall within the scope of genocide.”
Central to the report is the finding that abuses are enabled by a system of institutional collusion.
Israel has systematically denied detainees access to lawyers, family visits and oversight by the International Committee of the Red Cross.
It has used pseudo-legal frameworks such as the “Unlawful Combatants Law” to strip detainees of procedural protections, facilitating enforced disappearances and indefinite detention without trial.
Israeli medical personnel are accused of facilitating torture by issuing “fit for interrogation” certificates, withholding treatment and concealing evidence of abuse in medical records.
Israel’s judiciary, the report states, has “historically and systematically” entrenched impunity by reclassifying serious crimes, restricting victim participation and dismissing cases despite evidence.
A prime example is Israel’s dismissal of the charges against five soldiers accused in the rape of a Palestinian detainee at Sde Teiman caught on a security camera.
Sidelining Palestinian victims
Euro-Med’s findings – combined with those of other bodies – present a consistent picture: Israel’s use of sexual violence is not incidental but forms part of a broader system of repression and destruction, sustained by institutional protection and the absence of accountability.
A new report from prisoners rights group Addameer also documents the same pattern of sexual violence against Palestinian detainees from Gaza and the occupied West Bank, including 12 rapes in Israeli detention facilities.
Most of those cases involve multiple soldiers and include anal rape using batons.
In one case, a prisoner identified by his initials Q.M., a displaced person taken prisoner from al-Shifa hospital in Gaza City, was subjected to severe beatings and sexual assaults that resulted in his permanent loss of his ability to father children.
He was released as part of the prisoner exchange in October 2025.
Another prisoner recalled being taken for a search at Sde Teiman by two soldiers as a third soldier whispered threats of rape into his ear.
“I thought it was just a threat, but I was shocked that he pulled down my pants and inserted the baton into my anus,” he told Addameer.
“I suffered for two months, and I was unable to use the bathroom for bowel movement without treatment.”
Another prisoner, identified as O.H., reported being assaulted in the same manner. He recalled one soldier telling detainees: “We will return you to Gaza castrated.”
These crimes do not only inflict devastating physical and psychological injuries on individuals but create “intergenerational trauma passed on to families and children,” according to Euro-Med.
On the Livestream, Hussaini addressed the stark imbalance in attention between Israel’s debunked claims about mass rapes on 7 October and the extensive, documented evidence of systematic sexual violence, including rape, torture and mutilation, against Palestinian detainees.
She made clear this is not about a lack of evidence, but about power shaping what is seen and believed: Well-documented abuses against Palestinians are sidelined while unsubstantiated Israeli claims are amplified.
She pointed to political influence, media dynamics and structural bias that subject Palestinian victims to heightened skepticism and marginalization – even when their accounts are consistent, corroborated and overwhelming.
As Hussaini put it, “What we are seeing instead is a disparity in attention, not in available facts.”
Ali Abunimah is executive director and Tamara Nassar is associate editor of The Electronic Intifada.
