Many of the biggest Human Rights groups in the world have been documenting atrocities by Israel against Palestinians for decades, possibly going back to the Nakba or even earlier, when Zionists terrorized Palestinians escalating no later than the 1930s, but few have ever heard of these reports and mainstream media virtually never covers them, enabling them, and the political establishment to promote a heavily censored and often false version of history and current events about Israel and the occupied territories.
Previously in Can Zionists Defend Their Agenda Without Suppressing Academic Freedom? 03/30/2025, in addition to discussing efforts to suppress academic freedom and intimidate academics who discuss Israel's atrocities I compiled a list of Human Rights Reports that mostly came from Norman Finkelstein's book "Beyond Chutzpah," 2008, most of which, of course, came before 2008, when his book was published, but searches for Reports also turned up other more recent reports which were added to the list. Since then I also reported about many alternative media or low profile books do a much better job reporting on Israel's atrocities last month in The Current Gaza War Is a Repeat Of Previous Atrocities 12/31/2025, which shows Israel's pattern of behavior of committing a long list of atrocities over and over again, and indicated that Human Rights groups compiled for decades add to this evidence, which I would cover in this article.
A close look at these reports shows how they fact check themselves, provides details that can be fact checked independently, and addresses critics, some with false claims of bias and some that at times may have legitimate concerns with some of them. In a previous article Do Zionists Believe Their Own Obvious Lies? 11/30/2025 I posted a question to Grok Has Israel ever targeted civilians? 12/04/2025 (The answer provides a long list of examples, although it's not complete, where they have,) which included a follow up question "Has Israel or it's representatives accused these Human Rights organizations of being Antisemites?" and they did, although their accusations weren't credible, and it's hard to believe that the only people joining these groups are all antisemites, which would have to be the case if these accusations are true, since these Human Rights Groups are unanimous in some of their claims including criticism of occupation of Palestinians, Apartheid and even genocide, which was also confirmed in a question to Google that was posted in my previous article Do Zionists Believe Their Own Obvious Lies? 11/30/2025, "There are numerous Human Rights Organizations claiming there's a genocide in Gaza, which is disputed by Israel; are there any Human Rights Organizations coming to Israel's defense?" 11/17/2025. My previous articles pointed out evidence confirming that in most, if not all cases, the critics of Israel were far more credible than Zionists denying just about everything they're doing. I also asked Google AI "Is there any credible evidence showing that Human Rights Groups might be biased in favor of Iran, Venezuela, Palestine or other people opposed by the United States and Israel?" Google AI's full answer is posted below near the end of this article, but it provides no claims of significant bias in favor of Iran or Venezuela, but it claims there's accusations of bias against Israel, which Google AI acknowledges mostly if not entirely comes from allies of Israel. This is confirmed by a look at the Google AI sources provided which include 13 articles from 11 sources all with obvious ties to Israel, yet none of them do a good job addressing the evidence provided by Human Rights Organizations, instead they make absurd accusations which might fool some people who haven't read the Human Rights Reports, but those who read them may only see this as a massive propaganda effort to smear Israel's critics, which only strengthen the case against Israel, as I concluded.
Other criticism of Human Rights organizations recently came from an interview with Ted Rall where (Video): Former CIA agent John Kiriakou drops a bombshell: Many human rights organizations reporting on Iran are funded by Israel/CIA. Israeli-backed protesters in Iran are inciting violence, including burning fire engines. The narrative is one-sided, favoring Israeli interests.. 01/14/2026 Neither John Kiriakou or Ted Rall claim to have all the details in this story, but they claim they're not getting accurate information and that we shouldn't rush to conclusions, and similar things have happened before, so the truth of this story might come out in the coming weeks or months, and there's already an increasing amount of evidence showing up on the Internet indicating that Israeli backed protesters might be more violent than the Iranian government, although it may take more time to confirm that and Iran isn't the focus of this article. Most, if not all, of the reports below had more time to be peer reviewed than current events. Unfortunately John Kiriakou didn't specify which organizations were supported by Israel provided exaggerated or false information, but I did some searching on that below as well. Unfortunately I only found a minimal amount from a quick search to support his conclusions, and more evidence to support the fact that Israel has a massive propaganda effort to smear anyone criticizing their atrocities, which I explain more about below.
However, it's important to recognize any bias when they do happen, which include at least a couple high profile examples where Human Rights organizations made major mistakes, one they admitted to another they didn't. Perhaps one of the most infamous examples where Human Rights organizations helped support false claims that were used to promote War is Nayirah's testimony about Iraq incubators where she claimed that "Iraqi soldiers taking premature babies out of incubators in a maternity ward before looting the incubators and leaving the babies to die," (Wikipedia) which turned out to be false. It turned out that Nayirah was the daughter of Kuwaiti ambassador Saud Nasser al-Saud al-Sabah and her testimony was planned with the help of Hill & Knowlton. While trying to defend himself Saud Nasir al-Sabah, Kuwait's Ambassador to the United States and Canada said "If I wanted to lie, or if we wanted to lie, if we wanted to exaggerate, I wouldn't use my daughter to do so. I could easily buy other people to do it," which is actually a very good point, yet the evidence is so overwhelming that there's no doubt this is what he, or someone else associated with him did.
For one reason or another numerous Human Rights organizations including Amnesty International and others endorsed this testimony without fact checking, while Middle East Watch a division of Human Rights Watch was skeptical of it from the beginning. A good argument could be made that Saddam Hussein was so tyrannical that there's still justifiable reason to invade; however, even if that's the case there still should be no reason to lie to make the case, and that raises the question about why the United States supported him up until he invaded and even hinted they might not object if he did just a week before the invasion. In all fairness, even though Amnesty International and other Human Rights groups supported false claims to justify the War to remove Iraq from Kuwait, they also reported on many of the legitimate atrocities committed by Saddam Hussein during the War with Iran, when he had the support of the United States Government. How PR Sold the War in the Persian Gulf December 2005 also points out the fact that even a week before the invasion, when they suspected he was building up troops on the southern border for possible military action April Glaspie suggested an "appearance in the media, even for five minutes," showing they were still trying to maintain good relationships with Hussein and help him repair his horrible, but well deserved, reputation.
More recently an example where Human Rights organization might have shown more brazen bias in favor of Wall Street corporations, the political establishment, and the CIA is the fact that they recently praised the choice of Maria Corina Machado for winning the Nobel Pace Prize, which considering her record, even if many of the accusations against Maduro are true, is totally unjustified, since a close look at her record shows she's far more concerned about privatizing resources for the benefit of the rich than the best interests of her own people, who don't support her at all. This video describes her true history and why she was a terrible choice for a Nobel Peace Prize From her decades of support from the United States to her repeated calls for violence against other Venezuelans, there's a lot more to Maria Corina Machado than meets the eye. CODEPINK's Latin America team breaks down the truth about Machado. 01/16/2026 This video explains that Machado has supported sanctions that have devastated her country, called for possible military intervention against her country, which could kill her own people, she's advocating to privatize Venezuela's natural resources so wealthy corporations can profit without helping the majority of the public, despite claims to the contrary, and more.
Not surprisingly she's widely disliked in her own country by the majority of the people, with the exception of wealthy elites who previously profited by oppressing their own people, including her own family, many of whom are now in exile. In all fairness I asked Google AI about whether human rights groups reported on abuses before Chavez came to power and since Chavez came to power, and they reported on many abuses before and after, although some sources indicate there might be more under Chavez and Maduro. Some of these groups, including the United States government are clearly biased against Maduro and Chavez, but Human Right Watch seems less biased, most of the time. There's some credible evidence showing that some of the violence during the 2002 coup attempt or other protests since may have been the responsibility of pro-business organizations, including those working with the CIA, and some reports try to blame them on the government when it may actually be the protesters inciting some of the violence, similar things have happened in Iran within the past few weeks. Also when I started reading another book Venezuela Speaks!: voices from the grassroots edited by Carlos Martínez, 2009 which points out some earlier atrocities that weren't mentioned by Google AI in a question posted below which was from the pre-Chavez time. There's good reason to believe that if there's any bias on the part of the Human Rights Groups it's not against Israel or their allies, but in favor of them, and the same goes for Venezuela with the bias against Maduro or any other country that challenges the Neo-Colonialist system.
Israel and the United States often try to claim that they're biased against the riches and post powerful people, including Israel and the United States government both of which serve powerful corporations, when bias in favor of the rich and powerful is far more likely!
Of course, whether you agree with me that despite their problems, these Human Rights organization are far more credible than Israel or not, there should be no doubt that reading them and checking how they verify their conclusions will help confirm this or not, especially if we do some of our own fact checking which I tried to do either by reading alternative media, good non-fiction books, or doing research on the internet, sometimes with AI, although as I pointed out in Grok And Google AI Are Far More Credible Than MSM Despite Some Bias 08/29/2025 bias from artificial intelligence is far more likely to be in favor of the rich that control their programs as well. As you might find out after reading excerpts or complete reports, it seems far more credible to believe these Human Rights organizations, especially when considering that if anything they're more likely to be biased in favor of the rich and powerful and the fact that they show how they came to their conclusions and confirmed their claims. Israel often ignores this and smears their critics instead of addressing the evidence.
Google AI confirmed that Human Rights groups have been monitoring complaints about human rights abuses going back decades, although immediately after the creation of Israel it may not have been as thorough, and the reports I read so far start in 1980, partly because the list was started with sources from "Beyond Chutzpah" and most of the other reports I found are more recent, but I'm sure archive include additional reports and numerous historians, including some I cited in past articles, covered earlier events using a variety of sources. Amnesty International's 1980 report raises major doubts about access to legal help and points out that when detainees are held they often don't get to meet with their lawyers for extended periods of time, and that the interrogation process enables the IDF or prison officials to confirm all their denials while those they arrest have no way of confirming their claims. They recommend procedures to provide checks and balances, which Israel refused to implement.
Like other reports or investigations they can often confirm many claims of torture with medical reports, and they also report on biased laws that clearly give Jews preferential treatment and can easily be confirmed. One of these laws, which isn't mentioned in the first report, is laws about administration detention allowing Israel to detail Palestinians for long periods of time without charges, evidence, or access to lawyers, but this was mentioned by Felicia Langer in her book about earlier events, and later reports also mention it. This is incredibly easy to confirm, yet mainstream media and the political establishment ignores it almost completely, while falsely trying to claim Israel is a democratic country that respects people rights. The fact that mainstream media almost never reports on this while providing an enormous amount of coverage presenting Israel as the victim of terrorism makes their bias incredibly obvious; furthermore, they almost never mention the fact that the so-called terrorists are the people who were robbed of their land and opressed. Israel and mainstream media act as if this never happened despite overwhelming evidence.
Amnesty International also made a long list of recommendations which were almost entirely rejected, and they reported the weak excuses that don't make any sense at all and are clearly not justifiable. This report also repeats the claim by the Israeli government that politics should not impact the court system, which was also raised in Felicia Langer's book which I previously covered, but Amnesty International doesn't provide much if any objection to this, even though the cause of their arrests are political! By banning politics they're preventing the victims from discussing the fact that they've had their homes stolen from them and have been oppressed for decades, and the fact that the reason they're labeled terrorism is because they want compensation or to have their land returned. There's also an enormous amount of evidence that the reason Palestinians, even peaceful Palestinians, are portrayed as terrorists so Israel can use this false claim to steal more land, and discussing this would be banned as being political!
B'Tselem also did a 1991 report focusing mainly on torture during the first Intifada and the virtually guarantee that many confessions were extracted by using torture. Of course, once again, Israel almost always deny everything, but once again there is supporting evidence in addition to the claims of the victims, and much more of this was provided both before and after the first Intifada including additional incidents long after this report which were proven in other investigations, including a more recent report "Welcome to Hell," additional medical records and, at times, even confessions from IDF soldiers and on at least one occasion admissions from an Israeli Court. There are also several arguments by supporters of torture including the "ticking-time bomb scenario and the Landau Report, which came out in the 1980s.
This report, which discusses the Landau Report and excuses to justify torture or interrogations they decline to call torture, and other discussions about the subject, some that escalated after 9/11/2001 and 10/07/2023 make confusing and contradictory arguments that are often clearly designed to confuse the issue or provide weak justifications for torture as the B'Tselem Report and other reviews of Torture, including Alfred McCoy's book "A Question of Torture." Instead of saying they allow torture the Landau Report says that they allow "moderate measure of physical pressure," after 9/11/2001 those trying to justify torture made a similar argument using the phrase "enhanced interrogation" both of which and reasonable person, including both the authors of the B'Tselem Report and Alfred McCoy would clearly say it was torture, and a similar argument could be made for Ingraham v. Wright a 1977 Supreme Court ruling that allows corporal punishment, but doesn't call it torture. I asked Google AI about this and it denied that this ruling allows teachers to torture students however it also says that torture is defined as something "causing severe pain or suffering" which clearly describes what they did to James Ingraham and his fellow students, causing serious medical problems which both the Florida Supreme Court and the US Supreme Court ignored when they overturned a ruling by a three judge panel which was assigned to look closer at the details and clearly could not ignore the serious about, but the two higher courts who didn't discuss or perhaps even look closely at the serious abuse overruled them. Virtually identical arguments could be made for torture of Palestinians or other suspects of crime or war, which both Alfred McCoy and B'Tselem showed in their reports.
The Landau Report has, at times, indicated that the bigger problem with torture, or a "moderate measure of physical pressure," as they called it isn't that they used it, but that they lie about in court, which is perjury. As I said, the B'Tselem report also discussed the "ticking-time bomb" argument which was discussed heavily after 9/11/2001, often as if it was a new argument, which it wasn't. This argument has been reused over and over again and probably goes back before the B'Tselem Report. The argument is that if they have a suspect that knows where a ticking-time bomb is they can save lots of lives by forcing him to tell the truth, yet this has never been done in practice, instead they keep making the argument or weaker justifications of it to justify torture that obviously produces false confessions and accusations, often of innocent people for being alleged accomplices.
On one occasion Alan Dershowitz made this argument and added variations to it, discussing one possibility that they might not even know if they had a "ticking-time bomb" situation until after they conducted the interrogation which might lead to wider use of torture for suspects that could even create false panics based on fake confessions induced by torture when there is no bomb, but they forced someone to falsely claim there was. Dershowitz also argued in favor of "torture warrants" where they were authorized by a judge, as if that makes it justifiable or effective.
And there have also been some confessions from Israeli soldiers, including one from the B'Tselem report that originally appeared in an article by Gideon Levy in 1990, "We are the Shin Bet" where an anonymous soldier confessed about what took place in these interrogations and said "I really felt like a Nazi soldier. Really like a Nazi soldier I felt there." More of his testimony is reported below in the excerpts from the report or the full report with more excerpts from his testimony. There have also been dozens of studies about torture or the death penalty during the inquisition, including The death penalty for heresy from 1184 to 1921 A.D. / by G.G. Coulton 1924 which I read recently, although this isn't necesarily the best study, especially about torture. They routinely find that torture was unjustifiable and extracts false confessions; but powerful institutions, including Israel and our government routinely try to invent new justifications to bring torture back, which ignore past problems and are debunked almost as fast as the government makes their bad arguments, although traditional media doesn't always report on the best research until it's too late.
B'Tselem also wrote another report about Mass Demolition of Palestinian houses in 1997 describing laws that were clearly made to enable institutional theft of Palestinian land and forbidding those that lose their property from coming back while allowing Jews from around the world that never lived in Israel or had ancestors from the area to come and take these stolen homes, or the property that the demolished homes previously stood on. This includes discussions where Palestinians who own the homes and have had them for generations weren't consulted. This clearly violates claims that Israel is a "democracy" when one religion makes decisions enabling them to steal from another religion without fair consultation.
Amnesty International followed this up a few years later in 2001 with a report indicating that Palestinians who have been in the Middle East for hundreds of years before being expelled by Israel should a1hve the right to return which all Human Rights groups and the UN agree on, yet Israel and the United States refuse to allow this, essentially meaning those with political power can expel, murder, terrorize and rob those without political power, which they could turn around and do to anyone else as well.
Human Rights Watch also did an extensive study into atrocities by Israel at Jenin in 2002, and reported on a long list of them, many that can be confirmed independently and are part of a repeating pattern of behavior which began long before 2002 and continues to this day. there's no doubt that the vast majority of people in Jenin were civilians, not those responsible for suicide bombings they were retaliating against, and Human Rights Watch claims that they went into the area on "an unprecedented scale" although I'm sure some of the invasions since then, possibly including the War in 2014 and certainly the one after October 7 were on a larger scale at least. Also since they routinely refuse to consider "political" reasons they ignore the fact that by oppressing Palestinians and constantly stealing their land they're inciting retaliation,not that I think we should support terrorism, but it's clear that if the Israelis stop inciting violence and committing their own terrorism they would be much less likely to face uprisings from Palestinians. Nor is Israel willing to consider the obvious fact that when they commit mass murder and terror against large civilian populations, including many children who are not part of militant resistance groups, they turn their lives into nightmares and they often feel they have nothing left to lose so the surviving children may be inclined to join resistance organizations, whether peaceful of not, when they get older, guaranteeing that this conflict goes on from one generation to another, with Israelis constantly basing all their decisions on a heavily censored and false version of reality.
There is additional evidence of destruction or theft of Palestinian property in Jenin, which has continued since the Nakba, and there's also a lot of conclusive evidence If Israeli's using Palestinians as Human Shields in Jenin, which Israel is constantly accusing the Palestinians of doing even though the evidence of that is much weaker, if it exists at all; but traditional media repeats these false or exaggerated accusations by Israel over and over again, while ignoring much more credible evidence of Israel using Human Shields. I asked Google AI at least a couple questions about this subject and included the answers below, which confirms my conclusions, even though, if anything, Google AI is more biased in favor of Israel than Palestine.
Even if there is some truth to the exaggerated Israeli claims that Palestinians use Human Shields, according to Google AI and it's sources, this comes in the form of firing from civilian areas, which is the only areas they have access to, and Israel does this as well, even though they have access to other areas for fight from. The Jenin Report confirms this conclusion, as excerpts below show. In addition to this, examples of Israel using Human Shields include intentionally forcing Palestinians to enter areas where other Palestinians and telling them to disarm or they will bomb them putting them at risk from both Palestinians who might consider them traitors, even though they're forced to do this or being shot by the Israelis. These activities were reported in the Report about Jenin, Felicia Langer's book which I reviewed in my previous article and by several questions to Google AI among other sources. One book that I read in the past few years claimed they learned this tactic from the British when they were occupying Palestine in the 1930s, and that the British had previously used this tactic in India. I can't recall which book this was but I asked Google AI to confirm this in a question and answer, along with source posted below. Google AI did confirm they learned it from the British and have been using this tactic since, even though they almost never mention this in traditional media while repeating exaggerated or false claims from Israel, but it didn't initially confirm the fact that Britain developed this tactic in India, but a follow up question did confirm this although it said this tactic was much more common in Palestine against Palestinians, not Jews or Zionists. The clear indication is it's the British and Zionists that are the real terrorists, despite media spin, censorship and outright lies.
The Jenin report also provides evidence that Israel used starvation as a weapon in 2002 when they blocked food or medical help from reaching the people. There were also many reports of illegal murdering of many civilians who weren't suspected of any resistance, and, as always, more administrative detentions without due process or charges.
Amnesty International also did a report claiming that "Israel Must End Its Policy of Assassinations" which should be incredibly obvious, but this report only discusses a small fraction of Israel's assassinations, although it also discusses administration detentions which should also be ended immediately, and it does far more to discuss either than mainstream media which almost never reports on assassinations and when they do they only report one or two at a time without letting people know that Israel has been doing this on a massive scale for decades, and MSM often repeats Israel's weak justifications for assassinations without reporting the full truth about how many innocent people are being killed or even when Palestinians do attack Israelis it's because Israelis are occupying them, stealing their land and terrorizing them. One book "Rise and Kill First: The Secret History of Israel's Targeted Assassinations" 2018 by Ronen Bergman does a far better job explaining Israel's long history of assassinations which goes back to before they created their state when Zionists assassinated many people, but even this book doesn't cover all their assassinations, especially those after 2018, but including one of the earliest assassinations by Zionists against one of their own, Chaim Arlosoroff, who was assassinated in 1933, and followers of Vladimir Jabotinsky were implicated in that murder, although Jabotinsky himself wasn't directly implicated.
One of the first assassinations Bergman does cite is Lord Moyne, who was killed before the creation of Israel, and another famous one was Count Folke Bernadotte who negotiated the release of hundreds of Jews during World War II and tens of thousands of non-Jews. He was later asked to mediate for Palestine when Israel created their state, and he was going to demand the right of return for many Palestinians to defend their rights, like he previously defended the rights of Jews and other people. However, since allowing their victims to return was unacceptable to Zionists they assassinated him. Bergman also wrote about how they often assassinated the wrong people or people where the evidence wasn't conclusive and many more cases, where they killed a large number of innocent people to get their targets, whether they were innocent of not, both in Israel, and around the world in many other countries.
Bergman also writes about the claim that Jewish people never kill each other, despite numerous cases where they have; he didn't mention the Arlosoroff case, but he did mention another one where they drugged another Jew who they thought betrayed them and accidentally killed him, and there may have been other cases, but he tries to imply it's minimal, although there have been more conflicts with anti-Zionist Jews recently whether they escalated to murder or not, so they certainly do turn against each other.
Yet the mainstream media almost never reports on most of these assassination, and when they do it's kept brief without reporting on how often it happens. There have also been cases where the United States government has assassinated many people, but not nearly as often as Israel; and, of course, our government tells us Russia does this as well, and in some cases, I'm sure they do, which is also wrong, but that's not nearly as common as either the United States or Israel. How can the media portray the biggest assassins in the world as "leaders of the free world?"
The Amnesty International Report also wrote about attempts to get assassinations banned by law and that at the time their report went to press in 2003, this still hadn't happened, and after asking Google AI I confirmed that it still hasn't happened, although it provided some follow up details in the attempt to ban it in it's reply.
The final Human Rights report that I read, for now, and reviewed was a B'Tselem report called "Welcome to Hell" which reports on the testimony of dozens of people detained by Israel, mostly under the unjustifiable "Administration Detention" rule. Like earlier reports there was the problem that Israel denies almost everything, but by this time they had plenty of experience trying to find patterns of behavior and ways to confirm at least parts of many of these stories, which is explained in several reports including this one. This testimony included many people that were detained both before and after the October 7 attack as well as those that were arrested after, and it documents changes in behavior with increased abuse and torture. Since many, if not all, of these people were interviewed without an opportunity to compare their stories they were able to confirm common practices that were repeated over and over again, making them more credible.
In addition to reporting on increased amounts of torture after October 7 this report on increased use of other abusive tactics, including holding family members hostage to force suspects, often with no charges or evidence, to turn themselves in, or threatening to charge some people in custody if they don't provide testimony, possibly false, against other people to implicate them, and some cases where the Palestinians refused to do so anyway. By this time these tactics were well known by Palestinians who dealt with them for decades. There were many cases where the detainees reported being beaten before they faced a judge, and after telling the judge what happened, sometimes because the judge asked about visible injuries, they were beaten again; and other cases where they didn't dare report about the beatings until after they were released. Some were jailed simply for expressing sympathy for Palestinian victims of Israeli terrorism, and all were considered "human animals" or "terrorists" simply because they were Palestinians, according to many of the witnesses or Human Rights workers.
Reading the full report and many other reports will make it clear how much more credible these reports are than Israel's denials, which have been widely and repeatedly debunked by many sources, usually from alternative media or Human Rights groups, but occasionally even by mainstream media, which is clearly biased in favor of Israel, but there are some things even they can't cover for. Below are excerpts from the reports that I read and reviewed, as well as links to many more reports which I haven't gotten to; feel free to read as many as you like or other reports you find on your own.
In addition to reading and reviewing these reports I also checked with Artificial Intelligence sources, mostly Google AI to confirm some thing or answer unanswered questions. As I indicated before, if anything Artificial Intelligence, including Google AI and Grok, are biased in favor of the establishment and Israel, so it shouldn't always be the last word. However, when even sources biased in favor of Israel implicate them that raises doubts about their credibility. Also, these AI sources often provide a list of their own sources which we can read through, in most cases I linked to those as well even if I didn't have time to read them all.
Among the facts that Google AI confirmed is the fact that there are even many IDF soldiers that came out and told the truth whether it was with the help of organizations like "Breaking the Silence" or by other means. Google AI provided additional confirmation about extensive use of Administrative Detention, the use of Human Shields, which is much more common among Israeli soldiers, false claims about Iraqi incubators, April Glaspie's meeting with Saddam Hussein and the fact that she recommended a media appearance to improve his image just before the invasion and indicated they might tolerate the invasion, biases about Maria Corina Machado, biases about Human Rights groups, a comparison of Human Rights Abuses before and after Chavez took power in Venezuela, Human Rights reports about abuse of children in Israel and the occupied territories, attempts by Israel's allies including Jonathan Greenblatt to censor critics, and attempts to smear Israel's critics.
Do Human Rights organizations have reports of Israeli torture of Palestinians going back years, if not decades or to the 1948 Nakba? 12/15/2025
Yes, human rights organizations have consistently documented allegations and produced extensive reports of Israeli authorities using torture and ill-treatment against Palestinian detainees for decades. These reports come from international bodies, such as the United Nations (UN) and Amnesty International, as well as Israeli human rights organizations like B'Tselem and the Public Committee Against Torture in Israel (PCATI).
Overview of Documentation
Decades of Documentation: Organizations like Amnesty International have documented widespread torture in Israeli detention facilities across the West Bank for decades.
Specific Practices: The reported methods have included severe beatings, prolonged use of painful stress positions, sleep deprivation, threats against family members, and various forms of psychological abuse.
Lack of Accountability: Human rights groups have frequently noted a lack of accountability, with a very low rate of criminal investigations and convictions concerning these allegations, which contributes to an environment of impunity.
Recent Escalation: Reports indicate a significant escalation of torture and inhumane treatment since the October 7, 2023, attacks, with new allegations of sexual violence, dog attacks, and systematic medical neglect.
Key Organizations and Reports
United Nations (UN): Multiple UN bodies, including the UN Committee Against Torture and the UN Human Rights Office, have published reports expressing deep concern over a "de facto state policy of organised and widespread torture" against Palestinian detainees. These reports are based on numerous testimonies and the findings of independent experts.
Amnesty International: For decades, Amnesty has issued reports detailing the use of torture and ill-treatment. A 1994 report specifically addressed torture and ill-treatment of political detainees. Recent reports from November 2023 highlight "horrifying cases of torture and degrading treatment" amid a spike in arrests.
B'Tselem: This prominent Israeli human rights organization has published detailed reports on the systemic abuse of Palestinian detainees, including the 2024 report titled "Welcome to Hell," which outlines physical, psychological, and sexual abuse.
Public Committee Against Torture in Israel (PCATI): PCATI has consistently reported on "special interrogation methods" used by Israeli security personnel, including stress positions and threats, and has advocated for specific legislation to criminalize torture, which Israel has yet to enact.
Human Rights Watch (HRW) and Physicians for Human Rights-Israel (PHRI): Both organizations have investigated and reported on the torture and ill-treatment of detainees, including healthcare workers, highlighting medical neglect and physical abuse as systemic issues.
While extensive documentation exists going back decades, specific, organized human rights reporting as known today was less formalized immediately following the 1948 Nakba. However, the documentation from recent decades establishes a long pattern of such practices. Complete article
Israel/OPT: Horrifying cases of torture and degrading treatment of Palestinian detainees amid spike in arbitrary arrests 11/08/2023 Torture and humiliation Amnesty International has for decades documented widespread torture by Israeli authorities in places of detention across the West Bank. However, over the past four weeks, videos and images have been shared widely online showing gruesome scenes of Israeli soldiers beating and humiliating Palestinians while detaining them blind-folded, stripped, with their hands tied, in a particularly chilling public display of torture and humiliation of Palestinian detainees.
