Dozens of Palestinian men being kidnapped by the 'Israeli military,' many stripped down to their underwear, in the streets of a city in northern Gaza on December 7, 2023. Photo: Social media.
By Palestine Will Be FreeĀ –Ā Jul 28, 2025
“This is a vile place. A narrow cell where the prisoner is placed, tortured, and raped, away from the surveillance cameras.”
A journalist, who was abducted from Tulkarem in the West Bank last year, has revealed the horrific abuse ā including degrading assaults with hard objects amounting to rape and sexual torture ā to which Palestinians inĀ Israeli torture dungeonsĀ have been routinely subjected to, especially after October 7.
Journalist Sami AlāSaāi, who was abducted from the West Bank and spent 16 months in Israeli dungeons, recently recounted acts of horrific abuse that caused rectal bleeding for 22 days. Despite the severe injuries inflicted on Palestinian detainees, Israelis have denied them access to doctors and medicines. This leaves the detainees in excruciating pain. Al-Saāi recollected: āI couldnāt even ask for a doctor or anything. You had to take care of yourself. So I asked the guys for tissues ā whatever was available. I fashioned them into plugs and inserted them into my rectum to absorb the blood and prevent it from flowing out.ā
Here is Sami recollecting his ordeal in the Israeli dungeons:
āThey stripped me of my lower clothing and forced me into a prostration position on the ground. Then they began a form of indirect rape ā which entailed bleeding and extreme psychological distress. This continued for about 22 days until the bleeding stopped. They then took me to another location, my hands tied behind my back.Ā This started from the very first moment ā all the beatings happened while I was handcuffed from behind, blindfolded. You couldnāt see anything; you didnāt know where the next blow would come from.
āLater, they took me to another place. I discovered that the cell was very small. They stripped me of my lower clothing again, forced me into the prostration position on the ground, and began another act of indirect rape ā with sticks and other sharp or hard objects. This went on for about half an hour. I felt immense pain and psychological suffering. You donāt know what to do. You scream. You beg. Youāre in agony. But no one responds.
āAll of this happened amid their laughter, chuckling, and insults ā all spoken fluently in Arabic. They spoke during the entire thirty minutes of this journey of torment, beatings, rape, and assault. And because Iām a journalist ā from the moment I entered, they knew I was a journalist. They would say āYouāre a journalist.ā Because Iām a journalist, the beatings intensified. The torture increased.
āAfter that, they transferred me to the Maābar section. I was fasting ā it was the holy month of Ramadan, in March 2024. I entered the Maābar, and along the way I was dragged at times, carried at times, beaten at times. When I entered one of the rooms, the other prisoners welcomed me ā they knew that anyone who arrived new would have been beaten. I rested a little. Then I went to the bathroom to shower.
āThatās when I discovered I was bleeding from the rectal area. There was no medical care ā severe and widespread neglect. I couldnāt even ask for a doctor or anything. You had to take care of yourself. So I asked the guys for tissues ā whatever was available. I fashioned them into plugs and inserted them into my rectum to absorb the blood and prevent it from flowing out.
āThis went on for about twenty-two days ā the bleeding and psychological trauma. After that, I began to recover, to regain my strength through my relationship with the other prisoners ā talking to them, laughing with them.
āLater, I returned to the place where I had been raped. When I found the clothes I had lost, in the spot where I had been forced into prostration, they smelled of urine, blood, pus, and vomit. This is a filthy place. A place where torture is carried out. A place where abuse is inflicted on our prisoner brothers. A very harsh place, where torture is carried out, because itās far away. But this place is away from the surveillance cameras installed inside the prison. No one sees them, they feel free to carry out their āhobbiesā of repression, abuse, and beatings as they please. This is a vile place. A narrow cell where the prisoner is placed, tortured, and raped, away from the surveillance cameras. And thatās where they acted, violating me from behind with hard objects like sticks. They tried to insert the inspection stick, I recognised it because it buzzes and makes a sound. They tried to insert it, but it was too large. It wouldnāt go in. This caused more injury. And they kept beating and beating and beating. Insults, abuse, targeting us, our wives, our sisters, and our mothers ā all in Arabic.ā
Sami is just the latest of the Palestinian abductees to reveal the sexual abuse Palestinians are being subjected to in the Israeli torture camps.