Report: Abuse in Israeli jails caused deaths of more than 90 Palestinians 11/19/2025 Accusations that Israel has been torturing its prisoners, including United Nations staff, have run almost the length of the war. In August 2024, B’Tselem issued its report on the Israeli prison system titled “Welcome to Hell”, detailing the physical, psychological and sexual abuse meted out to Palestinians taken into Israeli custody. Both PHRI and HRW have also previously investigated the specific torture of healthcare workers by the Israeli military in stark contravention of international law. Among other instances of the brutal treatment were threats to cut prisoners’ hands off because “they were dentists” and forcing doctors to bray like donkeys.
Israel has ‘de facto state policy’ of organised torture, says UN report 11/29/2025 Committee highlights allegations including dog attacks and sexual violence, raising concern about impunity for war crimes
Israel: Palestinian Healthcare Workers Tortured 08/26/2024 ICC Prosecutor Should Investigate Attacks on Health Care, Detainee Abuses
£ISRAEL AND THE OCCUPIED TERRITORIES @Torture and ill-treatment of political detainees June 2021
Israel, Golan Heights, West Bank, and Gaza – West Bank and Gaza 2018 or a little later
Israel’s escalating use of torture against Palestinians in custody a preventable crime against humanity: UN experts 08/05/2024
UN report: Palestinian detainees held arbitrarily and secretly, subjected to torture and mistreatment – OHCHR 07/31/2024
Systemic torture and inhumane treatment of Palestinian detainees in Israeli prison facilities since October 7, 2023 02/16/2024
2022 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices: Israel, West Bank and Gaza
Israel systematically torturing 9,000 Palestinian prisoners: UN report 11/28/2025 Israeli prisons systematically torture approximately 9,000 Palestinian detainees according to a UN submission by Israeli human rights organizations. The report documents sexual assault, dog attacks, starvation, and scalding with boiling water, while revealing 94 Palestinian prisoners have died under interrogation since October 2023.
Former Palestinian detainee says Israeli torture practices appear to have increased in severity 08/06/2024 An Israeli human rights group has released a report detailing the mistreatment of Palestinians held in Israeli prisons since October the 7th. It said people have been systematically abused in Israeli prisons, calling them “de-facto torture camps”. Some violations include severe physical and sexual violence, humiliation, sleep deprivation and starvation. The number of Palestinians in Israeli jails has doubled to 9,623 since the war began. At least 60 have died in custody.
Yes, human rights organizations have consistently documented allegations and produced extensive reports of Israeli authorities using torture and ill-treatment against Palestinian detainees for decades. These reports come from international bodies, such as the United Nations (UN) and Amnesty International, as well as Israeli human rights organizations like B'Tselem and the Public Committee Against Torture in Israel (PCATI).
Overview of Documentation
Decades of Documentation: Organizations like Amnesty International have documented widespread torture in Israeli detention facilities across the West Bank for decades.
Specific Practices: The reported methods have included severe beatings, prolonged use of painful stress positions, sleep deprivation, threats against family members, and various forms of psychological abuse.
Lack of Accountability: Human rights groups have frequently noted a lack of accountability, with a very low rate of criminal investigations and convictions concerning these allegations, which contributes to an environment of impunity.
Recent Escalation: Reports indicate a significant escalation of torture and inhumane treatment since the October 7, 2023, attacks, with new allegations of sexual violence, dog attacks, and systematic medical neglect.
Key Organizations and Reports
United Nations (UN): Multiple UN bodies, including the UN Committee Against Torture and the UN Human Rights Office, have published reports expressing deep concern over a "de facto state policy of organised and widespread torture" against Palestinian detainees. These reports are based on numerous testimonies and the findings of independent experts.
Amnesty International: For decades, Amnesty has issued reports detailing the use of torture and ill-treatment. A 1994 report specifically addressed torture and ill-treatment of political detainees. Recent reports from November 2023 highlight "horrifying cases of torture and degrading treatment" amid a spike in arrests.
B'Tselem: This prominent Israeli human rights organization has published detailed reports on the systemic abuse of Palestinian detainees, including the 2024 report titled "Welcome to Hell," which outlines physical, psychological, and sexual abuse.
Public Committee Against Torture in Israel (PCATI): PCATI has consistently reported on "special interrogation methods" used by Israeli security personnel, including stress positions and threats, and has advocated for specific legislation to criminalize torture, which Israel has yet to enact.
Human Rights Watch (HRW) and Physicians for Human Rights-Israel (PHRI): Both organizations have investigated and reported on the torture and ill-treatment of detainees, including healthcare workers, highlighting medical neglect and physical abuse as systemic issues.
While extensive documentation exists going back decades, specific, organized human rights reporting as known today was less formalized immediately following the 1948 Nakba. However, the documentation from recent decades establishes a long pattern of such practices. Complete article
Israel/OPT: Horrifying cases of torture and degrading treatment of Palestinian detainees amid spike in arbitrary arrests 11/08/2023 Torture and humiliation Amnesty International has for decades documented widespread torture by Israeli authorities in places of detention across the West Bank. However, over the past four weeks, videos and images have been shared widely online showing gruesome scenes of Israeli soldiers beating and humiliating Palestinians while detaining them blind-folded, stripped, with their hands tied, in a particularly chilling public display of torture and humiliation of Palestinian detainees.
Report: Abuse in Israeli jails caused deaths of more than 90 Palestinians 11/19/2025 Accusations that Israel has been torturing its prisoners, including United Nations staff, have run almost the length of the war. In August 2024, B’Tselem issued its report on the Israeli prison system titled “Welcome to Hell”, detailing the physical, psychological and sexual abuse meted out to Palestinians taken into Israeli custody. Both PHRI and HRW have also previously investigated the specific torture of healthcare workers by the Israeli military in stark contravention of international law. Among other instances of the brutal treatment were threats to cut prisoners’ hands off because “they were dentists” and forcing doctors to bray like donkeys.
Israel has ‘de facto state policy’ of organised torture, says UN report 11/29/2025 Committee highlights allegations including dog attacks and sexual violence, raising concern about impunity for war crimes
Israel: Palestinian Healthcare Workers Tortured 08/26/2024 ICC Prosecutor Should Investigate Attacks on Health Care, Detainee Abuses
£ISRAEL AND THE OCCUPIED TERRITORIES @Torture and ill-treatment of political detainees June 2021
Israel, Golan Heights, West Bank, and Gaza – West Bank and Gaza 2018 or a little later
Israel’s escalating use of torture against Palestinians in custody a preventable crime against humanity: UN experts 08/05/2024
UN report: Palestinian detainees held arbitrarily and secretly, subjected to torture and mistreatment – OHCHR 07/31/2024
Systemic torture and inhumane treatment of Palestinian detainees in Israeli prison facilities since October 7, 2023 02/16/2024
2022 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices: Israel, West Bank and Gaza
Israel systematically torturing 9,000 Palestinian prisoners: UN report 11/28/2025 Israeli prisons systematically torture approximately 9,000 Palestinian detainees according to a UN submission by Israeli human rights organizations. The report documents sexual assault, dog attacks, starvation, and scalding with boiling water, while revealing 94 Palestinian prisoners have died under interrogation since October 2023.
Former Palestinian detainee says Israeli torture practices appear to have increased in severity 08/06/2024 An Israeli human rights group has released a report detailing the mistreatment of Palestinians held in Israeli prisons since October the 7th. It said people have been systematically abused in Israeli prisons, calling them “de-facto torture camps”. Some violations include severe physical and sexual violence, humiliation, sleep deprivation and starvation. The number of Palestinians in Israeli jails has doubled to 9,623 since the war began. At least 60 have died in custody.
Amnesty International, Report and Recommendations of an Amnesty International Mission to the Government of the State of Israel 1980
The Amnesty International delegation argued also that the procedures for holding security suspects made it extremely difficult for the Israeli courts or any other agency responsible for evaluating an allegation of ill-treatment to verify the allegation, even where it is well-founded. This is characteristic of any system in which arrested people are held for prolonged periods incommunicado. Under such conditions, the person making an allegation of ill-treatment cannot produce any witnesses to support the allegation, whereas the interrogators will be able to support one another in their denial.
This effect of the procedures, Amnesty International argued, gravely impares two most important safeguards against ill-treatment: the legal requirement that no statement taken from a suspect or witness be admitted in evidence if obtained by force, and the capacity of the government and non-goveernmental bodies to assess allegations and take action if they are shown to be well-founded.
The discussions between the Amnesty International delegation and the Israeli authorities in June 1979 did not alleviate Amnesty International's concern about any of these matters. p.vi
On 31 December 1979 the Attorney General of Israel sent Amnesty International a 15-page reply saying, in effect, that the government would not undertake the investigation or make the changes in procedures which the organization had recommended. The Attorney General's reply does not alleviate Amnesty International's concern about the deficiencies in procedures; in the present publication Amnesty International has responded to the Attorney General's reply, and reiterated the recomendations contained in the original Memorandum.
One aspect of the Attorney General's reply warrants a nse here so as to eliminate misunderstnading of Amnesty International's intentions: his suggestion that Amnesty International is Oblivious of the violence which has persisted in Israel and the Occupied Territories - violence which has led to loss of life and other forms of suffering by the victims, who are often innocent civilians.
Amnesty International does not condone crimes of violence, nor does it work for the release of people who are imprisoned for having committed acts of violence. On the contrary, it condemns assassinations and the taking of hostages by anti-governmental forces, and regards these as grave violations of the rights proclaimed in the Universal Declaration of Rights. At the same time, the international human rights standards, the observance of which Amnesty International seeks to achieve, require that no one be subjected to torture or cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment, and do not permit governments to justify such treatment by referring to the threat of violence to the government or the public. p.vii
Amnesty International was motivated in its decision to submit this memorandum by its view that the highest priority should be given to the search for measures to prevent the future ill-treatment of arrested persons. At the same time, Amnesty International noted with dismay that the Israeli authorities have not acceded to requests by Amnesty International for a public investigation into allegations of ill-treatment in their totality, and have restricted their inquiries instead to individual cases. In Amnesty International's view, official inquiries into individual cases of alleged ill-treatment are not an adequate response to these allegations; such inquiries are, by their nature, very selective and fail to address the central problem of those administrative and legal procedures which, as applied to arrested security suspects in the Occupied Territories, permit such allegations to arise. It remains the view of Amnesty International that the Israeli authorities should initiate a thorough investigation into such allegations and the relevant administrative and legal procedures, drawing on all sources of information germane to the matter, and publish the results of the inquiry. p.2
(2)The International League of Human Rights and the International Association of Catholic Jurists, Pax Romana. The team of three investigators, in their 1978 report, concluded that: "Invividual acts of illtreatment (blows, detention under brutal conditions, perhaps torture in its strict sense) were committed on suspects under interrogation or in preventive detention." * p6-7
(3) The United States-based National Lawyers Guild. In its 1978 report on an investigation carried out in 1977, the National Lawyers Guild concluded that: "substantial evidence exists that torture has been used in numerous instances." .....
* The study goes on to say that, "Frequent use of torture or illtreatment is usually inseparable from the existence of secret interrogation and detention centres and from prisoner disappearances. Nothing of the sort ... has ever been mentioned in Israel nor in the Occupied Territories. This observation excludes even further the existence of a deliberate policy." In Amnesty International's view, neither disappearances nor secret interrogation and detention centres are necessary concomitants of torture: see the June 1978 report of an Amnesty International mission to Northern Ireland which presents documentary evidence of ill-treatment in Northern Ireland, where disappearances and secret centres of interrogation and detention play no role. Also, secret interrogation centres and prolonged disappearances occur in Israel: see, for example, the numerous press reports on the cases of two German citizens, Brigitte Schulz and Thomas Reuter, held for 14 months fram January 1976 to March 1977, at a detention centre whose location is still secret, and during which time no representative of theirs was informed of their whereabouts despite persistent inquiries from their parents. p.7
Josef Odeh had stated to the Sunday Times that his daughter, when in custody, had been threatened with rape and that an object had been thrust into her vagina in his presence. The Israeli response was that "in the (Sunday Times) article, there is no attempt to verify the incident ... no mention of any complaint ... no mention of any request for a medical examination ... no mention of any names ..." "Israel emphatically and categorically denies that this incident (and other incidents) occcurred - it is the warped imagination of a sick mind." p.9-10
.... Harb's lawyer, Felicia Langer .... p.11
The Israeli response to the Sunday Times article stated that "In Israel ... a statement to the police containing a confession needs corroborative evidence and it is impossible to obtain a conviction based on a confession alone." This statement, and the one made by State Attorney Bach in his press conference that "there must be some additional evidence that indicates to the court that it can safely rely on the confession", differs from several made to the Amnesty International delegates during meetings with the Israeli authorities in June 1979. p.12
The Israeli response to allegations of ill-treatment and, most specifically, to those brought by the Sunday Times, leaves many questions unanswered. In particular, although Amnesty International recognizes the difficulty inherent in proving that certain alleged events did not occur, we are particularly disturbed that the response of the Israeli authorities has not provided a convincing refutation even in those very few selected cases which the have chosen to address directly. This not only casts serious doubt on the general denials offered by the authorities to allegations of ill-treatment, but substantially weakens their assertion that sufficient safeguards exist in the military court system and in relevant administrative practices to protect individuals in custody. p.13
After breakfast the next day, I was taken to the interrogation room which had one table and two chairs. The interrogator asked me to speak and I answered, "I did nothing." He said, "Now I will force you to speak."
I was sitting on the chair in front of the desk and now he came and sat on the front of the desk, near me. He placed one of his feet on my genitals and pressed down on them whenever he felt like it. With the other foot he periodically kicked me in the face. The pressure on my genitals increased - it became very painful. At the same time he began to threaten me that my brother would be dismissed from his job. This treatment lasted for about two hours.
Then my dossier arrived, and now the interrogator saw that I had been under interrogation several times before. I think the job of the first interrogator was just to throw fear into me. Now two other people were brought in to interrogate me. My hands were tied behind my back, to the chair. They began to beat me on the head and arms. One of them was beating me with a rope. This lasted about five hours. When I was sent back to my cell, my nose was bleeding, there was blood all over the inside of my mouth, and my genitals were blue. p.14
Now I was taken to the interrogators, and all I wanted to do was sleep. MY head fell on the desk, and the questioning began: about the PLO, Palestine Week, Sadat, my friends. I talked to them, but I was very sleepy. They wanted a confession that I was a member of the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine, but I denied this. They began to hit me. They stood me next to the wall and tied my hands to the window. Then they pulled my legs away from the window so that the weight of my whole body was on my hands, and the handcuffs started to cut my skin. Then they put salt in my mouth, a lot of it. And one of them put his hand over my mouth so that I had to swallow same of the salt. And then they forced me to lie down, and stepped on me, and beat my genitals with a club. All of this took about one hour. Then I was returned to my cell, and allowed to sleep that night.
The next day I got the same treatment, for About three hours. I felt almost unconscious for most of the time.
This interrogation continued in this way for seven days. Finally I signed a confession to membership in the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine, to their political wing, not the military wing. p.16
After about an hour and a half, the same soldier returned, with two European soldiers with him. He seized one of the students, threw him to the ground, and stepped on his head. Then he took out his penis and urinated on him. The situation was that way all the first day and all the first night. No one wns permitted to sit on the ground. p.17
They took me for interrigation again. This time, in the beginning the interrogator tempted me with money. He told me, "Ask what you want, and you will find it before you." I told him, "I don't need all these things." Also in the room were the same soldiers who beat me on the previous day. After he tried to tempt me and I refused, he turned me over to the three soldiers for beating. An Israeli soldier seized me and pulled me up to the wall, my hands raised, for an hour. After the soldiers and the interrogator had taken their lunch, they returned to me. One of the soldiers put a wooden stick in my rectum and beat it. Then another soldier seized me and put my hands behind the chair and pressed them. He took a very sharp knife and wounded me in the palm of my hand. The traces of that in until now. After that, the interrogator tried to force me to confess. I told him that I had done absolutely nothing. After that, I was returned to the same roam in which I had been, and that was as before. After the interrogation had lasted two and one half hours, they took me there. .....
After about 10 days, they took us to court. We faced the judge. The trial was in Hebrew, and there was an interpreter, but he did not translate everything. We denied the Charges and did not confess to anything, although there were some students who confessed. However, in the court they repudiated the confessions on the ground that the confessions were written in Hebrew and were false, and they had been forced to sign the confessions by torture. We were not sentenced on the first day. On the second day, we went to court and were sentenced either to six months' imprisonment or to pay a fine of 5,000 Israeli pounds. p.18
Official Israeli denials of allegations of ill-treatment notwithstanding, the persistent nature of these allegations causes Amnesty International serious concern. While it may be true, as the authorities claim, that some of these allegations have been falsely brought to serve as ammunition in a propaganda campaign, it is also true that official rebuttals are not convincing and do not seriously weaken the allegations. Furthermore, since most of the allegations refer to the period immediately after arrest and many are related to an accused challenging his or her own confession and conviction, two central issues arise in considering the legal and administrative measures applied to arrested suspects: .... p.22
The Israeli authorities explained in the course of their meeting with the Amnesty International delegates that interrogation of suspects in Israel and the Occupied Territories is regulated by the Judges' Rules, a non-statutory but binding set of rules drawn up and applied in England and retained in Israel after the Mandate period. Paragraph (c) of the Introduction to the Judges' Rules states clearly the right of arrested persons to have access to a lawyer, but also makes temporary deprivation of this right possible in certain circumstances: "That every person at any stage of an investigation should be able to comunicate with and consult privately with a solicitor. This is so even if he is in custody, provided that in such a case no unreasonable delay or hindrance is caused to the processes of investigation or the administration of justice by his doing so." Israeli officials told the Amnesty International delegation that, in many cases, the aims of the investigation could not be fulfilled if arrested security suspects were allowed speedy access to a lawyer. They also remarked that the right to early access to lawyers could in practice be denied in accordance with the concluding passage of paragraph (c) of the Judges' Rules, cited above. p.23-4
Furthermore, although the authorities told Amnesty International's delegates that the accused is represented by a lawyer at the time of appearance before a judge after a maximum of 18 days, both ex-prisoners and lawyers alike point out that there is frequently little or no consultation between lawyer and suspect before this appearance. In practice, the one meeting between lawyer and defendant prior to the appearance before a judge involves only the formal conferral of a power of attorney. It is quite common, therefore, for no substantive encounter between accused and lawyer to have taken place from the moment of arrest until a confession has been given and even until the prisoner has been charged. Even after this, consultation is permitted only at the discretion of the detaining authorities and a number of lawyers have informed Amnesty International that, in their view, they are often denied the consultation with their clients necessary for preparing an adequate defence. p.24
Equally important, however, is that in where confessions themselves provide the major and perhaps the only admissible evidence, and where the prosecution may secure a conviction solely on the basis of such a confession, there is great incentive for interrogators to resort to brutal interrogation methods in order to obtain confessions. p.32
Israeli authorities took pains to point out to the Amnesty International delegates that during little trial proceedings to examine complaints of ill-treatment the burden of proof is on the prosecution to show that the accused person's confession was given voluntarily. In spite of this, as far as is known to Amnesty International, confessions contested in this way have been ruled ' admissible in a great majority of cases. The defendant who alleges ill-treatment is likely to have little or no evidence for the allegation; under present procedures, it is difficult to see how this could be otherwise. The defendant may have been denied access to family and lawyer throughout he period of alleged ill-treatment and has prdbably had only cursory and weakly documented medical examinations. Only he or she can bear witness to the allegations, whereas the several interrogating officers - the object of the complaint - will testify to the contrary. p.33-4
There is further support for the view that not only is access to telling evidence in such matters heavily weighted in favour of the prosecution, but the attitude of the military courts seems weighted in the same direction. Eye-witnesses to military trials, and to "little trials" in particular, have stated that "the Israeli military authorities made no real effort to investigate the charges of mistreatment. Indeed, both the military judge and the prosecutor made it clear throughout the trial that they considered the questions of mdstreatment and coercion to be irrelevant and trivial." Judges have been heard to state, before the evidence for ill-treatment is actually presented, that they "doubt the defence's claim of mistreatment", and have frequently conveyed the impression that investigation into such claims is "a waste of time.* p.35
The Israeli authorities repeatedly told the Amnesty International delegates in June 1979 that, while almost all allegations of ill-treatment were totally without foundation, and while in a very few isolated cases there had indeed been same ill-treatment, in every case brought to the attention of the authorities a full investigation had been carried out. If this is so, then the authorities are certainly not taking the steps necessary to convince the public that the investigations are thorough and sincere, and they are also leaving unconvinced those individuals and groups who register the complaints. Indeed, several members of the Knesset and a number of individuals outside the govenment have expressed great concern at the way in which the parties against whom complaints were lodged were "investigating themselves". p.40
Not only has the role of defence counsel been very limited - and often non-existent - prior to the trial, but at the trial itself the accused is more likely than not to be judged by a panel of three career army officers, only one of whom need have had legal training, and whose fairness and impartiality are open to question. The case for the prosecution may rest solely on a confession elicited under shadowy circumstances and the accused is very poorly placed to shed light on these. The "little trial" which may be held to examine the confession will be heard by military officers whose attitude toward the allegations made by the accused is, even when it is serious, already sceptical. p.41
We need hardly point out to Amnesty International that Israel's situation in the administered areas is not one of a normal state of peace, in which the application by any Government of the principles of human rights can be applied without reference to these extraordinary circumstances. International Law has always recognized that in governing of areas under military rule after a period of armed conflict, in addition to ensuring the welfare of the local population, the administration also has a clear duty to protect its own population against the dangers of disorder and terrorism. In these circumstances, the question of human rights takes on a very different complexion. We have reminded Amnesty International on more than one occasion that every country in the free world has at some time faced the need, during periods of hostility, to counter the activities of armed terrorists, even when it was impossible to follow regular judicial procedure prevailing in time of peace. p.45
With respect to the National Lawyers' Guild Report, it is somewhat surprising that Amnesty International has lent such credence to their conclusions, in light of the fact - recently confirmed by a United States Court in the matter of the extradition of Ziyad Abu Eain - that the Guild's mission to the Middle East and the publication of their Report, were partly financed by none other than the "Palestine Liberation Organization". One might have expected a reference to this rather salient point, and to the fact that there was also published a detailed Minority Report which rejected in toto, the methodology, the findings and the eventual conclusions contatned in the Report of the Majority. Amnesty International has completely ignored this Minority Report. p.48
It is perhaps worthwhile to keep in mind the fact that the question of access of lawyers to individuals uspected of having committed acts of terrorism, must be examined in the context of the realities of the prevailing situation, and not from an isolated point of view. In such circumstances, international lows including in particular Article 5 of the Geneva Convention, recognizes that a State may modify such ordinary procedures as immediate access to lawyers, in the light of its legitimate concern to protect the civilian population from the scourge of terrorism. Thus, during preliminary interrogation by security authorities -an interrogation aimed at ascertaining general information and intelligence in order to foil further acts of terrorism - immediate access by a lawyer is accordingly limited. However, Israel has nevertheless endeavoured to provide security detainees with reasonable access to a lawyer as set out in Article 11 of the Operation of Gaols Order (Judaea and Samaria), 1967, as follows: p.54
Israel totally rejects out of hand the suggestion that the composition of Israel's military courts in any sense diminishes the quality of justice provided or taints the proceedings with a political character. ......
Second, Amnesty International is surely aware of the fact that in Israel one is forbidden by law during the whole period of military service from taking any active part in politics, and that political views are completely irrelevant to anything connected with one's military service. p.59 Complete Report
The Amnesty International delegation argued also that the procedures for holding security suspects made it extremely difficult for the Israeli courts or any other agency responsible for evaluating an allegation of ill-treatment to verify the allegation, even where it is well-founded. This is characteristic of any system in which arrested people are held for prolonged periods incommunicado. Under such conditions, the person making an allegation of ill-treatment cannot produce any witnesses to support the allegation, whereas the interrogators will be able to support one another in their denial.
This effect of the procedures, Amnesty International argued, gravely impares two most important safeguards against ill-treatment: the legal requirement that no statement taken from a suspect or witness be admitted in evidence if obtained by force, and the capacity of the government and non-goveernmental bodies to assess allegations and take action if they are shown to be well-founded.
The discussions between the Amnesty International delegation and the Israeli authorities in June 1979 did not alleviate Amnesty International's concern about any of these matters. p.vi
On 31 December 1979 the Attorney General of Israel sent Amnesty International a 15-page reply saying, in effect, that the government would not undertake the investigation or make the changes in procedures which the organization had recommended. The Attorney General's reply does not alleviate Amnesty International's concern about the deficiencies in procedures; in the present publication Amnesty International has responded to the Attorney General's reply, and reiterated the recomendations contained in the original Memorandum.
One aspect of the Attorney General's reply warrants a nse here so as to eliminate misunderstnading of Amnesty International's intentions: his suggestion that Amnesty International is Oblivious of the violence which has persisted in Israel and the Occupied Territories - violence which has led to loss of life and other forms of suffering by the victims, who are often innocent civilians.
Amnesty International does not condone crimes of violence, nor does it work for the release of people who are imprisoned for having committed acts of violence. On the contrary, it condemns assassinations and the taking of hostages by anti-governmental forces, and regards these as grave violations of the rights proclaimed in the Universal Declaration of Rights. At the same time, the international human rights standards, the observance of which Amnesty International seeks to achieve, require that no one be subjected to torture or cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment, and do not permit governments to justify such treatment by referring to the threat of violence to the government or the public. p.vii
Amnesty International was motivated in its decision to submit this memorandum by its view that the highest priority should be given to the search for measures to prevent the future ill-treatment of arrested persons. At the same time, Amnesty International noted with dismay that the Israeli authorities have not acceded to requests by Amnesty International for a public investigation into allegations of ill-treatment in their totality, and have restricted their inquiries instead to individual cases. In Amnesty International's view, official inquiries into individual cases of alleged ill-treatment are not an adequate response to these allegations; such inquiries are, by their nature, very selective and fail to address the central problem of those administrative and legal procedures which, as applied to arrested security suspects in the Occupied Territories, permit such allegations to arise. It remains the view of Amnesty International that the Israeli authorities should initiate a thorough investigation into such allegations and the relevant administrative and legal procedures, drawing on all sources of information germane to the matter, and publish the results of the inquiry. p.2
(2)The International League of Human Rights and the International Association of Catholic Jurists, Pax Romana. The team of three investigators, in their 1978 report, concluded that: "Invividual acts of illtreatment (blows, detention under brutal conditions, perhaps torture in its strict sense) were committed on suspects under interrogation or in preventive detention." * p6-7
(3) The United States-based National Lawyers Guild. In its 1978 report on an investigation carried out in 1977, the National Lawyers Guild concluded that: "substantial evidence exists that torture has been used in numerous instances." .....
* The study goes on to say that, "Frequent use of torture or illtreatment is usually inseparable from the existence of secret interrogation and detention centres and from prisoner disappearances. Nothing of the sort ... has ever been mentioned in Israel nor in the Occupied Territories. This observation excludes even further the existence of a deliberate policy." In Amnesty International's view, neither disappearances nor secret interrogation and detention centres are necessary concomitants of torture: see the June 1978 report of an Amnesty International mission to Northern Ireland which presents documentary evidence of ill-treatment in Northern Ireland, where disappearances and secret centres of interrogation and detention play no role. Also, secret interrogation centres and prolonged disappearances occur in Israel: see, for example, the numerous press reports on the cases of two German citizens, Brigitte Schulz and Thomas Reuter, held for 14 months fram January 1976 to March 1977, at a detention centre whose location is still secret, and during which time no representative of theirs was informed of their whereabouts despite persistent inquiries from their parents. p.7
Josef Odeh had stated to the Sunday Times that his daughter, when in custody, had been threatened with rape and that an object had been thrust into her vagina in his presence. The Israeli response was that "in the (Sunday Times) article, there is no attempt to verify the incident ... no mention of any complaint ... no mention of any request for a medical examination ... no mention of any names ..." "Israel emphatically and categorically denies that this incident (and other incidents) occcurred - it is the warped imagination of a sick mind." p.9-10
.... Harb's lawyer, Felicia Langer .... p.11
The Israeli response to the Sunday Times article stated that "In Israel ... a statement to the police containing a confession needs corroborative evidence and it is impossible to obtain a conviction based on a confession alone." This statement, and the one made by State Attorney Bach in his press conference that "there must be some additional evidence that indicates to the court that it can safely rely on the confession", differs from several made to the Amnesty International delegates during meetings with the Israeli authorities in June 1979. p.12
The Israeli response to allegations of ill-treatment and, most specifically, to those brought by the Sunday Times, leaves many questions unanswered. In particular, although Amnesty International recognizes the difficulty inherent in proving that certain alleged events did not occur, we are particularly disturbed that the response of the Israeli authorities has not provided a convincing refutation even in those very few selected cases which the have chosen to address directly. This not only casts serious doubt on the general denials offered by the authorities to allegations of ill-treatment, but substantially weakens their assertion that sufficient safeguards exist in the military court system and in relevant administrative practices to protect individuals in custody. p.13
After breakfast the next day, I was taken to the interrogation room which had one table and two chairs. The interrogator asked me to speak and I answered, "I did nothing." He said, "Now I will force you to speak."
I was sitting on the chair in front of the desk and now he came and sat on the front of the desk, near me. He placed one of his feet on my genitals and pressed down on them whenever he felt like it. With the other foot he periodically kicked me in the face. The pressure on my genitals increased - it became very painful. At the same time he began to threaten me that my brother would be dismissed from his job. This treatment lasted for about two hours.
Then my dossier arrived, and now the interrogator saw that I had been under interrogation several times before. I think the job of the first interrogator was just to throw fear into me. Now two other people were brought in to interrogate me. My hands were tied behind my back, to the chair. They began to beat me on the head and arms. One of them was beating me with a rope. This lasted about five hours. When I was sent back to my cell, my nose was bleeding, there was blood all over the inside of my mouth, and my genitals were blue. p.14
Now I was taken to the interrogators, and all I wanted to do was sleep. MY head fell on the desk, and the questioning began: about the PLO, Palestine Week, Sadat, my friends. I talked to them, but I was very sleepy. They wanted a confession that I was a member of the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine, but I denied this. They began to hit me. They stood me next to the wall and tied my hands to the window. Then they pulled my legs away from the window so that the weight of my whole body was on my hands, and the handcuffs started to cut my skin. Then they put salt in my mouth, a lot of it. And one of them put his hand over my mouth so that I had to swallow same of the salt. And then they forced me to lie down, and stepped on me, and beat my genitals with a club. All of this took about one hour. Then I was returned to my cell, and allowed to sleep that night.
The next day I got the same treatment, for About three hours. I felt almost unconscious for most of the time.
This interrogation continued in this way for seven days. Finally I signed a confession to membership in the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine, to their political wing, not the military wing. p.16
After about an hour and a half, the same soldier returned, with two European soldiers with him. He seized one of the students, threw him to the ground, and stepped on his head. Then he took out his penis and urinated on him. The situation was that way all the first day and all the first night. No one wns permitted to sit on the ground. p.17
They took me for interrigation again. This time, in the beginning the interrogator tempted me with money. He told me, "Ask what you want, and you will find it before you." I told him, "I don't need all these things." Also in the room were the same soldiers who beat me on the previous day. After he tried to tempt me and I refused, he turned me over to the three soldiers for beating. An Israeli soldier seized me and pulled me up to the wall, my hands raised, for an hour. After the soldiers and the interrogator had taken their lunch, they returned to me. One of the soldiers put a wooden stick in my rectum and beat it. Then another soldier seized me and put my hands behind the chair and pressed them. He took a very sharp knife and wounded me in the palm of my hand. The traces of that in until now. After that, the interrogator tried to force me to confess. I told him that I had done absolutely nothing. After that, I was returned to the same roam in which I had been, and that was as before. After the interrogation had lasted two and one half hours, they took me there. .....
After about 10 days, they took us to court. We faced the judge. The trial was in Hebrew, and there was an interpreter, but he did not translate everything. We denied the Charges and did not confess to anything, although there were some students who confessed. However, in the court they repudiated the confessions on the ground that the confessions were written in Hebrew and were false, and they had been forced to sign the confessions by torture. We were not sentenced on the first day. On the second day, we went to court and were sentenced either to six months' imprisonment or to pay a fine of 5,000 Israeli pounds. p.18
Official Israeli denials of allegations of ill-treatment notwithstanding, the persistent nature of these allegations causes Amnesty International serious concern. While it may be true, as the authorities claim, that some of these allegations have been falsely brought to serve as ammunition in a propaganda campaign, it is also true that official rebuttals are not convincing and do not seriously weaken the allegations. Furthermore, since most of the allegations refer to the period immediately after arrest and many are related to an accused challenging his or her own confession and conviction, two central issues arise in considering the legal and administrative measures applied to arrested suspects: .... p.22
The Israeli authorities explained in the course of their meeting with the Amnesty International delegates that interrogation of suspects in Israel and the Occupied Territories is regulated by the Judges' Rules, a non-statutory but binding set of rules drawn up and applied in England and retained in Israel after the Mandate period. Paragraph (c) of the Introduction to the Judges' Rules states clearly the right of arrested persons to have access to a lawyer, but also makes temporary deprivation of this right possible in certain circumstances: "That every person at any stage of an investigation should be able to comunicate with and consult privately with a solicitor. This is so even if he is in custody, provided that in such a case no unreasonable delay or hindrance is caused to the processes of investigation or the administration of justice by his doing so." Israeli officials told the Amnesty International delegation that, in many cases, the aims of the investigation could not be fulfilled if arrested security suspects were allowed speedy access to a lawyer. They also remarked that the right to early access to lawyers could in practice be denied in accordance with the concluding passage of paragraph (c) of the Judges' Rules, cited above. p.23-4
Furthermore, although the authorities told Amnesty International's delegates that the accused is represented by a lawyer at the time of appearance before a judge after a maximum of 18 days, both ex-prisoners and lawyers alike point out that there is frequently little or no consultation between lawyer and suspect before this appearance. In practice, the one meeting between lawyer and defendant prior to the appearance before a judge involves only the formal conferral of a power of attorney. It is quite common, therefore, for no substantive encounter between accused and lawyer to have taken place from the moment of arrest until a confession has been given and even until the prisoner has been charged. Even after this, consultation is permitted only at the discretion of the detaining authorities and a number of lawyers have informed Amnesty International that, in their view, they are often denied the consultation with their clients necessary for preparing an adequate defence. p.24
Equally important, however, is that in where confessions themselves provide the major and perhaps the only admissible evidence, and where the prosecution may secure a conviction solely on the basis of such a confession, there is great incentive for interrogators to resort to brutal interrogation methods in order to obtain confessions. p.32
Israeli authorities took pains to point out to the Amnesty International delegates that during little trial proceedings to examine complaints of ill-treatment the burden of proof is on the prosecution to show that the accused person's confession was given voluntarily. In spite of this, as far as is known to Amnesty International, confessions contested in this way have been ruled ' admissible in a great majority of cases. The defendant who alleges ill-treatment is likely to have little or no evidence for the allegation; under present procedures, it is difficult to see how this could be otherwise. The defendant may have been denied access to family and lawyer throughout he period of alleged ill-treatment and has prdbably had only cursory and weakly documented medical examinations. Only he or she can bear witness to the allegations, whereas the several interrogating officers - the object of the complaint - will testify to the contrary. p.33-4
There is further support for the view that not only is access to telling evidence in such matters heavily weighted in favour of the prosecution, but the attitude of the military courts seems weighted in the same direction. Eye-witnesses to military trials, and to "little trials" in particular, have stated that "the Israeli military authorities made no real effort to investigate the charges of mistreatment. Indeed, both the military judge and the prosecutor made it clear throughout the trial that they considered the questions of mdstreatment and coercion to be irrelevant and trivial." Judges have been heard to state, before the evidence for ill-treatment is actually presented, that they "doubt the defence's claim of mistreatment", and have frequently conveyed the impression that investigation into such claims is "a waste of time.* p.35
The Israeli authorities repeatedly told the Amnesty International delegates in June 1979 that, while almost all allegations of ill-treatment were totally without foundation, and while in a very few isolated cases there had indeed been same ill-treatment, in every case brought to the attention of the authorities a full investigation had been carried out. If this is so, then the authorities are certainly not taking the steps necessary to convince the public that the investigations are thorough and sincere, and they are also leaving unconvinced those individuals and groups who register the complaints. Indeed, several members of the Knesset and a number of individuals outside the govenment have expressed great concern at the way in which the parties against whom complaints were lodged were "investigating themselves". p.40
Not only has the role of defence counsel been very limited - and often non-existent - prior to the trial, but at the trial itself the accused is more likely than not to be judged by a panel of three career army officers, only one of whom need have had legal training, and whose fairness and impartiality are open to question. The case for the prosecution may rest solely on a confession elicited under shadowy circumstances and the accused is very poorly placed to shed light on these. The "little trial" which may be held to examine the confession will be heard by military officers whose attitude toward the allegations made by the accused is, even when it is serious, already sceptical. p.41
We need hardly point out to Amnesty International that Israel's situation in the administered areas is not one of a normal state of peace, in which the application by any Government of the principles of human rights can be applied without reference to these extraordinary circumstances. International Law has always recognized that in governing of areas under military rule after a period of armed conflict, in addition to ensuring the welfare of the local population, the administration also has a clear duty to protect its own population against the dangers of disorder and terrorism. In these circumstances, the question of human rights takes on a very different complexion. We have reminded Amnesty International on more than one occasion that every country in the free world has at some time faced the need, during periods of hostility, to counter the activities of armed terrorists, even when it was impossible to follow regular judicial procedure prevailing in time of peace. p.45
With respect to the National Lawyers' Guild Report, it is somewhat surprising that Amnesty International has lent such credence to their conclusions, in light of the fact - recently confirmed by a United States Court in the matter of the extradition of Ziyad Abu Eain - that the Guild's mission to the Middle East and the publication of their Report, were partly financed by none other than the "Palestine Liberation Organization". One might have expected a reference to this rather salient point, and to the fact that there was also published a detailed Minority Report which rejected in toto, the methodology, the findings and the eventual conclusions contatned in the Report of the Majority. Amnesty International has completely ignored this Minority Report. p.48
It is perhaps worthwhile to keep in mind the fact that the question of access of lawyers to individuals uspected of having committed acts of terrorism, must be examined in the context of the realities of the prevailing situation, and not from an isolated point of view. In such circumstances, international lows including in particular Article 5 of the Geneva Convention, recognizes that a State may modify such ordinary procedures as immediate access to lawyers, in the light of its legitimate concern to protect the civilian population from the scourge of terrorism. Thus, during preliminary interrogation by security authorities -an interrogation aimed at ascertaining general information and intelligence in order to foil further acts of terrorism - immediate access by a lawyer is accordingly limited. However, Israel has nevertheless endeavoured to provide security detainees with reasonable access to a lawyer as set out in Article 11 of the Operation of Gaols Order (Judaea and Samaria), 1967, as follows: p.54
Israel totally rejects out of hand the suggestion that the composition of Israel's military courts in any sense diminishes the quality of justice provided or taints the proceedings with a political character. ......
Second, Amnesty International is surely aware of the fact that in Israel one is forbidden by law during the whole period of military service from taking any active part in politics, and that political views are completely irrelevant to anything connected with one's military service. p.59 Complete Report
B’Tselem The Interrogation of Palestinians during the Intifada: Ill-treatment, “Moderate Physical Pressure” or Torture? 1991
Within this tradition, definitions of torture have been formulated both for legal purposes (to draft prohibitions and regulations) and for research (to estimate the extent and nature of the phenomenon). The standard and authoritative definition appears in the 1975 United Nations Declaration Against Torture:
(i) According to "The Tokyo Declaration" (the Guidelines for Medical Doctors Concerning Torture) issued by the World Medical Association in Tokyo in 1975, doctors are not allowed to condone or participate in any acts related to torture or to other cruel, inhuman and degrading punishments. p.12
The formal position under Military Law (in general) and as applied in the Occupied Territories, is that unless stated otherwise, the same laws and precedents apply. Section 477 of the Military Justice Law (1955) states that: "A military court shall not admit the confession of an accused as evidence unless it is convinced that the accused made it of his own free will." In fact however, however, Military Courts have been given wide powers to ignore such limitations. According to Article 9 of Military Order No.378 "...a Military Court is authorized to deviate from the laws of evidence for special reasons which shall be recorded, if it seems necessary to do so." In practice, the Courts in the Territories rarely have to invoke this formal discretion. Faced with a defendant claims that coercion was used to extract a confession, Military Court judges either simply refuse to believe this version or rule that any admitted coercion did not violate the criterion of free will. p.18
Article 78 of the Order provides that immediately following arrest, a person may be detained for up to 18 days without coming before a court. This is Stage One. (In East Jerusalem, according to Israeli Law, the period is 48 hours. Our description below concentrates on the Territories). At the end of this 18 day period, the detainee must be released if he/she has not been charged, unless a judge extends the period. In practice, the Shin Bet (directly or through the police) usually requests this extension and the military judges almost automatically comply. p.19
The Landau Report is an important and complex document that deserves a much fuller exposition than we can provide here. It consists of two Parts. Part One reviews the nature of G.S.S. activity, particularly during the period of 1971 onwards. It describes the "facts" about Hostile Terrorist Activity (HTA). the giving of false testimony about confessions obtained by G.S.S. methods and the justifications for the use of physical pressure during interrogation. Part Two is secret and remains unpublished. It gives more details about G.S.S. operations in the past and lays down the exact guidelines for permissible interrogation methods. p.22
The question of false testimony (as raised publicly by the Nafsu case) occupies a larger part of the report's survey [Paras. 2.22-2.53] than the interrogation methods themselves. The Commission suggests that between 1967 1971 ־ , confessions presented in court were obtained legally and accepted in good faith. From 1971 onwards, however - when more confessions were challenged in court, calling for more "trials within trials" - the G.S.S. began consistently lying to the Courts by denying that it had used physical force to extract confessions. The Commission makes it clear that such methods (even if permitted at the time) would appear in court as violating the criterion of free will and hence render the confession inadmissible [Para. 2.26]. The solution to what the commission calls a "dilemma" - that admitting to the use of pressure would lead to an acquittal - was simply to lie. p.22-3
The actual nature of interrogation methods used in the past, receives almost no coverage in the public part of the Landau Report compared with the discussion about false testimony. This is partly because "security reasons" necessitate describing these methods only in the secret Part Two, but also because the report's "utter condemnation" of past practices refers to perjury and not to the methods of interrogation themselves "which are largely to be defended, both morally and legally" [Para. 1.8]. In other words, it is permissible to use pressure - but not to lie about it. How does the Commission arrive at this conclusion?
The report presents two subjects as a "description of facts" (Chapter 2). The first. Terrorist Organizations and the Armed Struggle," is a political analysis of Israel's security situation. This describes the dangers posed by Hostile Terrorist Activity (HTA) by organizations such as the Palestinian Liberation Organization whose objective is "the destruction of the State of Israel" [Para. 2.9]. The second is an account of the difficulties faced by the G.S.S., in this political context, of obtaining information during interrogation. Unlike regular criminal investigation, the aim is often general intelligence gathering, rather than obtaining an individual conviction (although this is also important as a deterrent and to take terrorists out of circulation). There is seldom any other independent evidence and the information has to be obtained from recalcitrant suspects, hostile to the authorities and trained to resist pressure. p.24
The defense of necessity is as old as torture itself and can always be used by any regime, under any situation. Anyway, if there is a real and imminent danger, it is not clear why only "moderate" force should be used, given that more severe methods will be more effective. By insisting on some limitation, the Commission must have sensed the weakness of the purely utilitarian defense of necessity. .....
The moral-legal issues aside, the "ticking-bomb" example is indeed hypothetical: no known case like this has been recorded in Israel's history. Most interrogations are not aimed at extracting direct information of this sort. As our research shows, force is routinely used in interrogations where the charge or suspicion covers allegations such as assault, stone-throwing, belonging to an illegal organization or even participating in a demonstration. Many interrogations are not even aimed at extracting a confession to secure a conviction. Their purpose is general information gathering, random deterrence, intimidation or harm for its own sake. Note also that those being questioned are only suspects whose guilt cannot be presumed. According to the Commission itself, nearly 50% of interrogations end up with no charges being pressed, or any other steps taken against the detainee. p.27
(c) Conclusions: "Moderate Force" or Torture?
The Commission goes out of its way to explain that by justifying "psychological pressure" and "moderate physical pressure" it is not justifying torture. This linguistic exercise, however, hides the reality not just of the pre-1987 practices, but the methods since practiced [see below] and, presumably, allowed in the report's secret section. This exercise was needed precisely because Israel, like other societies faced with similar moral conflicts to which the Commission was indeed so sensitive,19 could hardly be seen to justify "torture." At several points, the Commission repeats its concern about the image of the state: p.30
It is impossible to show a direct causal connection between the Commission's recommendations and the ill-treatment of Palestinians interrogated in the subsequent three years. The Intifada began in this exact period. Other observers argue that the Shin Bet continued its work without much reference to the Commission. But whatever the actual connection, it is clear that despite the Commission's stated intentions, the use of torture and ill-treatment follows logically from its recommendations. Despite its professed aim to "regulate" rather than freely permit, to lay down restrictions rather than give a carte blanche, the Commission gave the Shin Bet what it wanted: the stamp of kashrut. In the words of the leading legal critic of the report, Professor Mordechai Kremnitzer (now Dean of the Hebrew University Law School), the "intent to injure with a wrongful objective" is now:
Amnesty also noted reports of beatings, citing the example of Nassim Abd al-Jalil 'Odeh Ahmad Daoud, who was arrested on January 30, 1982 and interrogated about his activities as a member of al-Fatah. He alleged that while hooded, handcuffed and sometimes stripped naked, he was (over a period of two weeks) beaten all over the body, including the genitals, with clubs and fists. His head was also repeatedly hit and banged against the wall. p.32-3
In the same year as the Amnesty Report, the Palestinian human rights organization al-Haq ־ Law in the Service of Man - issued a report on al-Fara'ah prison. 2 4 Five affidavits describe in detail the general conditions in al-Fara'ah between 1982/83 when it was used to detain young Palestinians.25 Ten further affidavits cover the period from the beginning of 1984, when detainees began to be interrogated on specific charges, usually participation in demonstrations or stonethrowing. The methods of interrogation described include: physical disorientation by hooding and/or extended isolation for hours or even days in toilets or filthy cells awash with water; routine beating; repeated cold showers and long periods of standing in the rain at night; tear gas sprayed in the face; food and sleep deprivation; psychological humiliation (including, in one case, being forced to masturbate in front of interrogators, in another being forced to talk to the wall, in another being treated literally as a donkey: dragged on all fours with a rope round the neck, ridden by another interrogator).
These ten affidavits were obtained independently and provide detailed evidence (including dates and the pseudonyms of each interrogator - "Abu Dani," "Abu Fathi" etc.) of the patterns of ill-treatment in al-Fara'ah. It should be noted further that not a single one of these ten victims (ranging in age from 15-25) was suspected of anything resembling "security" or "terrorist" activities. Most offenses covered participation in demonstrations; four suspects were released without charge; most were fined or given brief prison sentences. (One 18 year old student, for example, who was interrogated for 14 days was eventually fined 7000 shekels for being present at a cultural celebration at Bethlehem University). These allegations are all internally consistent. p.33
By this time, the police had in fact located another totally unrelated person who confessed to the killing. On February 6, police investigator asked Isma'il to withdraw his confession, and he was released the same day. On February 7, Ali was also released, having being told by the police that they had now found the person who threw the Molotov cocktail, killed a collaborator and attempted to kill another collaborator. p.38
All the interviewees reported constant verbal humiliation - abuse, insults, slander, cursing - by their interrogators. Almost all reported that their mothers, sisters or wives were cursed by their interrogators: "We will bring your sister and your mother here and we will fuck them while you watch," is one of the sayings reported by 13 of those interviewed. "Your mother is pregnant by a G.S.S. man," or, "Your wife is already pregnant? Good thing for you," are also phrases often attributed to the interrogators. .....
Fourteen of those interviewed reported that interrogators threatened to kill them: "We will kill you here, no one will know about you," is a phrase that is repeatedly mentioned. p.56
Nasser told his interrogators that it was their duty to feed him and that they should not make his confessing a condition for receiving food. When they continued beating him and informed him that he would not receive food unless he confessed, he declared a hunger strike. His strike lasted 12 days. The prison doctor who was called to check the detainee, also suggested that he confess. He explained that fasting affected his kidneys, and his general physical condition. p.58
Planting collaborators or undercover police in cells in order to obtain incriminating evidence is common in detention facilities in Israel (as it is anywhere else). We only refer to this method here when violence is used by collaborators to extract a confession. If they are allowed or instructed to use violence, this is clearly the legal responsibility of the authorities. p.67
Out of all the forty-one interviewees, only one (a journalist), was not beaten. All others were beaten routinely in the course of the interrogation. The interrogators beat with their fists, sticks, shoes and with any other instruments at hand such as an electric water heater "or a tree branch. In Dahariya, a metal bar in the shape of a screw and covered with a plastic material was used to beat three of our interviewees. In the Shati Detention Centers (Gaza), they used a stick made of plastic material, thirty to forty centimeters long. p.71
They took me into a room. There was another interrogator there. He asked me if 1 had ever been fucked. 1 said no. He said, "Today "we're going to open up your ass." He sat me down on my knees and opened my legs towards the outside and he began to kick me on my rear end and at the same time yelled, "Now you will confess. Talk, you asshole." He brought metal handcuffs. He tied my hands very tightly. He laid me down on my back and the metal handcuffs were 'digging right into the flesh and me with all my weight lying on them. He began to kick me all over my body. When he got tired he would come down and strangle me until 1 almost lost consciousness and then he would let go for a second and then come back and strangle me. When he got tired of me, he sent me to the "al-Shabah" room for about five hours, and afterwards transferred me to cell number 59. p.73
"Jan" began to hit me and to yell at me, and in a little bit two others came in. These two took me out of the room into the courtyard and were very nice to me. They said: "Abu Daoud and Jan are criminals, why are you doing this to yourself? Tell us." They gave me tea and a cigarette. They also said: "I am giving you a chance, sign a confession. Why should you go back to Jan?" p.76
12. Afterwards, they staged a confrontation between me and Dr. Alayan again. The area around his eyes was yellow from the beatings. They told me: "We did it to him, and we will do it to you too."
13. 1 refused to respond and they cursed me with very dirty words. They threatened that they would bring my wife and torture her. I refused again. ......
After 12 days they allowed me to rest Friday and Saturday. On Sunday they took me again and started till Tuesday close to midnight, December 19, when Khaled died. There was confusion and all of us were taken down to the cells. The next day, the interrogation started. They told us that somebody had hanged himself and "You will be the next to hang himself here." p.79
"If you don't confess I'll bring people to beat you" p.80
They put me into an office. Someone took the sack off my head very slowly. I saw someone in front of me who was the size of a bull. His name was "Abu Nihad." He told me to sit down. I sat down. He said, "I truly don't understand how you feel. You are very close to death, and, as Tareq Ben-Ziaz once said to his soldiers, The enemy is in front of you, the enemy is behind you ־ where will you flee?' You are completely surrounded by confessions from your friends, so shorten the way for yourself." p.85
On the sixteenth day they came to take me to eat a real meal, and they gave me a coat and pants. The pants were very wide and I think I looked very funny in them. They said that the Red Cross had come to visit me. I thought to myself: This is another trick. They put me into the office. There were people there from the Red Cross ־ a man and a woman. They said that they were from the Red Cross. I said. "So what? What can you do? I'm going to die here. You'll be able to take me (my body?) out.
They said that my brother had sent them. They told me his name, and then I was sure that they were really from the Red Cross. They asked me about my condition, and I told them. I showed them my own clothes underneath the wide pants and the coat. I showed them the blood on my underpants and that my testicles were swollen. After the meeting with the Red Cross they took me back to "al-Shabah." I was tied up outside for a whole day (they took away the funny clothes). Afterwards, they put me into an isolation cell with another man about 40 years old. He asked me about myself and I told him that it wasn't a good idea for us to get to know each other. I fell asleep for 24 hours straight. p.86
The prisoners began to shout, and the medical orderly, who was apparently more humane than anyone else there, went directly (without going to the doctor) to the head of the prison camp and then took me directly to the clinic.
The doctor was very angry at the orderly. The camp director also came. He said I would be transferred to the Soroka Hospital the next morning. About 9:00 in the morning we left Dahariya. Before we left in the morning I was still in the clinic. One of the interrogators came in and said to the doctor, "Look. Now he looks OK. Why did you make such a big thing of it?" The docto r said it wa s that son-of-a-bitch orderly. He went to the commander and didn't tell me. The doctor, it was clear, did not want to hear the story. He just wanted quiet. Then we got on the jeep with a policeman to guard me. I was handcuffed, but my eyes were not covered. p.88
The lock-up had an opening in the roof 50x30 cm. which let in the cold and the rain. I spent 3 days in that lock-up, in the same situation: the opening in the roof; no shirt; no food; and sometimes the soldiers guarding on the roof would urinate on me. p.88-9
Afterwards, I was taken from the interrogation straight to "al-Shabah." You stand outside in the cold and all I had on was a shirt, handcuffed, sack on my head, and a policeman with a rubber-coated pipe hit me in the legs and the head. I was bound there (in "al־Shabah") for 2-3 hours, and then I was taken to another interrogation. There were three interrogators. One of them said, "If you don't confess, I'll cut your dick off and keep it as a souvenier." I told him, I can't wear a suit which doesn't fit me. (I was referring to the accusation) He said "If the suit wasn't your size, we wouldn't have brought you here in the first place." I said, "You brought me here because someone said my name after you tortured him." Then they started getting angry.They cursed, "Your father... your mother... ." They punched me indiscriminantly. Afterwards, they returned me to "al־Shabah" until 11:30 or 12:00 p.m., and then they put me in the cell. p.89-90
As we explained, an adult detainee in Israel is brought before a judge within 48 hours of his arrest. In the Territories, however, the authorities have the right to hold the detainee for up to 18 days without being seen by a judge, and for 30 days without access to a lawyer. In accordance with a request submitted by the G.S.S., this period can be extended up to 90 days if a military judge decides that "the interrogation requires it."55
Although the law only permits this denial if absolutely necessary for the investigation, most of the detainees under interrogation are prevented from receiving a lawyer's visit during the first thirty days of their detention. Such denials are so frequent that prison staff and interrogators wrongly assume that each time a detainee is taken to interrogation he must be prevented from seeing his lawyer. p.97
According to Israeli law, confessions extracted by threats of violence or violence itself or through the application of psychological pressure are inadmissible. The Landau Commission stated that for years, confessions were extracted through the use of such inadmissible methods, and that these confessions were accepted by the courts. After these conclusions were published, it could have been assumed that the judicial system would strictly ensure that confessions extracted through the use of threats or violence would not be accepted. The rejection of such evidence would be an incentive for investigators not to use illegal methods in extracting confessions or evidence. .....