Ibrahim Salem, who was abducted from Gaza and sexually abused in the Israeli torture camps in the Negev desert last year, similarly testified that rape was a common humiliation tactic employed by the Israelis. āNothing was more humiliating than when they made me take off my clothes, or when they inserted this object into mu butt, or when a young female soldier kept [touching my penis],ā he toldĀ Middle East Eye last August. āThereās even more and more.ā
In a 49-page MarchĀ reportĀ titledĀ āMore than a human can bearā: Israelās systematic use of sexual, reproductive and other forms of gender-based violence since 7 October 2023,Ā a UN commission concluded that āsexual and gender-based violence was intended not only to humiliate, punish and intimidate the individual Palestinians but the civilian population as a whole, with the objective to subordinate, destroy and expel the Palestinian community.ā
‘More than a human can bear’: How Israel has systematically raped and sexually abused Palestinians since October 7
From striping Palestinians naked to spitting and urinating on them, inserting fingers, electrical rods, carrots, broomsticks, and other objects in their anuses to raping them to death, a new UN report on āIsraelās systematic use of sexual, reproductive and other forms of gender-based violenceā has listed horrifying details of sexual abuse of the Palestinians in both Gaza and the West Bank at the hands of the Israeli military and settlers alike since October 7, 2023.
An August 2024Ā reportĀ byĀ BāTselemĀ titledĀ Welcome to HellĀ also detailed systemic abuse of the Palestinians in Israeli torture camps. The report devoted a section to sexual abuse. āWe were taken to a room which had a lot of clothes, shoes, rings and watches scattered in it. We were stripped naked and even had to take off our underwear,ā Sami Khalili, a 41-year-old detainee held since 2003, toldĀ BāTselem. āWe were searched with a hand-held metal detector. They forced us to spread our legs and then sit half crouching. Then they started hitting us on our private parts with the detector.ā
The most notorious case, however, has been that of Islam al-Sarsawi. His case has also shone a bright light on the total moral bankruptcy of Israeli society.
Al-Sarsawi was abducted from Gaza and was subsequentlyĀ anally raped with metal rodsĀ and other objects that left him with ātorn rectum, broken ribs, ruptured bowels & damaged lungsā in the notorious Sde Teiman torture camp. Al-Sarsawiās ordeal wasĀ captured on camera. He subsequently died.
In the aftermath of Al-Sarsawiās rape, an Israeli politicianĀ statedĀ in the Knesset that āeverything is legitimateā regarding the treatment of Palestinians, while a journalistĀ lamentedĀ that the rape of Palestinians inside Israeli dungeons was not official state policy. When there was an attempt to take the rapist Israelis in for questioning, countless IsraelisĀ laid siegeĀ on the Negev torture camp to prevent it. Subsequently, IsraelisĀ took to the streetsĀ to assert their āright to rapeā the Palestinians at will. The leader of the rapists, Meir Ben-Shitrit, went on toĀ become a celebrity, appearing on TV shows in Israel. Meir Mazuz, a top Israeli rabbi, blessed the soldiers who gang-raped Al-Sarsawi,Ā telling the rapists: āYou beat the enemy, so what? Itās all goodā¦ Donāt we have the right to do it?ā¦ In any other country, theyād get medalsā¦ Donāt fear the goyim.ā In a poll that same month, a staggeringĀ 65āÆpercent of Israeli Jews supported gangāraping Palestinians.
Israeli society, which accused the Palestinian resistance of systemic rape on October 7 without ever producing a single credible piece of evidence or one victim, has aĀ serious rape problem, with every stratum implicated in it.
Moreover, Israel is aĀ safe haven for Jewish paedophilesĀ from all over the world.
The complete dehumanisation of the Palestinians, in service of the ongoing Israeli genocide in Gaza, has rendered their bodies and minds a free-for-all. Furthermore, the total moral bankruptcy of the Western press and other supposed āinternational institutionsā has meant that hardly anyone is speaking out as besieged Palestinians are being routinely subjected to rampant sexual abuse and rape.
(Substack)