(i) Precedents indicate that the chances of winning a mini-trial are few. Judges invariably believe the interrogator's version of events, despite the record of perjury revealed by the Landau Report. This is true even in the rare cases where the defense produces external evidence (such as a medical report). And even if the confession is ruled as inadmissible, the testimonies of an outside witness (not examined in court) are used by the prosecution to incriminate the accused.
(ii) If the mini-trial is lost, the chances become much higher of receiving a heavier sentence. We have no statistical proof of this tendency, but all defense lawyers agree that this happens. Judges give lighter sentences to those who confess, explicitly referring in their judgement to the defendant's "cooperation." And the mini-trial procedure does not allow the crucial argument of "saving court time." p.101
We review the consequences of the 1987 Report of the Landau Commission which established that G.S.S. agents had systematically lied to the court about using force to extract confessions. Though condemning this practice, the Commission went on to permit the use of "moderate physical force" as a method of interrogation. We criticize the legal and moral basis of the Commission's reasoning and point to the grave implications of removing the sanction against force. This removal was achieved not by any formal legal change, but by administrative directives contained in a secret set of "guidelines." p.105
It should be stressed that with the possible exception of two or three of the still-detained Gaza group, no one was found guilty or even suspected of the type of "hostile terrorist activity" against which the Landau Commission justified "moderate physical force." p.106
The consistency we found, however, is much more specific than this: detailed descriptions of techniques, diagrams of interrogation rooms, exact physical descriptions and noms-de-plume of interrogators. Moreover, the fact that particular techniques have already acquired special names ־" al־Shabah", the "banana" tie ־ shows how routinized they have become. They need only be ordered by name. This is the type of consistency that suggests common experience. p.107
Doctors are also part of the net: they check detainees before interrogation and give this information to interrogators; they examine and treat people who have been injured. This makes them secret accessories to criminal offenses and to grave violations of medical ethics. Then there are the Military Court judges who routinely accept coerced confessions as if they were obtained by permissible means. Human rights organizations have drawn attention to two sets of conditions under which torture is likely to occur64: First, a set of social and political conditions: a national emergency or other perceived threat to security; the need to process large numbers of suspects; the dehumanization of an outgroup (national, religious or ethnic); a high level authorization to violate normal moral principles; the presence of a "sacred mission" which justifies anything. Second, a set of legal conditions: a long period in incommunicado detention, particularly without access to a lawyer; the inability to identify interrogators; trials under military law or other similar procedure; the absence of independent checks on the detainee's medical condition; rules of evidence which do not automatically rule out confessions obtained under torture; some degree of immunity enjoyed by interrogators from legal prosecution. p.110
44. Dr. Levin reports that he then told the Camp Commander: "My name is Marcus Levin and not Josef Mengele, and for reasons of conscience, I refuse to serve in this place." One of the doctors tried to calm him down. "Marcus, at first you feel like Mengele, but after a few days you get used to it." p.17
48. Each stage of this case has been extensively documented by the family's defense attorney, Felicia Langer in "The Death of Ibrahim al-Matur" (Tel Aviv: Israeli League for Human and Civil Rights, 1989). See also the report of the independent pathologist, Dr. Derrick Pounder, "Death of Ibrahim al-Matur," (submitted to Israeli High Court of Justice in HCJ April 12, 1989). ....
50. See Gidon Alon, "The Corruptions of the Shin Bet Continue," Ha'aretz, 18/3/90. For further details on the al-Masri case, see Atty. Felicia Langer, "The Ways of the Shin Bet," Report submitted to P.C.A.T.I., June, 1990 p.118
Every night, they would bring new prisoners in. Every night. And how do they bring them? Like trash in trash carts. They would pile them inside the trucks, throw them, like this, on the road, lift them up in a line - they are tied, of course - and then they start to make them march. They start to make them march, and then they get their equipment, they get their equipment, their personal numbers, and then - right away to the compounds, and then to the interrogation room. But on the way, what they go through on the way, it's — when I say the way, I mean about twenty meters from the sentry at the camp gate until the reception room. They get beaten up there, really badly beaten up. I don't even know how to describe these beatings. I really felt like a Nazi soldier. Really like a Nazi soldier I felt there. I'm really sorry to be saying this, but this was how I felt. To stand there with a gun hung round my neck, finger on the trigger, and to start telling the Arabs: start moving, stand here, sit there, do this, do that. This is not what I joined the army for. I joined the army to fight for my country, not to hold on to the territories. p.129
They hate us, and there is nothing anyone can do about it, it's obvious that they hate us. In my opinion, we should just let them live. Just let them live their lives. They haven't got that much, anyway. They haven't got so many things over there. They've hardly got anything. They can't even develop, really. There's nothing they can do. In my opinion, we should just let them live their lives. p.130
B'Tselem's activities, including the production of this report, are made possible by the contributions of the following foundations: the Ford Foundation, the New Israel Fund, the Conanima Foundation, the Merck Foundation, the Kaplan Foundation, the Bydale Foundation the Mailman Foundation, the Stone Charitable Foundation, the Samuel Rubin Foundation. Complete article
A. Report of the Landau Enquiry Commission of 1987
“Under constant medical supervision” Torture, ill-treatment and health professionals in Israel and the Occupied Territories* PLEASE NOTE THAT THIS DOCUMENT IS EMBARGOED UNTIL 16 AUGUST 1996
Within this tradition, definitions of torture have been formulated both for legal purposes (to draft prohibitions and regulations) and for research (to estimate the extent and nature of the phenomenon). The standard and authoritative definition appears in the 1975 United Nations Declaration Against Torture:
For the purpose of this Declaration, torture means any act by which severe pain or suffering, whether physical or mental, is intentionally inflicted by or at the instigation of a public official on a person for such purposes as obtaining from him or a third person information or confession, punishing him for an act he has committed or intimidating him or other persons. It does not include pain or suffering arising only from, inherent in, or incidental to lawful sanctions to the extent consistent with the Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners. p.9
(i) According to "The Tokyo Declaration" (the Guidelines for Medical Doctors Concerning Torture) issued by the World Medical Association in Tokyo in 1975, doctors are not allowed to condone or participate in any acts related to torture or to other cruel, inhuman and degrading punishments. p.12
The formal position under Military Law (in general) and as applied in the Occupied Territories, is that unless stated otherwise, the same laws and precedents apply. Section 477 of the Military Justice Law (1955) states that: "A military court shall not admit the confession of an accused as evidence unless it is convinced that the accused made it of his own free will." In fact however, however, Military Courts have been given wide powers to ignore such limitations. According to Article 9 of Military Order No.378 "...a Military Court is authorized to deviate from the laws of evidence for special reasons which shall be recorded, if it seems necessary to do so." In practice, the Courts in the Territories rarely have to invoke this formal discretion. Faced with a defendant claims that coercion was used to extract a confession, Military Court judges either simply refuse to believe this version or rule that any admitted coercion did not violate the criterion of free will. p.18
Article 78 of the Order provides that immediately following arrest, a person may be detained for up to 18 days without coming before a court. This is Stage One. (In East Jerusalem, according to Israeli Law, the period is 48 hours. Our description below concentrates on the Territories). At the end of this 18 day period, the detainee must be released if he/she has not been charged, unless a judge extends the period. In practice, the Shin Bet (directly or through the police) usually requests this extension and the military judges almost automatically comply. p.19
The Landau Report is an important and complex document that deserves a much fuller exposition than we can provide here. It consists of two Parts. Part One reviews the nature of G.S.S. activity, particularly during the period of 1971 onwards. It describes the "facts" about Hostile Terrorist Activity (HTA). the giving of false testimony about confessions obtained by G.S.S. methods and the justifications for the use of physical pressure during interrogation. Part Two is secret and remains unpublished. It gives more details about G.S.S. operations in the past and lays down the exact guidelines for permissible interrogation methods. p.22
The question of false testimony (as raised publicly by the Nafsu case) occupies a larger part of the report's survey [Paras. 2.22-2.53] than the interrogation methods themselves. The Commission suggests that between 1967 1971 ־ , confessions presented in court were obtained legally and accepted in good faith. From 1971 onwards, however - when more confessions were challenged in court, calling for more "trials within trials" - the G.S.S. began consistently lying to the Courts by denying that it had used physical force to extract confessions. The Commission makes it clear that such methods (even if permitted at the time) would appear in court as violating the criterion of free will and hence render the confession inadmissible [Para. 2.26]. The solution to what the commission calls a "dilemma" - that admitting to the use of pressure would lead to an acquittal - was simply to lie. p.22-3
The actual nature of interrogation methods used in the past, receives almost no coverage in the public part of the Landau Report compared with the discussion about false testimony. This is partly because "security reasons" necessitate describing these methods only in the secret Part Two, but also because the report's "utter condemnation" of past practices refers to perjury and not to the methods of interrogation themselves "which are largely to be defended, both morally and legally" [Para. 1.8]. In other words, it is permissible to use pressure - but not to lie about it. How does the Commission arrive at this conclusion?
The report presents two subjects as a "description of facts" (Chapter 2). The first. Terrorist Organizations and the Armed Struggle," is a political analysis of Israel's security situation. This describes the dangers posed by Hostile Terrorist Activity (HTA) by organizations such as the Palestinian Liberation Organization whose objective is "the destruction of the State of Israel" [Para. 2.9]. The second is an account of the difficulties faced by the G.S.S., in this political context, of obtaining information during interrogation. Unlike regular criminal investigation, the aim is often general intelligence gathering, rather than obtaining an individual conviction (although this is also important as a deterrent and to take terrorists out of circulation). There is seldom any other independent evidence and the information has to be obtained from recalcitrant suspects, hostile to the authorities and trained to resist pressure. p.24
The defense of necessity is as old as torture itself and can always be used by any regime, under any situation. Anyway, if there is a real and imminent danger, it is not clear why only "moderate" force should be used, given that more severe methods will be more effective. By insisting on some limitation, the Commission must have sensed the weakness of the purely utilitarian defense of necessity. .....
The moral-legal issues aside, the "ticking-bomb" example is indeed hypothetical: no known case like this has been recorded in Israel's history. Most interrogations are not aimed at extracting direct information of this sort. As our research shows, force is routinely used in interrogations where the charge or suspicion covers allegations such as assault, stone-throwing, belonging to an illegal organization or even participating in a demonstration. Many interrogations are not even aimed at extracting a confession to secure a conviction. Their purpose is general information gathering, random deterrence, intimidation or harm for its own sake. Note also that those being questioned are only suspects whose guilt cannot be presumed. According to the Commission itself, nearly 50% of interrogations end up with no charges being pressed, or any other steps taken against the detainee. p.27
(c) Conclusions: "Moderate Force" or Torture?
The Commission goes out of its way to explain that by justifying "psychological pressure" and "moderate physical pressure" it is not justifying torture. This linguistic exercise, however, hides the reality not just of the pre-1987 practices, but the methods since practiced [see below] and, presumably, allowed in the report's secret section. This exercise was needed precisely because Israel, like other societies faced with similar moral conflicts to which the Commission was indeed so sensitive,19 could hardly be seen to justify "torture." At several points, the Commission repeats its concern about the image of the state: p.30
It is impossible to show a direct causal connection between the Commission's recommendations and the ill-treatment of Palestinians interrogated in the subsequent three years. The Intifada began in this exact period. Other observers argue that the Shin Bet continued its work without much reference to the Commission. But whatever the actual connection, it is clear that despite the Commission's stated intentions, the use of torture and ill-treatment follows logically from its recommendations. Despite its professed aim to "regulate" rather than freely permit, to lay down restrictions rather than give a carte blanche, the Commission gave the Shin Bet what it wanted: the stamp of kashrut. In the words of the leading legal critic of the report, Professor Mordechai Kremnitzer (now Dean of the Hebrew University Law School), the "intent to injure with a wrongful objective" is now:
...institutionalized, systematic, wholesale and trained; it is legalized at the highest level (not by a concrete license granted ad hoc but rather by a general authorization granted in advance) and is committed not by an individual, but by a governmental authority acting in the name of and for the sake of the public.21 p.31
Amnesty also noted reports of beatings, citing the example of Nassim Abd al-Jalil 'Odeh Ahmad Daoud, who was arrested on January 30, 1982 and interrogated about his activities as a member of al-Fatah. He alleged that while hooded, handcuffed and sometimes stripped naked, he was (over a period of two weeks) beaten all over the body, including the genitals, with clubs and fists. His head was also repeatedly hit and banged against the wall. p.32-3
In the same year as the Amnesty Report, the Palestinian human rights organization al-Haq ־ Law in the Service of Man - issued a report on al-Fara'ah prison. 2 4 Five affidavits describe in detail the general conditions in al-Fara'ah between 1982/83 when it was used to detain young Palestinians.25 Ten further affidavits cover the period from the beginning of 1984, when detainees began to be interrogated on specific charges, usually participation in demonstrations or stonethrowing. The methods of interrogation described include: physical disorientation by hooding and/or extended isolation for hours or even days in toilets or filthy cells awash with water; routine beating; repeated cold showers and long periods of standing in the rain at night; tear gas sprayed in the face; food and sleep deprivation; psychological humiliation (including, in one case, being forced to masturbate in front of interrogators, in another being forced to talk to the wall, in another being treated literally as a donkey: dragged on all fours with a rope round the neck, ridden by another interrogator).
These ten affidavits were obtained independently and provide detailed evidence (including dates and the pseudonyms of each interrogator - "Abu Dani," "Abu Fathi" etc.) of the patterns of ill-treatment in al-Fara'ah. It should be noted further that not a single one of these ten victims (ranging in age from 15-25) was suspected of anything resembling "security" or "terrorist" activities. Most offenses covered participation in demonstrations; four suspects were released without charge; most were fined or given brief prison sentences. (One 18 year old student, for example, who was interrogated for 14 days was eventually fined 7000 shekels for being present at a cultural celebration at Bethlehem University). These allegations are all internally consistent. p.33
By this time, the police had in fact located another totally unrelated person who confessed to the killing. On February 6, police investigator asked Isma'il to withdraw his confession, and he was released the same day. On February 7, Ali was also released, having being told by the police that they had now found the person who threw the Molotov cocktail, killed a collaborator and attempted to kill another collaborator. p.38
All the interviewees reported constant verbal humiliation - abuse, insults, slander, cursing - by their interrogators. Almost all reported that their mothers, sisters or wives were cursed by their interrogators: "We will bring your sister and your mother here and we will fuck them while you watch," is one of the sayings reported by 13 of those interviewed. "Your mother is pregnant by a G.S.S. man," or, "Your wife is already pregnant? Good thing for you," are also phrases often attributed to the interrogators. .....
Fourteen of those interviewed reported that interrogators threatened to kill them: "We will kill you here, no one will know about you," is a phrase that is repeatedly mentioned. p.56
Nasser told his interrogators that it was their duty to feed him and that they should not make his confessing a condition for receiving food. When they continued beating him and informed him that he would not receive food unless he confessed, he declared a hunger strike. His strike lasted 12 days. The prison doctor who was called to check the detainee, also suggested that he confess. He explained that fasting affected his kidneys, and his general physical condition. p.58
Planting collaborators or undercover police in cells in order to obtain incriminating evidence is common in detention facilities in Israel (as it is anywhere else). We only refer to this method here when violence is used by collaborators to extract a confession. If they are allowed or instructed to use violence, this is clearly the legal responsibility of the authorities. p.67
Out of all the forty-one interviewees, only one (a journalist), was not beaten. All others were beaten routinely in the course of the interrogation. The interrogators beat with their fists, sticks, shoes and with any other instruments at hand such as an electric water heater "or a tree branch. In Dahariya, a metal bar in the shape of a screw and covered with a plastic material was used to beat three of our interviewees. In the Shati Detention Centers (Gaza), they used a stick made of plastic material, thirty to forty centimeters long. p.71
They took me into a room. There was another interrogator there. He asked me if 1 had ever been fucked. 1 said no. He said, "Today "we're going to open up your ass." He sat me down on my knees and opened my legs towards the outside and he began to kick me on my rear end and at the same time yelled, "Now you will confess. Talk, you asshole." He brought metal handcuffs. He tied my hands very tightly. He laid me down on my back and the metal handcuffs were 'digging right into the flesh and me with all my weight lying on them. He began to kick me all over my body. When he got tired he would come down and strangle me until 1 almost lost consciousness and then he would let go for a second and then come back and strangle me. When he got tired of me, he sent me to the "al-Shabah" room for about five hours, and afterwards transferred me to cell number 59. p.73
"Jan" began to hit me and to yell at me, and in a little bit two others came in. These two took me out of the room into the courtyard and were very nice to me. They said: "Abu Daoud and Jan are criminals, why are you doing this to yourself? Tell us." They gave me tea and a cigarette. They also said: "I am giving you a chance, sign a confession. Why should you go back to Jan?" p.76
12. Afterwards, they staged a confrontation between me and Dr. Alayan again. The area around his eyes was yellow from the beatings. They told me: "We did it to him, and we will do it to you too."
13. 1 refused to respond and they cursed me with very dirty words. They threatened that they would bring my wife and torture her. I refused again. ......
After 12 days they allowed me to rest Friday and Saturday. On Sunday they took me again and started till Tuesday close to midnight, December 19, when Khaled died. There was confusion and all of us were taken down to the cells. The next day, the interrogation started. They told us that somebody had hanged himself and "You will be the next to hang himself here." p.79
"If you don't confess I'll bring people to beat you" p.80
They put me into an office. Someone took the sack off my head very slowly. I saw someone in front of me who was the size of a bull. His name was "Abu Nihad." He told me to sit down. I sat down. He said, "I truly don't understand how you feel. You are very close to death, and, as Tareq Ben-Ziaz once said to his soldiers, The enemy is in front of you, the enemy is behind you ־ where will you flee?' You are completely surrounded by confessions from your friends, so shorten the way for yourself." p.85
On the sixteenth day they came to take me to eat a real meal, and they gave me a coat and pants. The pants were very wide and I think I looked very funny in them. They said that the Red Cross had come to visit me. I thought to myself: This is another trick. They put me into the office. There were people there from the Red Cross ־ a man and a woman. They said that they were from the Red Cross. I said. "So what? What can you do? I'm going to die here. You'll be able to take me (my body?) out.
They said that my brother had sent them. They told me his name, and then I was sure that they were really from the Red Cross. They asked me about my condition, and I told them. I showed them my own clothes underneath the wide pants and the coat. I showed them the blood on my underpants and that my testicles were swollen. After the meeting with the Red Cross they took me back to "al-Shabah." I was tied up outside for a whole day (they took away the funny clothes). Afterwards, they put me into an isolation cell with another man about 40 years old. He asked me about myself and I told him that it wasn't a good idea for us to get to know each other. I fell asleep for 24 hours straight. p.86
The prisoners began to shout, and the medical orderly, who was apparently more humane than anyone else there, went directly (without going to the doctor) to the head of the prison camp and then took me directly to the clinic.
The doctor was very angry at the orderly. The camp director also came. He said I would be transferred to the Soroka Hospital the next morning. About 9:00 in the morning we left Dahariya. Before we left in the morning I was still in the clinic. One of the interrogators came in and said to the doctor, "Look. Now he looks OK. Why did you make such a big thing of it?" The docto r said it wa s that son-of-a-bitch orderly. He went to the commander and didn't tell me. The doctor, it was clear, did not want to hear the story. He just wanted quiet. Then we got on the jeep with a policeman to guard me. I was handcuffed, but my eyes were not covered. p.88
The lock-up had an opening in the roof 50x30 cm. which let in the cold and the rain. I spent 3 days in that lock-up, in the same situation: the opening in the roof; no shirt; no food; and sometimes the soldiers guarding on the roof would urinate on me. p.88-9
Afterwards, I was taken from the interrogation straight to "al-Shabah." You stand outside in the cold and all I had on was a shirt, handcuffed, sack on my head, and a policeman with a rubber-coated pipe hit me in the legs and the head. I was bound there (in "al־Shabah") for 2-3 hours, and then I was taken to another interrogation. There were three interrogators. One of them said, "If you don't confess, I'll cut your dick off and keep it as a souvenier." I told him, I can't wear a suit which doesn't fit me. (I was referring to the accusation) He said "If the suit wasn't your size, we wouldn't have brought you here in the first place." I said, "You brought me here because someone said my name after you tortured him." Then they started getting angry.They cursed, "Your father... your mother... ." They punched me indiscriminantly. Afterwards, they returned me to "al־Shabah" until 11:30 or 12:00 p.m., and then they put me in the cell. p.89-90
As we explained, an adult detainee in Israel is brought before a judge within 48 hours of his arrest. In the Territories, however, the authorities have the right to hold the detainee for up to 18 days without being seen by a judge, and for 30 days without access to a lawyer. In accordance with a request submitted by the G.S.S., this period can be extended up to 90 days if a military judge decides that "the interrogation requires it."55
Although the law only permits this denial if absolutely necessary for the investigation, most of the detainees under interrogation are prevented from receiving a lawyer's visit during the first thirty days of their detention. Such denials are so frequent that prison staff and interrogators wrongly assume that each time a detainee is taken to interrogation he must be prevented from seeing his lawyer. p.97
According to Israeli law, confessions extracted by threats of violence or violence itself or through the application of psychological pressure are inadmissible. The Landau Commission stated that for years, confessions were extracted through the use of such inadmissible methods, and that these confessions were accepted by the courts. After these conclusions were published, it could have been assumed that the judicial system would strictly ensure that confessions extracted through the use of threats or violence would not be accepted. The rejection of such evidence would be an incentive for investigators not to use illegal methods in extracting confessions or evidence. .....
(i) Precedents indicate that the chances of winning a mini-trial are few. Judges invariably believe the interrogator's version of events, despite the record of perjury revealed by the Landau Report. This is true even in the rare cases where the defense produces external evidence (such as a medical report). And even if the confession is ruled as inadmissible, the testimonies of an outside witness (not examined in court) are used by the prosecution to incriminate the accused.
(ii) If the mini-trial is lost, the chances become much higher of receiving a heavier sentence. We have no statistical proof of this tendency, but all defense lawyers agree that this happens. Judges give lighter sentences to those who confess, explicitly referring in their judgement to the defendant's "cooperation." And the mini-trial procedure does not allow the crucial argument of "saving court time." p.101
We review the consequences of the 1987 Report of the Landau Commission which established that G.S.S. agents had systematically lied to the court about using force to extract confessions. Though condemning this practice, the Commission went on to permit the use of "moderate physical force" as a method of interrogation. We criticize the legal and moral basis of the Commission's reasoning and point to the grave implications of removing the sanction against force. This removal was achieved not by any formal legal change, but by administrative directives contained in a secret set of "guidelines." p.105
It should be stressed that with the possible exception of two or three of the still-detained Gaza group, no one was found guilty or even suspected of the type of "hostile terrorist activity" against which the Landau Commission justified "moderate physical force." p.106
The consistency we found, however, is much more specific than this: detailed descriptions of techniques, diagrams of interrogation rooms, exact physical descriptions and noms-de-plume of interrogators. Moreover, the fact that particular techniques have already acquired special names ־" al־Shabah", the "banana" tie ־ shows how routinized they have become. They need only be ordered by name. This is the type of consistency that suggests common experience. p.107
Doctors are also part of the net: they check detainees before interrogation and give this information to interrogators; they examine and treat people who have been injured. This makes them secret accessories to criminal offenses and to grave violations of medical ethics. Then there are the Military Court judges who routinely accept coerced confessions as if they were obtained by permissible means. Human rights organizations have drawn attention to two sets of conditions under which torture is likely to occur64: First, a set of social and political conditions: a national emergency or other perceived threat to security; the need to process large numbers of suspects; the dehumanization of an outgroup (national, religious or ethnic); a high level authorization to violate normal moral principles; the presence of a "sacred mission" which justifies anything. Second, a set of legal conditions: a long period in incommunicado detention, particularly without access to a lawyer; the inability to identify interrogators; trials under military law or other similar procedure; the absence of independent checks on the detainee's medical condition; rules of evidence which do not automatically rule out confessions obtained under torture; some degree of immunity enjoyed by interrogators from legal prosecution. p.110
44. Dr. Levin reports that he then told the Camp Commander: "My name is Marcus Levin and not Josef Mengele, and for reasons of conscience, I refuse to serve in this place." One of the doctors tried to calm him down. "Marcus, at first you feel like Mengele, but after a few days you get used to it." p.17
48. Each stage of this case has been extensively documented by the family's defense attorney, Felicia Langer in "The Death of Ibrahim al-Matur" (Tel Aviv: Israeli League for Human and Civil Rights, 1989). See also the report of the independent pathologist, Dr. Derrick Pounder, "Death of Ibrahim al-Matur," (submitted to Israeli High Court of Justice in HCJ April 12, 1989). ....
50. See Gidon Alon, "The Corruptions of the Shin Bet Continue," Ha'aretz, 18/3/90. For further details on the al-Masri case, see Atty. Felicia Langer, "The Ways of the Shin Bet," Report submitted to P.C.A.T.I., June, 1990 p.118
Every night, they would bring new prisoners in. Every night. And how do they bring them? Like trash in trash carts. They would pile them inside the trucks, throw them, like this, on the road, lift them up in a line - they are tied, of course - and then they start to make them march. They start to make them march, and then they get their equipment, they get their equipment, their personal numbers, and then - right away to the compounds, and then to the interrogation room. But on the way, what they go through on the way, it's — when I say the way, I mean about twenty meters from the sentry at the camp gate until the reception room. They get beaten up there, really badly beaten up. I don't even know how to describe these beatings. I really felt like a Nazi soldier. Really like a Nazi soldier I felt there. I'm really sorry to be saying this, but this was how I felt. To stand there with a gun hung round my neck, finger on the trigger, and to start telling the Arabs: start moving, stand here, sit there, do this, do that. This is not what I joined the army for. I joined the army to fight for my country, not to hold on to the territories. p.129
They hate us, and there is nothing anyone can do about it, it's obvious that they hate us. In my opinion, we should just let them live. Just let them live their lives. They haven't got that much, anyway. They haven't got so many things over there. They've hardly got anything. They can't even develop, really. There's nothing they can do. In my opinion, we should just let them live their lives. p.130
B'Tselem's activities, including the production of this report, are made possible by the contributions of the following foundations: the Ford Foundation, the New Israel Fund, the Conanima Foundation, the Merck Foundation, the Kaplan Foundation, the Bydale Foundation the Mailman Foundation, the Stone Charitable Foundation, the Samuel Rubin Foundation. Complete article
A. Report of the Landau Enquiry Commission of 1987
“Under constant medical supervision” Torture, ill-treatment and health professionals in Israel and the Occupied Territories* PLEASE NOTE THAT THIS DOCUMENT IS EMBARGOED UNTIL 16 AUGUST 1996
B’Tselem, Demolishing Peace: Israel’s Policy of Mass Demolition of Palestinian Houses in the West Bank 1997
Over the past dozens of years, Israel has created a situation in the West Bank in which thousands of Palestinians are unable to obtain a permit to build on their land. Consequently, they are compelled to build without a permit. Rather than change this situation, Israel has adopted a policy of mass demolition of Palestinian houses. In the past ten years, the authorities have demolished more than 1,800 residences, leaving more than ten thousand Palestinians homeless. This policy continues in Area C.
At the same time, 136 Israeli settlements, containing tens of thousands of Jewish Israelis, have been established in the West Bank. Establishment of permanent settlements in the Occupied Territories violates international humanitarian law, which explicitly prohibits permanent changes that are not intended to benefit the local population and the use of public property for the needs –political and other - of the occupying state.2 Furthermore, the authorities established in the Israeli settlements an efficient and magnanimous system for planning and supervision of building, which refrained from demolishing houses. The authorities retroactively approved the construction of thousands of houses built without permit. This situation also continues.
The government decided, in response to the attack in Jerusalem's Mahane Yehuda market, on 30 July 1997, to increase significantly the severity of its policy of demolishing Palestinian houses. Within several weeks, the authorities demolished dozens of houses and other structures. This decision and the large number of demolitions that followed it attest to the extraneous motives motivating the planning-related pretexts for the demolitions. p.3
a. Appointing Israelis to replace Palestinians (and Jordanians) on the Supreme Planning Authorities
Order No. 418 stipulates that the powers granted by Jordanian law to the Minister of the Interior will be transferred to a "supervisor," who will be appointed by the commander of the area.8 Following the Order, Israeli army officers and officials, or persons acting on their behalf, replaced all the Jordanian and Palestinian officials. p.5
The powers of the village councils were transferred to sector committees for village planning.14 Seven such committees, which were subordinate to the Supreme Planning Committee, were established in the West Bank. Although their members also included Palestinians, they were appointed by the authorities and were not elected by the residents, and cannot be considered to represent the interests of the residents of each village in the sector. In any event, these committees are no more than a pipeline through which planning applications and proposals pass. The Central Planning Office and the Supreme Planning Council maintain decision-making power.15 p.6
Consequently, Palestinians living in rural areas were denied all representation and influence provided for in the Jordanian Law, whether at the level of the local authority or at the regional council level. The municipalities still have planning powers, but these were reduced, and the municipal councils are no longer elected. p.8
Lack of Consultation with Palestinians
The planning schemes were made without consulting with village residents, or even with their representatives, such as village councils and mukhtars.
Discrimination
The demarcation plans contrast sharply with the comprehensive plans prepared for the settlers. The contrast is evident from the following chart. p.11
Lack of Involvement of Palestinian Residents or Agencies in the Planning Process None of the bodies promoting, planning, or approving the building plans for the Israeli settlements contain Palestinian representation. Palestinian residents may object to the plan when it is deposited for filing of objections. No Palestinians sit on the bodies hearing the objections. p.15
If the request is denied, Civil Administration personnel demolish the house, usually by bulldozers, without further warning. p.18
Israeli settlers built thousand of housing units, public facilities, and industrial structures without permits. Government ministries, primarily the Ministry of Housing, erected a high percentage of these structures. Private construction companies and settlers also built without permits in most of the settlements. The authorities take a forgiving attitude toward building without a permit in the settlements, and have refrained - except for one case, as far as we know - from demolishing houses built without a permit. Instead, the authorities approve retroactively plans validating such construction. p.31-2
Justice Barak even totally ignores his own determinations, like those mentioned in Teachers' Society. It is difficult to understand how Justice Barak can hold the need for "public order and safety of a modern, civilized state at the end of the twentieth century" while allowing the demolition of houses based on the contention that they are built "in violation of the articles of plan RJ/5 [the British Mandate planning scheme]."104 p.38
In the settlements, the authorities employ a dynamic and modern system of planning and granting of building permits. Comprehensive planning schemes are arranged for all settlements. Nevertheless, thousands of buildings have been built there without permit. But the authorities are wise enough to refrain from demolishing those houses. Instead, they grant retroactive approval to illegal construction. p.40 Complete article
Over the past dozens of years, Israel has created a situation in the West Bank in which thousands of Palestinians are unable to obtain a permit to build on their land. Consequently, they are compelled to build without a permit. Rather than change this situation, Israel has adopted a policy of mass demolition of Palestinian houses. In the past ten years, the authorities have demolished more than 1,800 residences, leaving more than ten thousand Palestinians homeless. This policy continues in Area C.
At the same time, 136 Israeli settlements, containing tens of thousands of Jewish Israelis, have been established in the West Bank. Establishment of permanent settlements in the Occupied Territories violates international humanitarian law, which explicitly prohibits permanent changes that are not intended to benefit the local population and the use of public property for the needs –political and other - of the occupying state.2 Furthermore, the authorities established in the Israeli settlements an efficient and magnanimous system for planning and supervision of building, which refrained from demolishing houses. The authorities retroactively approved the construction of thousands of houses built without permit. This situation also continues.
The government decided, in response to the attack in Jerusalem's Mahane Yehuda market, on 30 July 1997, to increase significantly the severity of its policy of demolishing Palestinian houses. Within several weeks, the authorities demolished dozens of houses and other structures. This decision and the large number of demolitions that followed it attest to the extraneous motives motivating the planning-related pretexts for the demolitions. p.3
a. Appointing Israelis to replace Palestinians (and Jordanians) on the Supreme Planning Authorities
Order No. 418 stipulates that the powers granted by Jordanian law to the Minister of the Interior will be transferred to a "supervisor," who will be appointed by the commander of the area.8 Following the Order, Israeli army officers and officials, or persons acting on their behalf, replaced all the Jordanian and Palestinian officials. p.5
The powers of the village councils were transferred to sector committees for village planning.14 Seven such committees, which were subordinate to the Supreme Planning Committee, were established in the West Bank. Although their members also included Palestinians, they were appointed by the authorities and were not elected by the residents, and cannot be considered to represent the interests of the residents of each village in the sector. In any event, these committees are no more than a pipeline through which planning applications and proposals pass. The Central Planning Office and the Supreme Planning Council maintain decision-making power.15 p.6
Consequently, Palestinians living in rural areas were denied all representation and influence provided for in the Jordanian Law, whether at the level of the local authority or at the regional council level. The municipalities still have planning powers, but these were reduced, and the municipal councils are no longer elected. p.8
Lack of Consultation with Palestinians
The planning schemes were made without consulting with village residents, or even with their representatives, such as village councils and mukhtars.
Discrimination
The demarcation plans contrast sharply with the comprehensive plans prepared for the settlers. The contrast is evident from the following chart. p.11
Lack of Involvement of Palestinian Residents or Agencies in the Planning Process None of the bodies promoting, planning, or approving the building plans for the Israeli settlements contain Palestinian representation. Palestinian residents may object to the plan when it is deposited for filing of objections. No Palestinians sit on the bodies hearing the objections. p.15
If the request is denied, Civil Administration personnel demolish the house, usually by bulldozers, without further warning. p.18
Israeli settlers built thousand of housing units, public facilities, and industrial structures without permits. Government ministries, primarily the Ministry of Housing, erected a high percentage of these structures. Private construction companies and settlers also built without permits in most of the settlements. The authorities take a forgiving attitude toward building without a permit in the settlements, and have refrained - except for one case, as far as we know - from demolishing houses built without a permit. Instead, the authorities approve retroactively plans validating such construction. p.31-2
Justice Barak even totally ignores his own determinations, like those mentioned in Teachers' Society. It is difficult to understand how Justice Barak can hold the need for "public order and safety of a modern, civilized state at the end of the twentieth century" while allowing the demolition of houses based on the contention that they are built "in violation of the articles of plan RJ/5 [the British Mandate planning scheme]."104 p.38
In the settlements, the authorities employ a dynamic and modern system of planning and granting of building permits. Comprehensive planning schemes are arranged for all settlements. Nevertheless, thousands of buildings have been built there without permit. But the authorities are wise enough to refrain from demolishing those houses. Instead, they grant retroactive approval to illegal construction. p.40 Complete article
Amnesty International, The Right to Return: The Case of the Palestinians. Policy Statement 03/30/2001
1. In line with international law, Amnesty International opposes forcible exile -- when a government forces individuals to leave their own country on account of their political, religious or other conscientiously held beliefs or by reason of their ethnic origin, sex, colour, language, national or social origin, economic status, birth, or other status, and then prohibits their return, or, if they are already outside their own country, prevents them from returning for the same reasons. Amnesty International also opposes deportation from territories under military occupation in all cases.
2. Accordingly, Amnesty International calls for the recognition of the right of those who are forcibly exiled to return to their country. The right to return to one’s own country is based in international law and is the most obvious way to redress the situation of those who are in exile. Amnesty International advocates the right to return regardless of the circumstances in which people have been exiled, whether, for example, it was the result of a decision relating to an individual or the product of mass expulsions, as in the practice of “ethnic cleansing”. p.1
6. Amnesty International believes that the right to return applies not just to those who were directly expelled and their immediate families, but also to those of their descendants who have maintained what the Human Rights Committee calls “close and enduring connections” with the area. Lasting connections between individuals and territory may exist independently of the formal determination of nationality (or lack thereof) held by the individuals. p.2
11. With regard to the specific issue of Palestinian exiles, Amnesty International believes that durable solutions respectful of their human rights must be made available to them in any final peace agreement. Their right to return has been recognized by the United Nations since UN General Assembly Resolution 194 (III) of 11 December 1948, which states: p.3
13. The UN General Assembly in Resolution A/RES/51/129 of December 1996 affirms that “Palestinian Arab refugees are entitled to their property and to the income derived therefrom, in conformity with the principles of justice and equity”. It “requests the Secretary-General to take all appropriate steps... for the protection of Arab property, assets and property rights in Israel and to preserve and modernize the existing records.” Regarding Palestinians in exile since the 1967 war, the General Assembly resolved in Resolution A/RES/52/59 of December 1997 that it: “Reaffirms the right of all persons displaced as a result of the June 1967 and subsequent hostilities to return to their homes or former places of residence in the territories occupied by Israel since 1967.” Complete article
1. In line with international law, Amnesty International opposes forcible exile -- when a government forces individuals to leave their own country on account of their political, religious or other conscientiously held beliefs or by reason of their ethnic origin, sex, colour, language, national or social origin, economic status, birth, or other status, and then prohibits their return, or, if they are already outside their own country, prevents them from returning for the same reasons. Amnesty International also opposes deportation from territories under military occupation in all cases.
2. Accordingly, Amnesty International calls for the recognition of the right of those who are forcibly exiled to return to their country. The right to return to one’s own country is based in international law and is the most obvious way to redress the situation of those who are in exile. Amnesty International advocates the right to return regardless of the circumstances in which people have been exiled, whether, for example, it was the result of a decision relating to an individual or the product of mass expulsions, as in the practice of “ethnic cleansing”. p.1
6. Amnesty International believes that the right to return applies not just to those who were directly expelled and their immediate families, but also to those of their descendants who have maintained what the Human Rights Committee calls “close and enduring connections” with the area. Lasting connections between individuals and territory may exist independently of the formal determination of nationality (or lack thereof) held by the individuals. p.2
11. With regard to the specific issue of Palestinian exiles, Amnesty International believes that durable solutions respectful of their human rights must be made available to them in any final peace agreement. Their right to return has been recognized by the United Nations since UN General Assembly Resolution 194 (III) of 11 December 1948, which states: p.3
“refugees wishing to return to their homes and live at peace with their neighbours should be permitted to do so at the earliest practicable date, and that compensation should be paid for the property of those choosing not to return and for loss of or damage to property which, under principles of international law or in equity, should be made good by the Governments or authorities responsible.” p.3-4
13. The UN General Assembly in Resolution A/RES/51/129 of December 1996 affirms that “Palestinian Arab refugees are entitled to their property and to the income derived therefrom, in conformity with the principles of justice and equity”. It “requests the Secretary-General to take all appropriate steps... for the protection of Arab property, assets and property rights in Israel and to preserve and modernize the existing records.” Regarding Palestinians in exile since the 1967 war, the General Assembly resolved in Resolution A/RES/52/59 of December 1997 that it: “Reaffirms the right of all persons displaced as a result of the June 1967 and subsequent hostilities to return to their homes or former places of residence in the territories occupied by Israel since 1967.” Complete article
Human Rights Watch, Jenin: IDF Military Operations (New York, 2002)
I. ABOUT THIS RESEARCH
A Human Rights Watch team of three experienced researchers spent seven days in Jenin from April 19, 2002 to April 28, 2002 to research this report. The team interviewed over one hundred residents of Jenin refugee camp, gathering detailed accounts from victims and witnesses and carefully corroborating and cross-checking their accounts with those of others. Human Rights Watch investigators also collected information from other first-hand observers of the events in the Jenin refugee camp, including international aid workers, medical workers, and local officials. The research also included information from public sources, including Israeli governmental sources, about the incursion. However, the IDF has not agreed to Human Rights Watch's repeated requests for information about its military incursions into the West Bank and Gaza Strip. Although Human Rights Watch's research has been extensive, we do not pretend that it is comprehensive. Further inquiry is still in order, particularly as the excavation process proceeds, and if Israel ultimately decides to make its soldiers involved in the operation available for interview.
II. SUMMARY
On April 3, 2002, the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) launched a major military operation in the Jenin refugee camp, home to some fourteen thousand Palestinians, the overwhelming majority of them civilians. The Israelis' expressed aim was to capture or kill Palestinian militants responsible for suicide bombings and other attacks that have killed more than seventy Israeli and other civilians since March 2002. The IDF military incursion into the Jenin refugee camp was carried out on an unprecedented scale compared to other military operations mounted by the IDF since the current Israeli-Palestinian conflict began in September 2000.
The presence of armed Palestinian militants inside Jenin refugee camp, and the preparations made by those armed Palestinian militants in anticipation of the IDF incursion, does not detract from the IDF's obligation under international humanitarian law to take all feasible precautions to avoid harm to civilians. Israel also has a legal duty to ensure that its attacks on legitimate military targets did not cause disproportionate harm to civilians. Unfortunately, these obligations were not met. Human Rights Watch's research demonstrates that, during their incursion into the Jenin refugee camp, Israeli forces committed serious violations of international humanitarian law, some amounting prima facie to war crimes. ......
The harm from this destruction was aggravated by the inadequate warning given to civilian residents. Although warnings were issued on multiple occasions by the IDF, many civilians only learned of the risk as bulldozers began to crush their houses. Jamal Fayid, a thirty-seven-year-old paralyzed man, was killed when the IDF bulldozed his home on top of him, refusing to allow his relatives the time to remove him from the home. Sixty-five-year-old Muhammad Abu Saba`a had to plead with an IDF bulldozer operator to stop demolishing his home while his family remained inside; when he returned to his half-demolished home, he was shot dead by an Israeli soldier. .....
Throughout the incursion, IDF soldiers used Palestinian civilians to protect them from danger, deploying them as "human shields" and forcing them to perform dangerous work. Human Rights Watch received many separate and credible testimonies that Palestinians were placed in vulnerable positions to protect IDF soldiers from gunfire or attack. IDF soldiers forced these Palestinians to stand for extended periods in front of exposed IDF positions, or made them accompany the soldiers as they moved from house to house. Kamal Tawalbi, the father of fourteen children, described how soldiers kept him and his fourteen-year-old son for three hours in the line of fire, using his and his son's shoulders to rest their rifles as they fired. IDF soldiers forced a sixty-five-year-old woman was forced to stand on a rooftop in front of an IDF position in the middle of a helicopter battle.
As in prior IDF operations, soldiers forced Palestinians, sometimes at gunpoint, to accompany IDF troops during their searches of homes, to enter homes, to open doors, and to perform other potentially dangerous tasks. In Jenin, such coerced use of civilians was a widespread practice; in virtually every case in which IDF soldiers entered civilian homes, residents told Human Rights Watch that IDF soldiers were accompanied by Palestinian civilians who were participating under duress. The forced use of civilians during military operations is a serious violation of the laws of war, as it exposes civilians to direct risk of death or serious injury.
Human Rights Watch has so far found no evidence that Palestinian gunmen forced Palestinian civilians to serve as human shields during the attack. But Palestinian gunmen did endanger Palestinian civilians in the camp by using it as a base for planning and launching attacks, using indiscriminate tactics such as planting improvised explosive devices within the camp, and intermingling with the civilian population during armed conflict, and, in some cases, to avoid apprehension by Israeli forces. .....
During the period that the IDF directly controlled Jenin camp, the Israeli authorities were obliged under international humanitarian law to take all feasible precautions to protect camp civilians from the dangers arising from hostilities, and to ensure to the maximum extent possible under the circumstances that the civilian population had access to food and medical supplies. In practice, however, the IDF prevented humanitarian organizations, including the International Committee of the Red Cross, from gaining access to the camp and its civilian inhabitants-despite the great humanitarian need. This blockage continued from April 11 to 15, after the majority of armed Palestinians had surrendered. Human Rights Watch investigated and found no evidence to sustain reports that the IDF had removed bodies from the refugee camp for burial in mass graves.
IV. BACKGROUND: THE BATTLE INSIDE JENIN REFUGEE CAMP
But the presence of armed Palestinian militants inside the camp, and the preparations made by those armed Palestinian militants in anticipation of the IDF incursion does not detract from an essential fact: Jenin refugee camp was also home to more than 14,000 Palestinian civilians. The IDF had an obligation under international humanitarian law to take all feasible precautions to prevent a disproportionate impact of its military incursion on those civilians. ......
To enable tanks and heavy armor to penetrate to the camp, the IDF sent in armored bulldozers to widen the narrow alleys by shearing off the fronts of buildings, in places several meters deep. In the initial days, Palestinian fighters held off the IDF to the west of the camp, while to the east bulldozers penetrated the hilltop district of al-Damaj, overlooking the center of the camp. The IDF infantry managed to enter the northern entrance to the camp, throwing smoke grenades to provide cover as they went from house to house. Although helicopters were present, at that stage they primarily provided air-to-ground support. IDF soldiers "mouseholed" from house to house, knocking large holes in the walls between houses to provide routes of safe passage from to the outer perimeters of the camp to the center. In numerous cases, they used Palestinian civilians and detainees as human shields as they moved from house to house, and, as Human Rights Watch has documented in previous incursions elsewhere in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, forced civilians to perform the most dangerous tasks of entering and checking buildings during house-to-house searches. .......
1 The dates, locations, and casualties in this period are as follows, according to an April 12 BBC listing: March 2: Jerusalem, nine killed and fifty-seven injured; March 5: Afula, one killed and several injured; March 9: Jerusalem, eleven killed and fifty injured; March 20, near Umm al-Fahm: seven killed; March 21: Jerusalem, two killed and twenty injured; March 26: Jerusalem, three injured; March 27: Netanya, twenty-eight killed; March 29: Jerusalem, two killed; March 30: Tel Aviv, thirty injured; March 31: Haifa, fourteen killed; March 31: Efrat, four injured; April 1: one injured.
VI. CIVILIAN CASUALTIES AND UNLAWFUL KILLINGS IN JENIN
During its investigation, Human Rights Watch found serious violations of international humanitarian law. The organization documented fifty-two Palestinian deaths in the camp and its environs caused by the fighting. At least twenty-two of those confirmed dead were civilians, including children, physically disabled, and elderly people. At least twenty-seven of those confirmed dead were suspected to have been armed Palestinians belonging to movements such as Islamic Jihad, Hamas, and the al-Aqsa Martyr's Brigades. Some were members of the Palestinian Authority's (PA) National Security Forces or other branches of the PA police and security forces. Human Rights watch was unable to determine conclusively the status of the remaining three killed, among the cases documented. .....
During its investigation, however, Human Rights Watch documented unlawful and deliberate killings, and the killing or wounding of protected individuals as a result of excessive or disproportionate use of force. Such cases are in violation of the international humanitarian law prohibitions against "willful killing" of noncombatants. The organization also found instances of IDF soldiers deliberately impeding the work of medical personnel and preventing medical assistance to the wounded with no apparent or obvious justification of military necessity. Such cases appear to be in violation of the prohibition against "willfully causing great suffering or serious injury to body or health."19 .......
Human Rights Watch researchers also identified other serious violations of the laws and customs of war, such as the practice of shielding, in which Palestinian civilians were used to screen Israeli soldiers from return fire. Shielding, while not a "grave breach" of international humanitarian law, is nonetheless absolutely prohibited and warrants investigation. ........
A nurse living nearby tried to come to Hani's rescue when she heard the screaming, but was herself killed by the IDF soldiers (see below). The family then called an ambulance, which removed Hani's body to the hospital. Because of the intense fighting, Hani's family could not make their way to the hospital for funeral arrangements, and Hani was buried in a temporary communal grave at the back of the hospital.20 Hani was unarmed at the time of the killing, and was not a member of any Palestinian militant group, according to his family. Normally, when a Palestinian militant is killed, family take some pride in the fact that the dead relative was in an armed group opposing the occupation, and make no effort to deny the militant history of the deceased. .........
Hala' called an ambulance, but the IDF soldiers did not allow the ambulance to proceed:
Atiya died from the gunshot wound within the hour:
We were inside in a room and saw some smoke. The soldiers were asking us to open the door. My sister `Afaf went to the door to open it, and while she was opening it, the bomb exploded. When the bomb exploded, we were all screaming, calling for an ambulance. The soldiers were laughing. We saw the right side of her face was destroyed, and the left side of her shoulder and arm was also wounded. She was killed that first moment.46 .......
On the second day of the incursion the fighting drew closer to the Muqasqas family's house, and the aerial attack intensified. A missile hit the house immediately opposite and wounded eight people inside-some of them fighters, others civilians seeking shelter after their own houses had been damaged. The family tried to assist those inside. They called an ambulance, but were told it could not come. Ali's son Hassan recalled that the Palestinian Red Crescent Society (PRCS) told him that "we have tried to come. But the soldiers have shot at us and have even arrested our people." 67 Family members dragged some of the injured to a safer location, but were forced to leave others behind. ........
Human Rights Watch went to inspect the site of the killing and found the crushed and bullet-ridden wheelchair by the side of the road, its white flag still attached. The stretch of road on which Kamal Zghair was killed was completely open with excellent visibility, so it is unlikely that the IDF soldiers who shot him saw anything other than an elderly, wheelchair-bound man. Although Kamal Zghair was outside during a curfew period, the use of lethal force cannot be justified to enforce a curfew. This case raises concerns that serious violations of international humanitarian law have been committed, and thus warrants criminal investigation.
VII. HUMAN SHIELDING AND THE USE OF CIVILIANS FOR MILITARY PURPOSES
IDF soldiers in Jenin engaged in the practice of human shielding, forcing Palestinian civilians to serve as "shields" to protect them from Palestinian militants. The practice of human shielding is specifically outlawed by international humanitarian law. The in inappropriate use of civilians for other military purposes was also widespread during the IDF operation in Jenin. In almost every case where IDF soldiers entered civilian homes in the camp, the residents told Human Rights Watch that the IDF soldiers were accompanied by Palestinian civilians.
Article 28 of the Fourth Geneva Convention states: "The presence of a protected person may not be used to render certain points or areas immune from military operations." The authoritative Commentary refers to this provision in the following terms: "During the last World War public opinion was shocked by certain instances (fortunately rare) of belligerents compelling civilians... to serve as a protective screen for the fighting troops. The prohibition is expressed in an absolute form and applies to the belligerents' own territory as well as occupied territory, to small sites as well as wide areas."81 ...
Among the most serious "human shielding" cases documented in Jenin by Human Rights Watch were the cases of four brothers, a father and his fourteen-year-old son, and two other men who were used to shield IDF soldiers from attack by Palestinian militants while the IDF soldiers occupied a large house located directly across from the main UNRWA compound in the camp. In separate interviews with Human Rights Watch, the victims described how they were forced to stand on the balcony of the house to deter Palestinian gunmen from firing in the direction of the IDF soldiers. The Palestinian civilians also described how the IDF soldiers had forced them to stand in front of the soldiers when the soldiers fired at Palestinian gunmen, while resting their rifles on the shoulders of the Palestinian civilians. .......
For the next two days, Abu Sariya was coerced into accompanying the soldiers, to enter homes even before the IDF soldiers sent in their bomb-sniffing dogs, and to march in front of the soldiers as they moved in the streets of Jenin refugee camp:
On Saturday, April 6, after two days with the soldiers, Abu Sariya was ordered to go knock on the door of a home by the soldiers, while the soldiers hid themselves on the opposite side of the street. As he ran across the street, another group of IDF soldiers located on the roofs overhead opened fire on Abu Sariya and seriously wounded him in the leg. The two groups of IDF soldiers then began arguing. Rather than taking the seriously wounded Abu Sariya to the hospital, the soldiers provided him with some first aid-bandaging the wound-and then ordered four Palestinian youngsters to carry him away. Unable to reach the hospital, the Palestinian youngsters were forced to leave Abu Sariya at a private home in the Hawashin/Damaj area of the camp. Abu Sariya was forced to stay four more days without medical treatment, unable to leave because of snipers in the area, until IDF soldiers announced on Tuesday, April 9, that everyone in the area had to leave their homes.89 .....
I was in my underwear, nothing else. They put me in a house and let me sit down. They made fun of me, spit on me, and starting asking me questions, but when I answered they would just mock me. While I was there, one soldier urinated on me, he cursed at me, but this is nothing, because then he did more. I have nine scars on my legs, so when I stripped they saw them and said you were fighting two months ago, although the scars were much older. They started beating me then with something metal, it was very painful. They also used the plastic ligatures they were using as handcuffs. They [tied a bunch of them together into a whip] and used them to beat me on the soles of my feet.91 .......
Use of Palestinian Civilians for Military Purposes
Human Rights Watch has previously documented the IDF practice of using Palestinian civilians to assist military personnel and operations, a serious breach of international humanitarian law.96 The use of civilians to assist military personnel and operations violates a fundamental principle of IHL, civilian immunity. It also violates Israel's obligation to protect and respect civilian persons under Article 27 of the Fourth Geneva Convention.97 Such practices were widespread during the IDF operation in Jenin.
IDF soldiers forced Ibrahim Abu Ra`id, aged fifty-one, to accompany them for seven days, from Friday, April 5, until Thursday, April 11. Abu Ra`id explained how the soldiers had forced him to do some of the most dangerous work during the operation:
Fifty-five year old Kamal Abu Salim was taken to open shops for soldiers after he fled his house in Hawashin in the early morning hours of April 8, as the bulldozers were approaching. The soldiers separated the men of the family out and detained them. "When we left, they took the men and made us take off our clothes, and then threatened to shoot me. We were four, me, my brother, brother in law and 17-year old son. They made me take off my clothes, and wanted me to show them the chicken shop down the road, they said to enter and open all the doors inside." They walked to the neighboring Abu Nasr district, and although the others were allowed to sit down, Kamal was taken aside to open the shops for the neighbors. He was fired upon by the soldiers. "When I went to do it he started to shoot me, between my legs. He said I was a terrorist, he just wanted to frighten me, I guess.... At the chicken shop, I had to open three doors of three shops there."99 Afterwards, the men were taken to the edge of the camp and detained briefly before being released. ...
VIII. MEDICAL AND HUMANITARIAN ACCESS, AND ATTACKS AGAINST MEDICAL PERSONNEL ...
After several hours, the ICRC called back and said that the Israeli authorities had informed them there was no prohibition on PRCS access to the camp, and that PRCS ambulances were free to go there. This official position, however, was not reflected by the actions of soldiers on the ground. The PRCS again tried to respond to the many calls for help it was receiving from residents within the camp but, Dr. Dababna said:
On April 7, PRCS ambulances resumed operations in Jenin City, though they were sometimes blocked by tanks and were subject to frequent searches. They continued to be denied access to the refugee camp until April 15, eight days later. Human Rights Watch encountered two cases in which sick or injured civilians were treated by IDF medics or assisted to the hospital, but found no evidence of any systematic IDF practice to provide emergency medical care itself. Injured Palestinian combatants, and the vast majority of injured civilians, were effectively denied medical access for the two-week incursion period. All hospital administrators, ambulance staff, and international humanitarian personnel interviewed by Human Rights Watch were in agreement that almost no injured persons from the camp were brought to the hospitals by ambulance from April 5 to April 15. .....
Human Rights Watch documented two cases of civilians who died as a result of their wounds, having been denied access to medical treatment. Fifty-eight-year-old Mariam Wishahi was wounded inside her home by tank fire in the morning of April 6. Her husband tried to obtain medical assistance for his gravely wounded wife, but the IDF repeatedly refused to allow an ambulance to reach the scene, located just a few hundred meters from the main hospital in Jenin:
Qassim `Abd al-Jabr recalled similar difficulties in obtaining medical assistance for his son Nayif who was seriously wounded in an IDF attack outside the refugee camp: "We called an ambulance to come but the driver was prevented from reaching the area. The fire truck also came to try and help but were also prevented-the IDF soldiers prevented them from reaching the area."116 Only about twelve hours after his son was wounded was his father able to take him to a hospital. Nineteen-year-old Nayif `Abd al-Jabr died from his wounds the next day. .......
Such search and arrest procedures, if conducted appropriately and in a way that does not endanger medical access, are legitimate. More troublesome are the repeated incidents in which IDF soldiers fired, without warning, on PRCS ambulances and medical staff. Human Rights Watch has previously documented cases in which IDF soldiers in the West Bank have fired on ambulances.118 The number and frequency of reported IDF shootings at Palestinian ambulances rose steeply from March 2002, immediately prior to Operation Defensive Shield.119 ......
According to PRCS Director Dababna, the PRCS informed the ICRC of the incident, and the ICRC liaised with the relevant Israeli authorities. The IDF denied having fired on the ambulance.122 Several hours later, PRCS staff were given permission to move the ambulance. The .50 caliber rounds that Salah believed were used during the incident suggest that the IDF was responsible for the shooting. IDF use of .50 rounds is routine during military operations, while armed Palestinians rarely have such heavy weaponry in their arsenal. Palestinian use of .50 caliber machine guns has been reported in Beit Jala, however. ......
The operations of the International Committee of the Red Cross were also seriously affected. On April 4, the ICRC issued a press statement noting its regret at "the frequent and often serious instances in which medical personnel were prevented from performing their life saving duties," explaining that "ICRC delegates were regrettably prevented from working because of a sudden degradation of the usual lines of communication between themselves and the Israeli authorities."125 On April 5, the ICRC reported that it would be limiting its movements in the West Bank to a strict minimum, stating:
IX. DISPROPORTIONATE AND INDISCRIMINATE USE OF FORCE WITHOUT MILITARY NECESSITY BY THE IDF
Particularly in the initial stages of the incursion, witnesses described how the IDF's armored bulldozers began destroying their homes while they were still inside, endangering the lives of civilians. Bulldozers initially entered the al-Damaj area of the camp on the east hill of the camp. Bulldozers were able to enter the area below Hawashin area on April 6 and 7, and the Hawashin district on April 9 and 10. ......
Kamal Tawalba, a forty-three-year-old father of fourteen children, offered one of many compelling accounts that showed how IDF tanks and helicopters made little distinction between legitimate military targets and civilian homes. He told Human Rights Watch that he was alone with his family at his home on the morning of Saturday, April 6, and had harbored no Palestinian militants in his home: "There were no fighters in my house. I have fourteen children and would never have taken such a risk." The family was asleep on the bottom floor of their home when a tank shell hit the floor above them, setting the house on fire. He and his family tried to leave, but were prevented from doing so when IDF soldiers shot at them: "I went to the gate and started calling to the IDF soldiers to allow us to go out. I tried to ask for help-I held two children in my arms-but they started shooting at the windows."145 A few minutes later, two TOW-missiles hit the top floor of his home, causing more destruction: "After two minutes, two more missiles came to the house from an Apache helicopter. I can tell the difference [with the tank shells] because we could see the wires from the Apache helicopter [guiding the missile]. I took my small baby-there was so much dust-and I went outside without caring about the soldiers. A soldier started shooting at me and told me to put the children down. He took me in the street and told me to take off my clothes."146 .......
Fathiya Sa`adi vividly remembered the Arabic-language warning that came blaring from IDF loudspeakers on Wednesday, April 10, at about 9:30 a.m., ordering civilians to evacuate their homes. She repeated the message verbatim to Human Rights Watch:
Fathiya and her family left their home, pushing their wheelchair-bound mother in front of them. "The [Israeli] snipers were shooting in the air to make us afraid," she recounted.157 Complete article
I. ABOUT THIS RESEARCH
A Human Rights Watch team of three experienced researchers spent seven days in Jenin from April 19, 2002 to April 28, 2002 to research this report. The team interviewed over one hundred residents of Jenin refugee camp, gathering detailed accounts from victims and witnesses and carefully corroborating and cross-checking their accounts with those of others. Human Rights Watch investigators also collected information from other first-hand observers of the events in the Jenin refugee camp, including international aid workers, medical workers, and local officials. The research also included information from public sources, including Israeli governmental sources, about the incursion. However, the IDF has not agreed to Human Rights Watch's repeated requests for information about its military incursions into the West Bank and Gaza Strip. Although Human Rights Watch's research has been extensive, we do not pretend that it is comprehensive. Further inquiry is still in order, particularly as the excavation process proceeds, and if Israel ultimately decides to make its soldiers involved in the operation available for interview.
II. SUMMARY
On April 3, 2002, the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) launched a major military operation in the Jenin refugee camp, home to some fourteen thousand Palestinians, the overwhelming majority of them civilians. The Israelis' expressed aim was to capture or kill Palestinian militants responsible for suicide bombings and other attacks that have killed more than seventy Israeli and other civilians since March 2002. The IDF military incursion into the Jenin refugee camp was carried out on an unprecedented scale compared to other military operations mounted by the IDF since the current Israeli-Palestinian conflict began in September 2000.
The presence of armed Palestinian militants inside Jenin refugee camp, and the preparations made by those armed Palestinian militants in anticipation of the IDF incursion, does not detract from the IDF's obligation under international humanitarian law to take all feasible precautions to avoid harm to civilians. Israel also has a legal duty to ensure that its attacks on legitimate military targets did not cause disproportionate harm to civilians. Unfortunately, these obligations were not met. Human Rights Watch's research demonstrates that, during their incursion into the Jenin refugee camp, Israeli forces committed serious violations of international humanitarian law, some amounting prima facie to war crimes. ......
The harm from this destruction was aggravated by the inadequate warning given to civilian residents. Although warnings were issued on multiple occasions by the IDF, many civilians only learned of the risk as bulldozers began to crush their houses. Jamal Fayid, a thirty-seven-year-old paralyzed man, was killed when the IDF bulldozed his home on top of him, refusing to allow his relatives the time to remove him from the home. Sixty-five-year-old Muhammad Abu Saba`a had to plead with an IDF bulldozer operator to stop demolishing his home while his family remained inside; when he returned to his half-demolished home, he was shot dead by an Israeli soldier. .....
Throughout the incursion, IDF soldiers used Palestinian civilians to protect them from danger, deploying them as "human shields" and forcing them to perform dangerous work. Human Rights Watch received many separate and credible testimonies that Palestinians were placed in vulnerable positions to protect IDF soldiers from gunfire or attack. IDF soldiers forced these Palestinians to stand for extended periods in front of exposed IDF positions, or made them accompany the soldiers as they moved from house to house. Kamal Tawalbi, the father of fourteen children, described how soldiers kept him and his fourteen-year-old son for three hours in the line of fire, using his and his son's shoulders to rest their rifles as they fired. IDF soldiers forced a sixty-five-year-old woman was forced to stand on a rooftop in front of an IDF position in the middle of a helicopter battle.
As in prior IDF operations, soldiers forced Palestinians, sometimes at gunpoint, to accompany IDF troops during their searches of homes, to enter homes, to open doors, and to perform other potentially dangerous tasks. In Jenin, such coerced use of civilians was a widespread practice; in virtually every case in which IDF soldiers entered civilian homes, residents told Human Rights Watch that IDF soldiers were accompanied by Palestinian civilians who were participating under duress. The forced use of civilians during military operations is a serious violation of the laws of war, as it exposes civilians to direct risk of death or serious injury.
Human Rights Watch has so far found no evidence that Palestinian gunmen forced Palestinian civilians to serve as human shields during the attack. But Palestinian gunmen did endanger Palestinian civilians in the camp by using it as a base for planning and launching attacks, using indiscriminate tactics such as planting improvised explosive devices within the camp, and intermingling with the civilian population during armed conflict, and, in some cases, to avoid apprehension by Israeli forces. .....
During the period that the IDF directly controlled Jenin camp, the Israeli authorities were obliged under international humanitarian law to take all feasible precautions to protect camp civilians from the dangers arising from hostilities, and to ensure to the maximum extent possible under the circumstances that the civilian population had access to food and medical supplies. In practice, however, the IDF prevented humanitarian organizations, including the International Committee of the Red Cross, from gaining access to the camp and its civilian inhabitants-despite the great humanitarian need. This blockage continued from April 11 to 15, after the majority of armed Palestinians had surrendered. Human Rights Watch investigated and found no evidence to sustain reports that the IDF had removed bodies from the refugee camp for burial in mass graves.
IV. BACKGROUND: THE BATTLE INSIDE JENIN REFUGEE CAMP
But the presence of armed Palestinian militants inside the camp, and the preparations made by those armed Palestinian militants in anticipation of the IDF incursion does not detract from an essential fact: Jenin refugee camp was also home to more than 14,000 Palestinian civilians. The IDF had an obligation under international humanitarian law to take all feasible precautions to prevent a disproportionate impact of its military incursion on those civilians. ......
To enable tanks and heavy armor to penetrate to the camp, the IDF sent in armored bulldozers to widen the narrow alleys by shearing off the fronts of buildings, in places several meters deep. In the initial days, Palestinian fighters held off the IDF to the west of the camp, while to the east bulldozers penetrated the hilltop district of al-Damaj, overlooking the center of the camp. The IDF infantry managed to enter the northern entrance to the camp, throwing smoke grenades to provide cover as they went from house to house. Although helicopters were present, at that stage they primarily provided air-to-ground support. IDF soldiers "mouseholed" from house to house, knocking large holes in the walls between houses to provide routes of safe passage from to the outer perimeters of the camp to the center. In numerous cases, they used Palestinian civilians and detainees as human shields as they moved from house to house, and, as Human Rights Watch has documented in previous incursions elsewhere in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, forced civilians to perform the most dangerous tasks of entering and checking buildings during house-to-house searches. .......
1 The dates, locations, and casualties in this period are as follows, according to an April 12 BBC listing: March 2: Jerusalem, nine killed and fifty-seven injured; March 5: Afula, one killed and several injured; March 9: Jerusalem, eleven killed and fifty injured; March 20, near Umm al-Fahm: seven killed; March 21: Jerusalem, two killed and twenty injured; March 26: Jerusalem, three injured; March 27: Netanya, twenty-eight killed; March 29: Jerusalem, two killed; March 30: Tel Aviv, thirty injured; March 31: Haifa, fourteen killed; March 31: Efrat, four injured; April 1: one injured.
VI. CIVILIAN CASUALTIES AND UNLAWFUL KILLINGS IN JENIN
During its investigation, Human Rights Watch found serious violations of international humanitarian law. The organization documented fifty-two Palestinian deaths in the camp and its environs caused by the fighting. At least twenty-two of those confirmed dead were civilians, including children, physically disabled, and elderly people. At least twenty-seven of those confirmed dead were suspected to have been armed Palestinians belonging to movements such as Islamic Jihad, Hamas, and the al-Aqsa Martyr's Brigades. Some were members of the Palestinian Authority's (PA) National Security Forces or other branches of the PA police and security forces. Human Rights watch was unable to determine conclusively the status of the remaining three killed, among the cases documented. .....
During its investigation, however, Human Rights Watch documented unlawful and deliberate killings, and the killing or wounding of protected individuals as a result of excessive or disproportionate use of force. Such cases are in violation of the international humanitarian law prohibitions against "willful killing" of noncombatants. The organization also found instances of IDF soldiers deliberately impeding the work of medical personnel and preventing medical assistance to the wounded with no apparent or obvious justification of military necessity. Such cases appear to be in violation of the prohibition against "willfully causing great suffering or serious injury to body or health."19 .......
Human Rights Watch researchers also identified other serious violations of the laws and customs of war, such as the practice of shielding, in which Palestinian civilians were used to screen Israeli soldiers from return fire. Shielding, while not a "grave breach" of international humanitarian law, is nonetheless absolutely prohibited and warrants investigation. ........
A nurse living nearby tried to come to Hani's rescue when she heard the screaming, but was herself killed by the IDF soldiers (see below). The family then called an ambulance, which removed Hani's body to the hospital. Because of the intense fighting, Hani's family could not make their way to the hospital for funeral arrangements, and Hani was buried in a temporary communal grave at the back of the hospital.20 Hani was unarmed at the time of the killing, and was not a member of any Palestinian militant group, according to his family. Normally, when a Palestinian militant is killed, family take some pride in the fact that the dead relative was in an armed group opposing the occupation, and make no effort to deny the militant history of the deceased. .........
Hala' called an ambulance, but the IDF soldiers did not allow the ambulance to proceed:
I started screaming, asking anyone to call an ambulance. The ambulance came, but it was prevented from reaching us. Atiya was still breathing at the time. But there was no aid, no ambulance. I couldn't go outside because there were Israeli snipers and tanks everywhere. All this time we were just crawling.39
Atiya died from the gunshot wound within the hour:
After all my trials trying to get anyone to help, I went back to the body. I started checking, and made sure he died. I closed his eyes and straightened his hands. I closed the door because I didn't want my children to see their father dead. He had promised to buy the children some milk before he died, and they kept asking where the milk was.... I spent the whole night with the children in one room. I couldn't close my eyes. At midnight, I went to the room and put a blanket over him.40 .......
We were inside in a room and saw some smoke. The soldiers were asking us to open the door. My sister `Afaf went to the door to open it, and while she was opening it, the bomb exploded. When the bomb exploded, we were all screaming, calling for an ambulance. The soldiers were laughing. We saw the right side of her face was destroyed, and the left side of her shoulder and arm was also wounded. She was killed that first moment.46 .......
On the second day of the incursion the fighting drew closer to the Muqasqas family's house, and the aerial attack intensified. A missile hit the house immediately opposite and wounded eight people inside-some of them fighters, others civilians seeking shelter after their own houses had been damaged. The family tried to assist those inside. They called an ambulance, but were told it could not come. Ali's son Hassan recalled that the Palestinian Red Crescent Society (PRCS) told him that "we have tried to come. But the soldiers have shot at us and have even arrested our people." 67 Family members dragged some of the injured to a safer location, but were forced to leave others behind. ........
Human Rights Watch went to inspect the site of the killing and found the crushed and bullet-ridden wheelchair by the side of the road, its white flag still attached. The stretch of road on which Kamal Zghair was killed was completely open with excellent visibility, so it is unlikely that the IDF soldiers who shot him saw anything other than an elderly, wheelchair-bound man. Although Kamal Zghair was outside during a curfew period, the use of lethal force cannot be justified to enforce a curfew. This case raises concerns that serious violations of international humanitarian law have been committed, and thus warrants criminal investigation.
VII. HUMAN SHIELDING AND THE USE OF CIVILIANS FOR MILITARY PURPOSES
IDF soldiers in Jenin engaged in the practice of human shielding, forcing Palestinian civilians to serve as "shields" to protect them from Palestinian militants. The practice of human shielding is specifically outlawed by international humanitarian law. The in inappropriate use of civilians for other military purposes was also widespread during the IDF operation in Jenin. In almost every case where IDF soldiers entered civilian homes in the camp, the residents told Human Rights Watch that the IDF soldiers were accompanied by Palestinian civilians.
Article 28 of the Fourth Geneva Convention states: "The presence of a protected person may not be used to render certain points or areas immune from military operations." The authoritative Commentary refers to this provision in the following terms: "During the last World War public opinion was shocked by certain instances (fortunately rare) of belligerents compelling civilians... to serve as a protective screen for the fighting troops. The prohibition is expressed in an absolute form and applies to the belligerents' own territory as well as occupied territory, to small sites as well as wide areas."81 ...
Among the most serious "human shielding" cases documented in Jenin by Human Rights Watch were the cases of four brothers, a father and his fourteen-year-old son, and two other men who were used to shield IDF soldiers from attack by Palestinian militants while the IDF soldiers occupied a large house located directly across from the main UNRWA compound in the camp. In separate interviews with Human Rights Watch, the victims described how they were forced to stand on the balcony of the house to deter Palestinian gunmen from firing in the direction of the IDF soldiers. The Palestinian civilians also described how the IDF soldiers had forced them to stand in front of the soldiers when the soldiers fired at Palestinian gunmen, while resting their rifles on the shoulders of the Palestinian civilians. .......
For the next two days, Abu Sariya was coerced into accompanying the soldiers, to enter homes even before the IDF soldiers sent in their bomb-sniffing dogs, and to march in front of the soldiers as they moved in the streets of Jenin refugee camp:
They pointed a house out to me. They said, "Go knock on the door, tell all the people to go in one room, and come back." I knocked on the door and there was no answer. They put a small bomb the size of a pack of cigarettes on the door and opened it. They ordered me to go inside. I checked and found no one inside. Then they asked me to go out and sent in the dog. Then, when the dog came back, they went inside....
Then we went to another house. Whenever they wanted to move, [a soldier] would grab me by the collar, put me in front of him, and move like this. They used me like this between houses-in case there was some shooting, I would die first.
I asked them, "Please release me, you promised me [to go to] just one house, let me go." At least five times a day I would ask them. They would always say that they would release me once they found a substitute.88
On Saturday, April 6, after two days with the soldiers, Abu Sariya was ordered to go knock on the door of a home by the soldiers, while the soldiers hid themselves on the opposite side of the street. As he ran across the street, another group of IDF soldiers located on the roofs overhead opened fire on Abu Sariya and seriously wounded him in the leg. The two groups of IDF soldiers then began arguing. Rather than taking the seriously wounded Abu Sariya to the hospital, the soldiers provided him with some first aid-bandaging the wound-and then ordered four Palestinian youngsters to carry him away. Unable to reach the hospital, the Palestinian youngsters were forced to leave Abu Sariya at a private home in the Hawashin/Damaj area of the camp. Abu Sariya was forced to stay four more days without medical treatment, unable to leave because of snipers in the area, until IDF soldiers announced on Tuesday, April 9, that everyone in the area had to leave their homes.89 .....
I was in my underwear, nothing else. They put me in a house and let me sit down. They made fun of me, spit on me, and starting asking me questions, but when I answered they would just mock me. While I was there, one soldier urinated on me, he cursed at me, but this is nothing, because then he did more. I have nine scars on my legs, so when I stripped they saw them and said you were fighting two months ago, although the scars were much older. They started beating me then with something metal, it was very painful. They also used the plastic ligatures they were using as handcuffs. They [tied a bunch of them together into a whip] and used them to beat me on the soles of my feet.91 .......
Use of Palestinian Civilians for Military Purposes
Human Rights Watch has previously documented the IDF practice of using Palestinian civilians to assist military personnel and operations, a serious breach of international humanitarian law.96 The use of civilians to assist military personnel and operations violates a fundamental principle of IHL, civilian immunity. It also violates Israel's obligation to protect and respect civilian persons under Article 27 of the Fourth Geneva Convention.97 Such practices were widespread during the IDF operation in Jenin.
IDF soldiers forced Ibrahim Abu Ra`id, aged fifty-one, to accompany them for seven days, from Friday, April 5, until Thursday, April 11. Abu Ra`id explained how the soldiers had forced him to do some of the most dangerous work during the operation:
They took me because I spoke Hebrew. I was with eighteen soldiers. They asked me to walk in front of them [in the streets]. They asked me to knock on the doors because they were afraid of booby-traps. So they would hide behind the walls and make me knock on the door.
They made me knock on the doors. If there was no answer, they gave me a heavy crowbar to break the locks. If I couldn't break the locks, they would explode it. After the explosion, they asked me to go inside first. After I was inside for five minutes, they would come inside. [That way,] in case an explosion happened, only I would be inside.
When I entered inside, they would ask me, "Open this cupboard, open this door, check this room." I would do the inspection for them. They touched nothing, but would order me to do it. Only after I had opened everything did they start searching. ...
I told them that it was too dangerous to do this work. So they kept promising, "OK, just work for us today and we will release you," but they kept making me do this work. They made me do it by force, I had no choice.98
Fifty-five year old Kamal Abu Salim was taken to open shops for soldiers after he fled his house in Hawashin in the early morning hours of April 8, as the bulldozers were approaching. The soldiers separated the men of the family out and detained them. "When we left, they took the men and made us take off our clothes, and then threatened to shoot me. We were four, me, my brother, brother in law and 17-year old son. They made me take off my clothes, and wanted me to show them the chicken shop down the road, they said to enter and open all the doors inside." They walked to the neighboring Abu Nasr district, and although the others were allowed to sit down, Kamal was taken aside to open the shops for the neighbors. He was fired upon by the soldiers. "When I went to do it he started to shoot me, between my legs. He said I was a terrorist, he just wanted to frighten me, I guess.... At the chicken shop, I had to open three doors of three shops there."99 Afterwards, the men were taken to the edge of the camp and detained briefly before being released. ...
VIII. MEDICAL AND HUMANITARIAN ACCESS, AND ATTACKS AGAINST MEDICAL PERSONNEL ...
After several hours, the ICRC called back and said that the Israeli authorities had informed them there was no prohibition on PRCS access to the camp, and that PRCS ambulances were free to go there. This official position, however, was not reflected by the actions of soldiers on the ground. The PRCS again tried to respond to the many calls for help it was receiving from residents within the camp but, Dr. Dababna said:
Whenever we sent ambulances the tanks would shoot at us and tell us to go back. We repeated this several times: calling, being informed permission was granted, and then being shot at. It was like they were tricking us. But there were so many injured and dead we just began to try anyway.
On April 7, PRCS ambulances resumed operations in Jenin City, though they were sometimes blocked by tanks and were subject to frequent searches. They continued to be denied access to the refugee camp until April 15, eight days later. Human Rights Watch encountered two cases in which sick or injured civilians were treated by IDF medics or assisted to the hospital, but found no evidence of any systematic IDF practice to provide emergency medical care itself. Injured Palestinian combatants, and the vast majority of injured civilians, were effectively denied medical access for the two-week incursion period. All hospital administrators, ambulance staff, and international humanitarian personnel interviewed by Human Rights Watch were in agreement that almost no injured persons from the camp were brought to the hospitals by ambulance from April 5 to April 15. .....
Human Rights Watch documented two cases of civilians who died as a result of their wounds, having been denied access to medical treatment. Fifty-eight-year-old Mariam Wishahi was wounded inside her home by tank fire in the morning of April 6. Her husband tried to obtain medical assistance for his gravely wounded wife, but the IDF repeatedly refused to allow an ambulance to reach the scene, located just a few hundred meters from the main hospital in Jenin:
I tried to get an ambulance. I asked my neighbor to get an ambulance. A Palestinian Red Crescent ambulance came, but [the soldiers] shot it. When a second ambulance came the next day, the soldiers made the driver and the nurse take off their clothes next to my house. The driver was telling them he needed to get someone from the house. I started shouting that we needed an ambulance, and the soldiers started shouting to my house, telling me rudely in Arabic to get back inside. My wife kept saying she needed to go to the hospital. On Sunday night, at 11:00 p.m., she died. Every time I called the ambulance, they told me that the IDF were shooting at them and they could not come inside the camp.115
Qassim `Abd al-Jabr recalled similar difficulties in obtaining medical assistance for his son Nayif who was seriously wounded in an IDF attack outside the refugee camp: "We called an ambulance to come but the driver was prevented from reaching the area. The fire truck also came to try and help but were also prevented-the IDF soldiers prevented them from reaching the area."116 Only about twelve hours after his son was wounded was his father able to take him to a hospital. Nineteen-year-old Nayif `Abd al-Jabr died from his wounds the next day. .......
Such search and arrest procedures, if conducted appropriately and in a way that does not endanger medical access, are legitimate. More troublesome are the repeated incidents in which IDF soldiers fired, without warning, on PRCS ambulances and medical staff. Human Rights Watch has previously documented cases in which IDF soldiers in the West Bank have fired on ambulances.118 The number and frequency of reported IDF shootings at Palestinian ambulances rose steeply from March 2002, immediately prior to Operation Defensive Shield.119 ......
According to PRCS Director Dababna, the PRCS informed the ICRC of the incident, and the ICRC liaised with the relevant Israeli authorities. The IDF denied having fired on the ambulance.122 Several hours later, PRCS staff were given permission to move the ambulance. The .50 caliber rounds that Salah believed were used during the incident suggest that the IDF was responsible for the shooting. IDF use of .50 rounds is routine during military operations, while armed Palestinians rarely have such heavy weaponry in their arsenal. Palestinian use of .50 caliber machine guns has been reported in Beit Jala, however. ......
The operations of the International Committee of the Red Cross were also seriously affected. On April 4, the ICRC issued a press statement noting its regret at "the frequent and often serious instances in which medical personnel were prevented from performing their life saving duties," explaining that "ICRC delegates were regrettably prevented from working because of a sudden degradation of the usual lines of communication between themselves and the Israeli authorities."125 On April 5, the ICRC reported that it would be limiting its movements in the West Bank to a strict minimum, stating:
[O]ver the past two days, ICRC staff in Bethlehem have been threatened at gun point, warning shots have been fired at ICRC vehicles in Nablus and Ramallah, two ICRC vehicles were damaged by IDF tanks in Tulkarem and the ICRC premises in Tulkarem were broken into. This behaviour is totally unacceptable, for it jeapordises not only the life-saving work of emergency medical services, but also the ICRC's humanitarian mission.126 ......
IX. DISPROPORTIONATE AND INDISCRIMINATE USE OF FORCE WITHOUT MILITARY NECESSITY BY THE IDF
Particularly in the initial stages of the incursion, witnesses described how the IDF's armored bulldozers began destroying their homes while they were still inside, endangering the lives of civilians. Bulldozers initially entered the al-Damaj area of the camp on the east hill of the camp. Bulldozers were able to enter the area below Hawashin area on April 6 and 7, and the Hawashin district on April 9 and 10. ......
Kamal Tawalba, a forty-three-year-old father of fourteen children, offered one of many compelling accounts that showed how IDF tanks and helicopters made little distinction between legitimate military targets and civilian homes. He told Human Rights Watch that he was alone with his family at his home on the morning of Saturday, April 6, and had harbored no Palestinian militants in his home: "There were no fighters in my house. I have fourteen children and would never have taken such a risk." The family was asleep on the bottom floor of their home when a tank shell hit the floor above them, setting the house on fire. He and his family tried to leave, but were prevented from doing so when IDF soldiers shot at them: "I went to the gate and started calling to the IDF soldiers to allow us to go out. I tried to ask for help-I held two children in my arms-but they started shooting at the windows."145 A few minutes later, two TOW-missiles hit the top floor of his home, causing more destruction: "After two minutes, two more missiles came to the house from an Apache helicopter. I can tell the difference [with the tank shells] because we could see the wires from the Apache helicopter [guiding the missile]. I took my small baby-there was so much dust-and I went outside without caring about the soldiers. A soldier started shooting at me and told me to put the children down. He took me in the street and told me to take off my clothes."146 .......
Fathiya Sa`adi vividly remembered the Arabic-language warning that came blaring from IDF loudspeakers on Wednesday, April 10, at about 9:30 a.m., ordering civilians to evacuate their homes. She repeated the message verbatim to Human Rights Watch:
Inhabitants of the refugee camp of Jenin! We want to inform you that the Israeli soldiers have occupied the camp and it is completely under Israeli control now. We have destroyed your resistance. Now, you must immediately leave your houses, or we will destroy the whole camp over your heads by plane and by tanks.156
Fathiya and her family left their home, pushing their wheelchair-bound mother in front of them. "The [Israeli] snipers were shooting in the air to make us afraid," she recounted.157 Complete article
Amnesty International, Israel Must End Its Policy of Assassinations (London:July 2003)
Extrajudicial executions 1 are among the practices to which the Israeli army and security services have resorted for several years, without offering proof of guilt or right of defence. In addition to causing the death or injury of the targeted person, such attacks have resulted in the unlawful killing of scores and injury of hundreds of bystanders, including children. Amnesty International has repeatedly condemned these acts as unlawful and is gravely concerned at the increase of such practices in the past 32 months.2 p.1 ...
Amnesty International has repeatedly condemned attacks against civilians by Palestinian armed groups.5 Since the beginning of the intifada some 750 Israelis, most of them civilians and including 93 children, have been killed in Israel and the Occupied Territories by Palestinian armed groups. In the same period more than 2,000 Palestinians, including some 380 children, have been killed by the Israeli army in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. The organization has continued to call for those who deliberately kill civilians to be brought to justice for their crimes. p.2
11 In addition to carrying out arrests throughout the West Bank and Gaza Strip as detailed herein, the Israeli army has often raided and destroyed thousands of Palestinian properties, including homes, factories, workshops and warehouses, which it alleges had been used to store or produce weapons, munitions or explosives, or to carry out attacks against Israeli civilians or soldiers. The destruction of these properties has often been carried out in situ, with bulldozers or by placing explosive charges inside the properties. Inhabited Palestinian houses in towns, villages or refugee camps throughout the West Bank and Gaza Strip have also often been taken over by Israeli soldiers, in many cases for prolonged periods of time. The Israeli army and security forces also exercise control throughout the West Bank and Gaza Strip through a variety of other means including curfews, closures, checkpoints and patrols around and within towns, villages and refugee camps. The above-mentioned and other activities are another indication that the Israeli army does exercise its control over the West Bank and Gaza Strip. p.5 ....
While the majority of the Palestinians arrested by the Israeli army have been subsequently released without charge or trial, more than 3,000 have been charged with criminal offences including committing murders and other attacks against civilians or soldiers, participating in, assisting, and planning such crimes. Of the latter, some have been convicted and sentenced and others are awaiting trial. More than 2,000 others have been held in administrative detention without charge or trial for periods ranging from one or two months to over a year. Of these, more than 1,000 remain in administrative detention. According to the Israeli army and government authorities, the use of administrative detention is a preventive – not punitive – measure against those who are deemed to pose a threat to security and who cannot be brought to justice because this would require disclosing and possibly endangering sources of information. ......
In light of the above Amnesty International believes that Israel's claims that it only resorts to assassinations in response to an immediate security threat which cannot be otherwise dealt with, are not credible and that such practices cannot be justified. In most cases Israel has not provided evidence that those who were assassinated by the Israeli army posed an imminent threat to lives which could not be met by other means. In fact there is ample evidence to the contrary. Israel has repeatedly proved that it does have other means at its disposal to deal with such cases, notably by arresting and bringing to justice those suspected of involvement in perpetrating or planning attacks against Israeli civilians or soldiers. p.6 ......
Israeli government and military officials have repeatedly stated that all care is taken not to cause harm to other Palestinians when they carry out such assassinations. The facts, however, indicate otherwise. Scores of men, women and children bystanders have been killed and hundreds have been injured in the course of assassinations or attempted assassinations of Palestinians by the Israeli army.
On 24 June 2003 Israeli Air Force Commander Major General Dan Halutz said on Israeli army radio that in the assassination of Salah Shehadeh “we fired knowing his wife would be near him”. On the night of 22 July 2002 the Israeli army dropped a one-ton bomb from an F16 fighter jet on a densely populated neighbourhood of Gaza City, killing Hamas activist Salah Shehadeh, the target of the attack, and 16 civilians, nine of them children. His wife and daughter were among the victims. Some 70 others were injured in the attack and six nearby houses were also destroyed. Amnesty International delegates visited the site of the attack and interviewed neighbours shortly after the attack. The following day Prime Minister Ariel Sharon publicly referred to the attack as “one of the most successful operations”. ......
In recent weeks several civilian bystanders were killed and dozens, including children, were injured in a series of assassinations and attempted assassinations, most of them in the Gaza Strip. In two separate such attacks carried out on 10 June 2003, the targets of the assassination – Hamas leader ‘Abd al-‘Aziz Rantissi in one attack and two Hamas militants in the other attack – were wounded while five bystanders were killed and dozens injured, including several children. In the following two days more bystanders were killed when Israeli helicopter gunship launched several rockets at cars travelling in the centre of Gaza City. p.7 Complete article
Extrajudicial executions 1 are among the practices to which the Israeli army and security services have resorted for several years, without offering proof of guilt or right of defence. In addition to causing the death or injury of the targeted person, such attacks have resulted in the unlawful killing of scores and injury of hundreds of bystanders, including children. Amnesty International has repeatedly condemned these acts as unlawful and is gravely concerned at the increase of such practices in the past 32 months.2 p.1 ...
Amnesty International has repeatedly condemned attacks against civilians by Palestinian armed groups.5 Since the beginning of the intifada some 750 Israelis, most of them civilians and including 93 children, have been killed in Israel and the Occupied Territories by Palestinian armed groups. In the same period more than 2,000 Palestinians, including some 380 children, have been killed by the Israeli army in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. The organization has continued to call for those who deliberately kill civilians to be brought to justice for their crimes. p.2
11 In addition to carrying out arrests throughout the West Bank and Gaza Strip as detailed herein, the Israeli army has often raided and destroyed thousands of Palestinian properties, including homes, factories, workshops and warehouses, which it alleges had been used to store or produce weapons, munitions or explosives, or to carry out attacks against Israeli civilians or soldiers. The destruction of these properties has often been carried out in situ, with bulldozers or by placing explosive charges inside the properties. Inhabited Palestinian houses in towns, villages or refugee camps throughout the West Bank and Gaza Strip have also often been taken over by Israeli soldiers, in many cases for prolonged periods of time. The Israeli army and security forces also exercise control throughout the West Bank and Gaza Strip through a variety of other means including curfews, closures, checkpoints and patrols around and within towns, villages and refugee camps. The above-mentioned and other activities are another indication that the Israeli army does exercise its control over the West Bank and Gaza Strip. p.5 ....
While the majority of the Palestinians arrested by the Israeli army have been subsequently released without charge or trial, more than 3,000 have been charged with criminal offences including committing murders and other attacks against civilians or soldiers, participating in, assisting, and planning such crimes. Of the latter, some have been convicted and sentenced and others are awaiting trial. More than 2,000 others have been held in administrative detention without charge or trial for periods ranging from one or two months to over a year. Of these, more than 1,000 remain in administrative detention. According to the Israeli army and government authorities, the use of administrative detention is a preventive – not punitive – measure against those who are deemed to pose a threat to security and who cannot be brought to justice because this would require disclosing and possibly endangering sources of information. ......
In light of the above Amnesty International believes that Israel's claims that it only resorts to assassinations in response to an immediate security threat which cannot be otherwise dealt with, are not credible and that such practices cannot be justified. In most cases Israel has not provided evidence that those who were assassinated by the Israeli army posed an imminent threat to lives which could not be met by other means. In fact there is ample evidence to the contrary. Israel has repeatedly proved that it does have other means at its disposal to deal with such cases, notably by arresting and bringing to justice those suspected of involvement in perpetrating or planning attacks against Israeli civilians or soldiers. p.6 ......
Israeli government and military officials have repeatedly stated that all care is taken not to cause harm to other Palestinians when they carry out such assassinations. The facts, however, indicate otherwise. Scores of men, women and children bystanders have been killed and hundreds have been injured in the course of assassinations or attempted assassinations of Palestinians by the Israeli army.
On 24 June 2003 Israeli Air Force Commander Major General Dan Halutz said on Israeli army radio that in the assassination of Salah Shehadeh “we fired knowing his wife would be near him”. On the night of 22 July 2002 the Israeli army dropped a one-ton bomb from an F16 fighter jet on a densely populated neighbourhood of Gaza City, killing Hamas activist Salah Shehadeh, the target of the attack, and 16 civilians, nine of them children. His wife and daughter were among the victims. Some 70 others were injured in the attack and six nearby houses were also destroyed. Amnesty International delegates visited the site of the attack and interviewed neighbours shortly after the attack. The following day Prime Minister Ariel Sharon publicly referred to the attack as “one of the most successful operations”. ......
In recent weeks several civilian bystanders were killed and dozens, including children, were injured in a series of assassinations and attempted assassinations, most of them in the Gaza Strip. In two separate such attacks carried out on 10 June 2003, the targets of the assassination – Hamas leader ‘Abd al-‘Aziz Rantissi in one attack and two Hamas militants in the other attack – were wounded while five bystanders were killed and dozens injured, including several children. In the following two days more bystanders were killed when Israeli helicopter gunship launched several rockets at cars travelling in the centre of Gaza City. p.7 Complete article
Did the Israeli Supreme Court ban assassinations in 2003 or any other time? 12/19/2025
The Israeli Supreme Court did not issue a blanket ban on assassinations (which it refers to as "targeted killings"). In a landmark ruling in December 2006, the court determined that while the practice was not always illegal, its legality must be assessed on a case-by-case basis according to the specific circumstances of each incident and international humanitarian law.
The 2006 decision, which addressed a petition filed by human rights groups in 2002 (during which period, in July 2003, the court declined to issue immediate injunctions), imposed several limitations and conditions on when a targeted killing could be considered legal.
Key conditions established by the court included:
Reliable Information: The decision to target an individual must be based on well-founded and verifiable information that the person is directly participating in hostilities.
No Less Harmful Means: A targeted killing can only be carried out if there are no less harmful means available to address the threat, such as arrest, interrogation, and trial.
Proportionality: Any harm caused to innocent civilians (collateral damage) must be proportional to the anticipated military advantage of the attack.
Post-Attack Investigation: An independent and thorough investigation must be conducted after each attack to determine whether all norms and conditions were respected.
The court emphasized that individuals targeted are considered civilians who lose their protection from attack only "for such time as they take a direct part in hostilities". It rejected the government's argument for a third category of "unlawful combatants" who would be perpetual targets. Complete article
The Public Committee against Torture in Israel et al. v. The Government of Israel et al., Supreme Court of Israel, 14 December 2006 12/14/2006 Summary On 14 December 2006, the Supreme Court of Israel, sitting as the High Court of Justice, issued a decision in which it assessed the legality, under international law, of the Israeli Government's policy of "targeted killings," employed against members of Palestinian terrorist organizations in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank. The court's first finding was that a continuous situation of armed conflict exists between Israel and various Palestinian terrorist organizations, and that when an armed conflict is taking place in an occupied territory, it is subject to the law of international armed conflict. The court then considered whether the terrorists and their organizations were to be defined as combatants or civilians. It cited the rule of customary international law, according to which civilians are legally protected against being attacked only when they are not taking a direct part in hostilities. The court concluded that it was necessary to obtain well-founded and verifiable information about civilians allegedly taking part in hostilities before attacking them. It ruled also that civilians taking a direct part in hostilities may not be physically attacked if less harmful means could be employed against them, such as arrest, interrogation, and trial.
High Court of Justice imposes limitations on Israel 's targeted-killing policy 12/19/2006 On 13 December 2006, the High Court of Justice gave its decision on the petition filed in January 2002 by the Public Committee Against Torture in Israel and LAW against Israel 's policy of targeted killings, which the state has carried out officially since the beginning of the second intifada, in September 2000. According to B'Tselem's statistics, Israel 's targeted-killing attacks in the past six years have killed 339 Palestinians, 210 of them the target of the attack and 129 of them civilian bystanders.
Public Committee v. Government of Israel 12/13/2006
Public Committee Against Torture v. Government 12/14/2006
The Public Committee against Torture in Israel v. The Government of Israel – Summary of Judgment 12/14/2006
Israel Supreme Court: Summary of Ruling on Targeted Killings 12/14/2006 HCJ 769/02: Public Committee Against Torture in Israel v. Government of Israel
Israeli Supreme Court Approves Restricted Targeted Killings 12/14/2006
High Court: International Law Does Not Forbid Targeted Killings 12/14/2025 Court: Targeted killings must be evaluated individually; ruling expected to serve as legal precedent in int'l law. The High Court of Justice ruled Thursday that the Israel Defense Forces policy of targeted killings of militants does not categorically violate international law, and the legality of each targeted killing must be evaluated on an individual basis.
Declining to intervene: Israel's Supreme Court and the Occupied Territories 08/04/2003 In its annual report issued in July 2003, the Association for Civil Rights in Israel (ACRI) painted a familiar yet surprising picture of Israeli army maltreatment of Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza. A wide range of army practices -- from house-to-house searches in villages to "targeted killings" of Palestinian militants -- came in for harsh criticism, unusually harsh by the standards of the mainstream human rights group. "Most of the abuses occur not as a result of operational necessity on the part of the army," the report continues, "but from vindictiveness on the part of soldiers, who receive implicit approval to denigrate the dignity, life and liberty of innocent Palestinians."
Operation ‘targeted killings’ 05/30/2007
The Israeli Supreme Court did not issue a blanket ban on assassinations (which it refers to as "targeted killings"). In a landmark ruling in December 2006, the court determined that while the practice was not always illegal, its legality must be assessed on a case-by-case basis according to the specific circumstances of each incident and international humanitarian law.
The 2006 decision, which addressed a petition filed by human rights groups in 2002 (during which period, in July 2003, the court declined to issue immediate injunctions), imposed several limitations and conditions on when a targeted killing could be considered legal.
Key conditions established by the court included:
Reliable Information: The decision to target an individual must be based on well-founded and verifiable information that the person is directly participating in hostilities.
No Less Harmful Means: A targeted killing can only be carried out if there are no less harmful means available to address the threat, such as arrest, interrogation, and trial.
Proportionality: Any harm caused to innocent civilians (collateral damage) must be proportional to the anticipated military advantage of the attack.
Post-Attack Investigation: An independent and thorough investigation must be conducted after each attack to determine whether all norms and conditions were respected.
The court emphasized that individuals targeted are considered civilians who lose their protection from attack only "for such time as they take a direct part in hostilities". It rejected the government's argument for a third category of "unlawful combatants" who would be perpetual targets. Complete article
The Public Committee against Torture in Israel et al. v. The Government of Israel et al., Supreme Court of Israel, 14 December 2006 12/14/2006 Summary On 14 December 2006, the Supreme Court of Israel, sitting as the High Court of Justice, issued a decision in which it assessed the legality, under international law, of the Israeli Government's policy of "targeted killings," employed against members of Palestinian terrorist organizations in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank. The court's first finding was that a continuous situation of armed conflict exists between Israel and various Palestinian terrorist organizations, and that when an armed conflict is taking place in an occupied territory, it is subject to the law of international armed conflict. The court then considered whether the terrorists and their organizations were to be defined as combatants or civilians. It cited the rule of customary international law, according to which civilians are legally protected against being attacked only when they are not taking a direct part in hostilities. The court concluded that it was necessary to obtain well-founded and verifiable information about civilians allegedly taking part in hostilities before attacking them. It ruled also that civilians taking a direct part in hostilities may not be physically attacked if less harmful means could be employed against them, such as arrest, interrogation, and trial.
High Court of Justice imposes limitations on Israel 's targeted-killing policy 12/19/2006 On 13 December 2006, the High Court of Justice gave its decision on the petition filed in January 2002 by the Public Committee Against Torture in Israel and LAW against Israel 's policy of targeted killings, which the state has carried out officially since the beginning of the second intifada, in September 2000. According to B'Tselem's statistics, Israel 's targeted-killing attacks in the past six years have killed 339 Palestinians, 210 of them the target of the attack and 129 of them civilian bystanders.
Public Committee v. Government of Israel 12/13/2006
Public Committee Against Torture v. Government 12/14/2006
The Public Committee against Torture in Israel v. The Government of Israel – Summary of Judgment 12/14/2006
Israel Supreme Court: Summary of Ruling on Targeted Killings 12/14/2006 HCJ 769/02: Public Committee Against Torture in Israel v. Government of Israel
Israeli Supreme Court Approves Restricted Targeted Killings 12/14/2006
High Court: International Law Does Not Forbid Targeted Killings 12/14/2025 Court: Targeted killings must be evaluated individually; ruling expected to serve as legal precedent in int'l law. The High Court of Justice ruled Thursday that the Israel Defense Forces policy of targeted killings of militants does not categorically violate international law, and the legality of each targeted killing must be evaluated on an individual basis.
Declining to intervene: Israel's Supreme Court and the Occupied Territories 08/04/2003 In its annual report issued in July 2003, the Association for Civil Rights in Israel (ACRI) painted a familiar yet surprising picture of Israeli army maltreatment of Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza. A wide range of army practices -- from house-to-house searches in villages to "targeted killings" of Palestinian militants -- came in for harsh criticism, unusually harsh by the standards of the mainstream human rights group. "Most of the abuses occur not as a result of operational necessity on the part of the army," the report continues, "but from vindictiveness on the part of soldiers, who receive implicit approval to denigrate the dignity, life and liberty of innocent Palestinians."
Operation ‘targeted killings’ 05/30/2007
B’Tselem report "Welcome to Hell" August 2024
The Israeli Prison System as a Network of Torture Camps
This report concerns the treatment of Palestinian prisoners1 and the inhuman conditions they have been subjected to in Israeli prisons since 7 October. B’Tselem collected testimonies from 55 Palestinians incarcerated in Israeli prisons and detention facilities during this time. Thirty of the witnesses are residents of the West Bank, including East Jerusalem; 21 are residents of the Gaza Strip; and four are Israeli citizens. They spoke with B’Tselem after they were released from detention, the overwhelming majority of them without being tried. Their testimonies uncover a systemic, institutional policy focused on the continual abuse and torture of all Palestinian prisoners. This includes frequent acts of severe, arbitrary violence; sexual assault; humiliation and degradation; deliberate starvation; forced unhygienic conditions; sleep deprivation; prohibition on, and punitive measures for, religious worship; confiscation of all communal and personal belongings; and denial of adequate medical treatment. These descriptions appear time and again in the testimonies, in horrifying detail and with chilling similarities. The prisoners’ testimonies lay bare the outcomes of a rushed process in which more than a dozen Israeli prison facilities, both military and civilian, were converted into a network of camps dedicated to the abuse of inmates. Such spaces, in which every inmate is intentionally condemned to severe, relentless pain and suffering, operate in fact as torture camps. p.5
The circumstances and pretexts for arrest varied. Among the prisoners, both male and female, are physicians, academics, lawyers, students, children and political leaders. Some were jailed simply for expressing sympathy for the suffering of Palestinians. Others were taken into custody during military activity in the Gaza Strip, on the sole grounds that they came under the vague definition of "men of fighting age." Some were imprisoned over suspicions, substantiated or not, that they were operatives or supporters of armed Palestinian organizations. The prisoners form a wide spectrum of people from different areas, with varying political opinions. The only thing they have in common is being Palestinian. These people found themselves on their way to detention, handcuffed and blindfolded, for an unknown period of time. p.6
Israeli Cabinet Approves New Prison Chief, Violating Wartime Gov't Agreement 01/14/2024
The heinous attack by Hamas and other armed Palestinian organizations on 7 October, and the widespread targeting of civilians – about 800 of the 1,200 Israelis killed that day were civilians, and about 250 people were taken hostage, some still being held in Gaza – deeply traumatized Israeli society, evoking deepseated fears and an instinct for revenge among many. For the government and the National Security Minister, this provided an opportunity to press harder with applying their racist ideology, using the oppressive mechanisms at their disposal. In record speed, the IPS molded itself in Minister Ben Gvir’s image. For example, the Negev (Ketziot) Prison Commander Brigadier General Yosef Knipes proudly described the conditions in which prisoners are kept at his facility:10 "Most of the day they are actually inside the cells, 23 out of 24 hours, except for those who are in the tents [...] There are between 10 and 12 terrorists in each cell. The cells are currently crowded because we are in an emergency situation. They have a mattress and a blanket, with the minimum conditions required by law." Knipes clarified that "as far as we are concerned, they are all terrorists. We’ve reduced the conditions to a minimum." Koby Yaakobi, a close associate of Minister Ben Gvir appointed by him as IPS Commissioner in the height of the war, declared his intent to "revolutionize" the IPS in keeping with the minister’s policies as soon as he took office, naming the downgrading of prison conditions a top priority.11 p.8
"Without electrical appliances and a television, locked in a cell": What are the conditions like for the Nuhba terrorists in prison? 12/0/2025 Thousands of terrorists have been arrested since the start of the ground maneuver in Gaza, including operatives from Hamas' elite unit. Against the backdrop of massive overcrowding in prisons, the commander of Ketziot Prison describes to Walla! the way the IPS staff deal with the terrorists and the conditions they receive. "They spend 23 out of 24 hours in a cell, they have a mattress and a blanket, minimal conditions."
A clear indicator of the severity of the situation and the moral degradation of the Israeli prison system can be seen in the number of Palestinian prisoners who have died in Israeli custody since the war started – no less than 60. Forty-eight of them were from the Gaza Strip. Some of these perished in the new military detention camps, and others died on their way there, likely due to extreme violence at the hands of soldiers transporting them from the Gaza Strip to Israel.12 B’Tselem is aware of another 12 Palestinians who died in IPS custody. In some cases, the circumstances strongly suggest abuse and deliberate withholding of medical attention. p.9
The prison system is one of the most violent and oppressive state mechanisms that the Israeli regime uses to uphold Jewish supremacy between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea. Israel has incarcerated hundreds of thousands of Palestinians from all walks of life over decades, as a way of undermining and unraveling the social and political fabric of the Palestinian population. The scale of the project speaks for itself: according to various estimates, since 1967, Israel has imprisoned over 800,000 Palestinian men and women from the West Bank (including East Jerusalem) and the Gaza Strip, which accounts for about 20% of the total population and about 40% of all Palestinian men.13 p.10
The dehumanization of Palestinian prisoners begins the moment they are arrested, as their individual identity is erased and they are treated as a homogenous, faceless mass – whether the prisoner is a veteran doctor from Gaza, a teen from East Jerusalem, a student from Haifa or a military wing operative of an armed group. All are deemed "human animals" and "terrorists" simply because they are behind bars, whether their detention was justified or arbitrary, lawful or not. This is how abuse, degradation, and the violation of rights becomes permissible. Arbitrary and extreme violence, withholding medical care from the injured or ill, denying food and water in overcrowded cells – none of these would have been possible if the guards saw Palestinians as human. p.11
The testimonies presented here tell the story of how Israel’s prison system turned into a network of torture camps. p.12
In the early days after 7 October, Israel unlawfully arrested thousands of Palestinian workers from the Gaza Strip who were inside its territory with official work permits.14 Hundreds of detainees were taken to an unknown location, with no notification of their arrest or whereabouts given to their families or anyone else representing them to this day. Some of these detainees are still in Israeli custody. All attempts made by families, lawyers and human rights organizations to find out who has been arrested and where they are being held have been rejected outright. Several petitions filed seeking this information have also been dismissed, with the Supreme Court accepting the state’s position that it had no obligation to provide it.15 p.14
Another UN document, the Body of Principles for the Protection of All Persons under Any Form of Detention or Imprisonment,25 concerns the obligation to treat prisoners humanely, stipulating, among other things, that all prisoners have the right to receive visits from family members and communicate with them, the right to communicate with legal counsel and the right to file complaints with the competent authorities concerning their treatment and incarceration conditions, particularly torture and cruel or inhumane punishment. The document also stipulates the state must ensure oversight of prison facilities by an appointed external body. The Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners, now known as the Mandela Rules,26 is another important UN document. The rules listed in this document concern prison conditions, including the obligation to maintain an adequate level of cleanliness and hygiene, comply with medical standards, provide good quality food that meets prisoners’ nutritional needs, and allow prisoners contact with the outside world. These rules are aimed at ensuring that the penalty imposed on prisoners does not amount to cruel or degrading punishment and that prison facilities come under regular, proper oversight.
(Video) Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners aka The Nelson Mandela Rules Adopted by the First United Nations Congress on the Prevention of Crime and the Treatment of Offenders, held at Geneva in 1955, and approved by the Economic and Social Council by its resolutions 663 C (XXIV) of 31 July 1957 and 2076 (LXII) of 13 May 1977
From the testimony of Muhammad Srur 34, a father of two and resident of Ni’lin in Ramallah District, who was held in the Etzion detention facility and in the Ofer and Nafha prisons | Full testimony p.25
Muhammad Srur (34), a father of two from Ni’lin, Ramallah District
After 7 October 2023, […] the prison administration collectively punished us on a regular basis. The first thing was increasing the number of prisoners in each cell from six to 14. This meant reduced privacy and a much longer wait to use the toilet in the cell. In addition, the new detainees who came to the cell had to sleep on the floor, because there were only three bunk beds. p.27
Testimony of S.B. a resident of East Jerusalem
Testimony of Musa 'Aasi 58, a father of five and resident of Beit Liqya in Ramallah District, who was held in the Etzion detention facility and in the Nafha and Negev (Ketziot) prisons
56 The High Court of Justice instructed the State to respond to the proposal to institute a system for examining complaints made by Palestinian detainees about prison conditions within a week. In the hearing of the petition brought against the law, which currently allows holding detainees for 45 days without judicial review, Justice Kasher said: "I am looking for someone in whose ear one can scream, ‘They’re doing awful and terrible things to me." See here (Hebrew). p.32
About 4,000 Gazans have been arrested since the outbreak of the war, more than 1,500 have been released due to lack of evidence. 05/27/2024 High Court judges asked the state to respond within a week to their request to establish a mechanism to examine complaints from detainees about their conditions of imprisonment. In a hearing held on a petition against the law that allows detainees to be held for 45 days without judicial review, Justice Kasher said: "I am looking for someone who has the ability to scream in my ear, 'They are doing terrible and horrible things to me.'" ... About 4,000 Gazans have been arrested since the outbreak of the war by the army, and more than 1,500 of them were released after no evidence was found to allow them to continue being held in detention - this is according to the state's response to the High Court of Justice. The response was provided last week and at a hearing held today (Monday) in a petition against the new amendment to the law for the detention of illegal combatants, which allows them to be held in detention for 45 days without seeing a judge. In addition, permanent detention orders were issued for about 2,000 Gazans, whom the army believes have acted against the IDF and Israeli citizens or belong to terrorist organizations in the Gaza Strip.
The vast majority of the witnesses whose testimonies are presented here went days, weeks, and in some cases, months before being brought before a judge for the first time. In keeping with the temporary order, and barring exceptional cases, the hearings themselves took place remotely via Zoom, and in at least two cases, the detainee attended the hearing using nothing more than the prison guard’s cell phone. In these circumstances, judges are unlikely to observe whether detainees are injured, hurt or physically deteriorated, and the menacing presence of the prison guards inhibits prisoners from complaining to the judges or reporting the torture they underwent. In the few cases in which prisoners dared to complain about their treatment, the guards made sure to take revenge on them for it. p.33-4
A guard came and told me I had a court hearing to approve the detention. He asked if I wanted to go and I said yes. During the hearing, I told the judge that we were being beaten and attacked, and that our privacy and rights were violated. The judge claimed that the beatings had stopped. I told him: "They beat us today, Your Honor." He put his hands on his head and said nothing. p.35
Various testimonies revealed repeated use of sexual violence, in varying degrees of severity, by soldiers or prison guards against Palestinian detainees as an additional punitive measure. The witnesses described blows to the genitals and other body parts of naked prisoners; the use of metal tools and batons to cause genital pain; the photographing of naked prisoners; penises being grabbed; and strip-searches for the sake of humiliation and degradation. The testimonies also reveal cases of gang sexual violence and assault committed by a group of prison guards or soldiers. One particularly grave testimony, quoted at length below, reports the attempted anal rape of a Palestinian detainee by several prison guards. Similar incidents were mentioned in other testimonies. p.58-9
Testimony of 'A.A., a resident of Hebron District Two of them stripped me like the other prisoners, and then threw me on top of the other prisoners. One of them brought a carrot and tried to shove it in my anus. While he was trying to shove the carrot in, some of the others filmed me on their cell phones. I screamed in pain and terror. It went on like that for about three minutes.
When I arrived at the hospital, I heard them saying ‘Shiba in Tel Hashomer.’ A vascular doctor came and told me: "Your leg needs to be amputated. We need to consult an orthopedist." The soldiers laughed and made fun of me: "Cut off his leg." […] When the orthopedist came and examined me, he told me: "You have to choose: Your leg or your life. It’s your choice." It was the hardest decision of my life, deciding to have my leg amputated. I was shocked, especially since I was alone and there was no one from the family with me to consult. p.71
Testimony of Sufian Abu Saleh 43, a resident of ‘Abasan al-Kabirah in Khan Yunis District, the Gaza Strip, who was held in the Sde Teiman detention facility
112 Upon taking office, Minister Ben Gvir declared his number one priority for the IPS was downgrading prison conditions for Palestinian prisoners (see: Meir Turgeman, "Acting IPS Commissioner Presents: ‘A Revolution per Minister Ben Gvir׳s Policy: ‘Downgrading Terrorists’ Prison Conditions: No. 1 Priority," Ynet, 24 January 2024 (Hebrew). On 9 November 2023, Minister Ben Gvir held a meeting to discuss the budgetary implications of the Gaza war for the IPS, including the cost of food for Palestinian prisoners: "At the conclusion of the discussion, the minister ordered to consider changes to security prisoners’ menu". Accordingly, the logistics division chief made changes to the menu which entered into effect on 1 December 2023, per the Commissioner’s orders of 16 October 2023. The minister’s order to deny Palestinian prisoners meat products was explained as follows: ‘Our hostages in Gaza are suffering from hunger... As far as I’m concerned, they [Palestinian prisoners] will get the minimum we are obligated to give them." (see, Meir Turgeman, "Ben Gvir v. IPS: Change Nukhba Terrorists’ Menu", Ynet, 31 December 2023, and a similar English language report available here; see also, posts on the Minister’s Twitter account here and here (Hebrew). See also, Josh Breiner, "Israel Reduces Food for Palestinian Security Prisoners, Conceals Data, Sources Say", Haaretz, 26 June 2024. p.73
Deputy Commissioner of the Prison Service presented a "revolution according to Minister Ben Gvir's policy": "Worsening conditions for terrorists - goal number 1" 01/24/2024 Superintendent Kobi Yaakovi, who took office last night, presented to the members of the senior command of the Prison Service the revolution he is planning "according to the minister's policy." He said he will promote polygraphs in the organization following the pimping affair in the guardhouses - and will prioritize the treatment of security prisoners. Yacoubi wrote to the senior command staff that his main strategic issues, according to the policy of National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, are also promoting the establishment of a dedicated wing and later a dedicated facility for "arch-terrorists" and heads of criminal organizations. In addition, he said that he intends to establish "a dedicated headquarters body for professional treatment of security prisoners, for the implementation of a cross-cutting policy across all wings and prisons," and also to promote the blocking of cell phones in prisons.
Ben Gvir against the Prison Service: Change the menu for the Nahva prisoners 12/31/2024 The Minister of National Security claimed that he had ordered all types of meat to be removed from the meals that terrorists receive in prison: "It is impossible that while our hostages are suffering from hunger, the prisoners are receiving hearty meals." The Prison Service responded: "The food has been updated in accordance with the policy of reducing living conditions to the minimum required by law."
National Security Minister orders: Change Nukhba terrorists' menu 01/01/2024
Itamar Ben Gvir: The Attorney General Maya Her seems to be conducting herself as if she doesn't live in the State of Israel and hasn't seen what those damned terrorists did to us on 7.10 - a deep disconnect from the people, though not surprising. I'm sorry to disappoint her, but it won't deter me. I will continue to toughen their conditions within the framework of the law and harden them even more. The days are over when terrorists partied in the prisons! 04/11/2024
Itamar Ben Gvir: Our hostages are dying of hunger, and the Attorney General is concerned for the kidnappers' fruits. It's indescribable. 04/18/2024 Readers added context they thought people might want to know: Minister Ben Gvir takes the Attorney General's words out of context. The Attorney General is not "worrying about fruit snatchers," she is gathering information in preparation for formulating a position in a petition submitted to the High Court of Justice on the subject.
Israel Reduces Food for Palestinian Security Prisoners, Conceals Data, Sources Say 06/26/2024 Since Oct. 7, prisoners reported weight loss due to drastic food reductions in the prisons, to the point of starvation. As Israel's top court hears a petition filed on the matter, far-right Minister Ben-Gvir states this is a 'deterrent measure'
The attack lasted a long time, more than half an hour of nonstop beating. It looked like they wanted to cause as much damage as possible. When it was over, I felt I was going to pass out. Afterwards, we lay on the floor for hours. None of us could move, not even to go to the bathroom. We were all dizzy and lost balance. My right eye swelled up, and I was afraid I’d lose my sight. We were in a very bad state. One prisoner said in tears that they’d raped him with a stick. p.89
Testimony of Firas Hassan 50, a father of four and resident of Hindaza in Bethlehem District, who was held in the Negev Prison (Ketziot) X
Complete article
Israeli Cabinet Approves New Prison Chief, Violating Wartime Gov't Agreement 01/14/2024
"Without electrical appliances and a television, locked in a cell": What are the conditions like for the Nuhba terrorists in prison? 12/0/2025 Thousands of terrorists have been arrested since the start of the ground maneuver in Gaza, including operatives from Hamas' elite unit. Against the backdrop of massive overcrowding in prisons, the commander of Ketziot Prison describes to Walla! the way the IPS staff deal with the terrorists and the conditions they receive. "They spend 23 out of 24 hours in a cell, they have a mattress and a blanket, minimal conditions."
(Video) Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners aka The Nelson Mandela Rules Adopted by the First United Nations Congress on the Prevention of Crime and the Treatment of Offenders, held at Geneva in 1955, and approved by the Economic and Social Council by its resolutions 663 C (XXIV) of 31 July 1957 and 2076 (LXII) of 13 May 1977
Testimony of S.B. a resident of East Jerusalem I’m a resident of Jerusalem. I was arrested in April 2021 on security charges, and I was incarcerated until March 2024. During these 35 months, I moved between three prisons: Rimon, Negev and Nafha. I was at Nafha from August 2023 until March 2024 - meaning during the war too. ......
On 7 October, we still had TVs in our cells, so that’s how we found out about what happened near the Gaza border that day. The prison administration told us nothing. But that day, they confiscated everything in the cells: TVs, electric kettles, hotplates, heaters, fans, pillows, sheets, blankets and mattress covers. They left only one blanket for each prisoner. Family visits and lawyer visits were banned, and even Red Cross visits. So we were cut off from the outside world. Of course, they also confiscated cell phones that people had hidden in the wings.
Testimony of Musa 'Aasi 58, a father of five and resident of Beit Liqya in Ramallah District, who was held in the Etzion detention facility and in the Nafha and Negev (Ketziot) prisons I am unemployed and make a living off raising birds and occasional odd jobs. I have a lot of health problems, some of them due to previous periods in Israeli prison. I have hypoglycemia, an ulcer, and high blood pressure, and I've had two operations: disc surgery in my back in 2010 and meniscus surgery in my knee in 2000, after a soldier hit me. From the first intifada in 1988 to October 2023, I was arrested six times and spent a total of 3.5 years in prison. All that is nothing compared to what I went through in the last imprisonment – after 7 October 2023.
On 19 October 2023, at 2:15 AM, about 30 to 40 soldiers came to my house. They tried to break down the door but I opened it before they managed to. The second I opened the door, the officer asked straight away if I belonged to Hamas. Before I could answer, he said, "The whole family is Hamas." Then he suddenly punched me in the mouth, and my lips started to bleed. I spat out the blood and he yelled, "Why are you spitting?" and punched me again along with two other soldiers. I answered, "I spat out blood, my lips are bleeding." After that, a group of soldiers attacked my son Seif a-Din, 24, for no reason. They beat him hard with their rifles, punched him and kicked him while some of them held him. I heard him shouting. .....
There were no family visits and there was no contact with anyone on the outside, not even the Red Cross. We were cut off from the news and the outside world. The only information we could get was when a lawyer visited one of the detainees.
While I was in Negev, I attended an appeal filed on my behalf on Zoom. The lawyer managed to get two months off my detention. I used the opportunity and complained to the judge about the policy of leaving us hungry and thirsty and holding back on medication and treatments. I told him I had hypoglycemia and was forced to eat toothpaste. He was surprised when he heard that. ......
Testimony of Muhammad Srur 34, a father of two and resident of Ni’lin in Ramallah District, who was in the Etzion detention facility and in the Ofer and Nafha prisons. On 18 October 2023, around 2:00 A.M., a military force led by a Shin Bet officer invaded my home in the Wadi al-’Ein neighborhood. I was at the market in Nablus at the time, buying vegetables for my shops in Ni’lin. When they didn’t find me at home, they invaded the homes of my twin brothers, ‘Abd a-Rahman and Ahmad, 29. The officer called me from ‘Abd a-Rahman’s phone, introduced himself as “Bashar” and said they’d arrested my brothers. He threatened that he’d let them go only if I turned myself in. I told him I was in Nablus and he said I had 30 minutes to get there. I told him: “How can I get to you from Nablus within half an hour?” I asked him to let me turn myself in at the Huwarah checkpoint, but he refused. I proposed going to Ofer Camp in the morning, but he refused that too. He insisted that I come to the Ni’lin checkpoint and said I’d be considered a wanted fugitive if I didn’t. I told him I had no intention of running away. I had no choice. I left the market and drove back towards Ni’lin, but the trip took longer because of the checkpoints and the closed roads in the West Bank, and I didn’t arrive until 5:00 A.M. ..... When we were there, they brought my brothers ‘Abd a-Rahman and Ahmad, and the father and brother of the other detainee, who were also held hostage until he turned himself in. ...... They ordered us to sing and repeat the phrase “Am Yisrael Chai” (the People of Israel live).
After about three hours of a tough, tiring journey, we arrived at Nafha Prison. We were taken out of the bus and on the way to the cell, were treated the same way we were treated at Ofer Prison. They set dogs on us, beat us badly and hurled insults at us. Before we went into the cells, they took me and another detainee to a room where they sat us in front of a computer to participate in a live court hearing. Before the hearing began, we were attacked and beaten hard with metal batons all over our bodies for more than 30 minutes. At the court hearing there were judges, prosecutors, a translator and a lawyer. When the lawyer saw me on the computer with my face red, swollen and bruised, he asked what happened to me. I told him what happened before the hearing and he asked me to tell the judge. I did get the chance to speak at the hearing and I told the judge what happened. He asked me if I had been taken in for a medical check and if a doctor had treated me. I said no. He recommended taking me to a doctor. During the hearing, I found out I’d been issued an administrative detention order for six months. Because of my health condition, and because of the severe beating and abuse, it was shortened to five months.
During the hearing, I also spoke about what happened to ‘Arafat, and about how we were brutally attacked and abused by the guards during transfers, but the judge didn’t pay attention to that. After the hearing, on the way to the cell, the IPS people took revenge on me for complaining about their behavior. They hit and kicked me brutally the whole way. When we arrived, they put me in cell 68 on wing 12. I think that wing is designated for Hamas prisoners. The cells were dilapidated and it looked like we were the first ones to be put in them. It smelled damp and there was mold on the walls. It was impossible to breathe inside. All you dream of in there is a breath of fresh air. The cells had no windows facing the yard, and they were connected by a long, roofed corridor, so no sunlight or clean air came through. The cells were 7x3.5 meters. There was no electricity in there and nothing for basic needs. There were only four bunk beds, which could hold eight people, but they put 10, 12 and sometimes 14 prisoners in each cell. ......
Administrative detention is one of the worst detentions there is. The prisoner is not accused of anything; there are no court hearings, and it’s impossible to know when the detention will end. They decide on a specific period of detention and then renew it once or twice, or ten times or even more. That’s why the major difficulty with that kind of detention is the detainee’s mental state, sitting and waiting to be released, not knowing if it’s going to happen, or whether the order will be renewed again.
Testimony of Thaer Halahleh 45, a father of four and resident of Kharas in Hebron District, who was held in the Ofer and Nafha prisons I live in the town of Kharas, west of Hebron, with my wife and four children. I was arrested on 6 June 2022. I previously spent 16 years in Israeli prison, ten of which were under administrative detention without any charge or trial. I suffer from a viral liver disease, which I contracted during my previous stint in prison. ......
On 7 October 2023, I was in Nafha Prison, in cell 3 on wing 4 with eight other inmates. As soon as the war started, the prison turned into a torture facility. The guards locked the cell doors and forbade us from leaving. They also confiscated everything we had: the TV, hot plate, kettle, and all electrical appliances in the room, as well as our clothes and shoes. They left each of us with one set of clothes, one pair of shoes, one blanket, a mattress, a bottle of shampoo and a toothbrush.
Testimony of Muhammad Nazzal 18, a resident of Qabatiyah in Jenin District, who was held in the Megiddo and Negev (Ketziot) prisons On 27 August 2023, at around 4:00 A.M., about 15 Israeli soldiers raided our home in the western neighborhood of Qabatiyah. They tied my hands, and blindfolded me with a piece of cloth and took me outside. They put me in a military jeep and sat a dog opposite me. The dog terrified me. During the trip, the occupation soldiers hit me on the head and neck. They let me out at the Dotan camp, where I stayed for four hours, then they transferred me to another camp, where I stayed for about two hours. I still don’t know where it was. From there, they took me to the Huwarah camp, where I was held me for eight days. During that time I was taken to the court at Salem, where I was remanded in custody for another eight days. .....
The guards turned very violent after the war broke out. One day, I heard shouts from the inmates in the next cell. Later, I found out that one of them asked a guard if there was a ceasefire or any sort of solution because we weren’t getting any news from the outside, and in response to that question, they beat him to death. The guards simply left him there for half an hour after the assault. His name was Thaer Abu ‘Asab. He was from Qalqiliyah, and he was in prison from 2005. .......
The night after the assault, when I went to the toilet, I passed out and fell on the floor. Other inmates pulled me back to bed. The next day, a female medic or doctor came and checked me, especially my upper body – my back and shoulders and hands. She disinfected my wounds and put iodine on them. She also bandaged my hands and came back every 48 hours to change the bandages. I felt that she was sad about what happened to me. She seemed sad and upset by what the guards did. ........
...... Before I was released, a Shin Bet (ISA) officer warned me not to have any celebrations or talk to the media. He said I should keep quiet and threatened that if I didn’t meet those conditions, they would arrest me again. Then they handed us over to the Red Cross people. As soon as I got on the bus, I told one of them that I’d been beaten and my hands hurt. There was a Red Cross doctor there. He changed the bandages on both my hands. I was taken to Ramallah.
Testimony of Ashraf al-Muhtaseb 53, a father of five and resident of Hebron who was held in the Etzion detention facility and in the Ofer and Negev (Ketzio) prisons Four minute video testimony I live with my wife Nidaa, 32, and our four children, Muhammad, 12, Zeid, 10, Adam, 8, and Iman, 7. I have another son from my first marriage, who is married and lives elsewhere. I have a BA in arts and am a wedding band manager. I also coach music bands. I used to have a mosaics studio. I’ve spent a total of six years in Israeli prisons. I was first arrested in 1989 and held for three months.
Testimony of Z.T., a resident of Bethlehem District On Saturday, 8 November 2023, I was sitting on the street with a friend. Around 3:30 A.M., we saw that young guys from the town sent a Whatsapp update that soldiers were entering the town on foot. We waited there, because we wanted to know where the army was going. A few minutes later, I learned that the army was at my uncle's house, where we lived about three years ago. After a few more minutes, the soldiers left his house and went to the house we live in now. Then my brother Ahmad, who was at home, called and told me to come home because the soldiers were asking about me. Then someone took his phone and spoke to me. He introduced himself as an officer and told me I had to come home. I told him I was in Bethlehem and would turn myself in at 8:00 A.M. He said he would turn my home into a military camp until I came and turned myself in, and then he hung up. I wasn’t sure what to do.
Ten minutes later, my brother called again and told me the army was arresting him, as well as my father, until I turned myself in. I told him to ask the officer to leave them alone and that I was coming to turn myself in. I walked along the street to the house, and found my mother waiting outside for me. The soldiers had already taken my father and brother about a kilometer ahead. I went after them with my mother. When we caught up with them, they immediately released my father and brother.
Testimony of Firas Hassan 50, a father of four and resident of Hindaza in Bethlehem District, who was held in the Negev Prison (Ketziot) On 10 August 2022, I was on my way to the Al-Quds Open University in Ramallah, where I was enrolled. ...... The cell was small and had a toilet. It smelled strongly of mold. I was in it for seven days. Then I had a court hearing, after which I was informed that I was under administrative detention for six months. .....
Later on, my administrative detention was extended for another six months. I filed an appeal but the charges against me were classified, so it was just a show of legal process. When the detention period ended, they extended it again by another six months. Life in prison continued as usual until 7 October 2023. After that, it was like living inside a tsunami. .....
From there, they took us one by one to a room where we attended our hearings via Zoom. On the way there, IRF members punched me very hard in the chest. An Arabic-speaking guard was in the room, and he listened to the entire conversation between me, the judge and the lawyer. He threatened that if I complained to the judge, I would pay. The lawyer told me before the hearing that the judges already knew about everything that was going on in the prison, so there was no point talked about it. Still, in the hearing he asked me, “Have you been exposed to violence in prison?” I didn't dare answer, because I was afraid the guards would retaliate and beat me even more brutally. .....
The attack lasted a long time, more than half an hour of nonstop beating. It looked like they wanted to cause as much damage as possible. When it was over, I felt I was going to pass out. Afterwards, we lay on the floor for hours. None of us could move, not even to go to the bathroom. We were all dizzy and lost balance. My right eye swelled up, and I was afraid I’d lose my sight. We were in a very bad state. One prisoner said in tears that they’d raped him with a stick. ......
The violence subsided a bit after 19 November 2023. At first, we didn’t know why they’d suddenly eased up on us. A week later, I hear from other inmates that someone named Thaer Abu ‘Asab had died because of the beating.
Testimony of 'A.H., a resident of Hebron District
I was arrested on 12 April 2022, at about 4:00 A.M. I was interrogated for 17 days for suspected membership in Hamas, and then I was taken to Ofer Prison, where they kept me for 23 days. From there I was transferred to Ketziot Prison, where I found out I’d been issued an administrative detention order for four months. .......
We were afraid that would be the end of us. While they hit us, they forced us to curse God and our mothers. I said, “My mother is a whore” and cursed God. One of them grabbed me by the hair and ordered me to say, “The people of Israel are a strong people.” He hit me hard for about 10 minutes. Then, they left the cell. The prisoner who was bitten was seriously injured, but we had nothing to treat him with. They left us one plastic bottle to fill up tap water, when the supply was turned on. All the prisoners used that bottle, and we had very little water. We had no choice but to pray without washing first. They also forbade us to pray together. We had to pray individually. During roll call, they swore at us every day. We felt we’d been cut off from the rest of the world. .....
The guards drew a pig and male genitals on the walls of our cell, and wrote: “Ahmad Yassin is a pig,” and things like that. They also drew a Star of David and wrote under it “The People of Israel live.” At the entrance to Wing 5, they hung a sign that read in Hebrew and Arabic: “Welcome to hell.” At night, they would play songs praising the “sons of M’aruf,” (the Druze community) and rap music very loudly to keep us from sleeping. ......
..... They also forced us to kiss the Israeli flag and sing the Israeli national anthem.
I was shaking with fear, and then they pounced on me. One of them slapped me, and the other spat in my face and said to me in Arabic: “Yihya Sinwar will die.” They ordered me to repeat what he said. Two of them stripped me like the other prisoners, and then threw me on top of the other prisoners. One of them brought a carrot and tried to shove it in my anus. While he was trying to shove the carrot in, some of the others filmed me on their cell phones. I screamed in pain and terror. It went on like that for about three minutes. ......
The next day, Saturday, 11 November 2023, when I was just sitting, I started slipping out of consciousness, probably due to a combination of fear, the beatings and the malnutrition. My hands started cramping. I don’t know what caused it exactly. One of the prisoners started screaming: “’Amer is dead.” I heard him, but I couldn’t move. A few guards and a medic came to the cell door. I heard the medic tell the prisoners to give me water to drink, but they said there was no water. One of the young guys in the cell gave the guard an empty bottle to fill, and he left and came back a while later and said, “I don’t have permission to give you water.” He returned the bottle to them empty. I was in bad shape physically and couldn’t move. When evening roll call started, I was still in the same position. The force people came into the cell to count, and I was still lying on the floor. The unit commander told everyone to go back and called the dog handlers. She ordered me to put my hands on my head. The force people brought the dog into the cell, and at that point, I completely lost consciousness. ........
One day, roll call was delayed until 8:00 P.M. The other prisoners and I were very scared, because we didn’t know what was going on. Before they reached our wing, I heard an ambulance siren. I told the prisoners in the cell that there was a dead prisoner. I was terrified of what would happen to us. That evening, the IRF came in and counted us without attacking us.
Then, four female soldiers in tight clothes and an officer entered the cell and played loud music. The female soldiers started to dance obscenely, shamelessly. They screamed and made fun of us, and then some guards joined them and danced with them, while the officer stood at the cell’s doorway, watching. He filmed us on his phone, and then everyone quickly left the cell and closed the door. I was terrified. I was sure the unit would storm the room. I expected them to beat us after that, but we were surprised it didn’t happen. ......
On 6 December 2023, the prison administration left the lights on all night. I turned off the light in the cell because we couldn’t sleep. During morning roll call, the officer asked who turned off the light, and then he and other guards beat me and the other prisoners on the head and then they left. After about an hour, a guard came and told me I had a court hearing to approve the detention. He asked if I wanted to go and I said yes. During the hearing, I told the judge that we were being beaten and attacked, and that our privacy and rights were violated. The judge claimed that the beatings had stopped. I told him: “They beat us today, Your Honor.” He put his hands on his head and said nothing.
The officer was there, and he looked at me menacingly. Then, he handcuffed me from behind, even though the other prisoners who had hearings were handcuffed in front. As soon as I went back into the wing, escorted by two guards I know, one of them kicked my leg and the other took the slippers I was wearing and hit me on the head. When I advanced a little, the guards attacked me again. One of them kicked me from behind and knocked me to the floor and then he beat me badly. He took a metal hammer and hit me on my lower back and right thigh and then he hit my testicles again and I started screaming. .....
On 14 April 2024, one of the guards, who usually treated us well and never hit a single prisoner, came to the cell door and said to me: “What happened to you is a shame on Israel [...] We are a despicable country.”
Testimony of Muhammad Salah 27, a resident of Burqah in Nablus District, who was held in Megiddo Prison On Monday, 16 October 2023, at around 3:00 A.M., Ranim and I woke up to loud banging on the door. I quickly ran to open it because I was afraid they would blow it up. As soon as I opened the door, soldiers burst into the house. One of them asked for my name and ordered me to give him my ID card, and another ordered me to give him my phone. I handed over both. .....
At the beginning of December 2023, I was in wing 6 when it was raided. A lot of guards entered all the cells, tied our hands, and made us stand facing the wall. They beat us with sticks for a few minutes. I was beaten on my back and shoulders. Then they left the cells, but took the prisoners from one cell to another cell and continued beating them there. I later learned that they broke the ribs of an inmate named ‘Abd a-Rahman al-Bahash from Nablus. After that, he was in terrible pain and his condition grew worse every day. On 1 January 2024, he died. We declared a hunger strike for three days, but they beat us again and we had to give up. I was in cell 4 at the time, but about every two weeks, they moved us from wing to wing and from room to room. .....
Throughout the entire period of detention, I didn’t meet with a lawyer. I also didn’t see my parents or other family members, because they canceled visits altogether. We were in complete isolation, cut off from the world and unaware of what was happening outside. We couldn’t follow the news because they took away the TVs and radios. Our only source of information was new detainees. We were mainly interested in hearing if there would be a prisoner exchange deal. We just wanted to escape that hell. All the prisoners’ conversations centered on that.
Testimony of N.H., a resident of East Jerusalem I’m from East Jerusalem. I was arrested in 2021 on a security charge and sentenced to 12 years in prison. I was put in Wing 3 of Damun Prison, the women’s wing.
On 7 October 2023, we heard on the news that Hamas attacked Israeli communities near the Gaza border. That day, about 20 guards burst with batons into the cell I shared with five other inmates and beat us for about half an hour. .......
All medical treatments we used to get in prison also stopped. They even tried to extort information about plans to protest the punishment policy from prisoners, in exchange for medical treatment. I remember a 21-year-old prisoner from Hebron who almost fainted from hunger and thirst in the shower because there was no proper drinking water. As “treatment,” they gave her a bag of salt to eat, so she'd have to drink a lot of the foul tap water after. She refused to eat it, of course.
I was supposed to be released in the fourth round of the prisoner swap between Hamas and the occupation authorities. On the day of the first round, the guards came into the cells and told us some of us were being released. Because we weren’t getting any news from outside, we didn’t know anything about the deal and they didn’t explain why. They handcuffed 24 prisoners and dragged them out of the cell by the handcuffs, which was painful.
Testimony of Sami Khalili 41, a resident of Nablus who was serving a prison sentence from 2003 and was held in the Negev Prison (Ketziot) Three minute video testimony I was arrested on 10 February 2003 and sentenced to 22 years in prison on security grounds. The sentence ended on 8 February 2024. During that time, I was transferred between many prisons: Ashkelon (Shikma), Shata, Gilboa, Megiddo, Eshel, Ramon, Keidar, Hadarim and Negev (Ketziot). I saw a lot of things. ......
They also hit prisoners and cursed and humiliated them on the way to meetings with lawyers. Prisoners would forego the meeting just to spare themselves the humiliation, swearing and beating and for their clothes not to be confiscated.
Testimony of Z.A., a resident of East Jerusalem
On 12 October 2023, around 1:30 P.M., while I was riding my motorcycle to work, an unmarked Kia Sportage car suddenly blocked my way. Four armed men in gray uniforms got out of it. They didn’t identify themselves and simply pointed their guns at me right away. I stopped quickly and got off the motorcycle, which fell down.
Testimony of Fouad Hassan 45, a father of five and resident of Qusrah in Nablus District, who was held in Megiddo Prison On 4 November 2023, I woke up around 2:00 A.M., when I heard voices near my house. I looked through the bedroom window, on the second floor of the house, and noticed several soldiers trying to open the front door. I woke up my wife, Rinad Hassan, 38, and asked her to put on her hijab and wear appropriate clothes, because the army was going to invade the house. I woke up all our children, too, so they wouldn’t be frightened: Yusef, 15, Sanaa, 13, Ahmad, 10, Janat, 10, and ‘Omar, 6. ......
I spent one night in Huwarah, and on the next day, we were taken to Salem. On the way to the bus, we had to walk hunched over and put our hands on the back of the person in front of us. When we got on the bus, with hands and legs tied, soldiers beat us and swore at us. They cursed God and the Prophet and told us: “Let’s see how the resistance benefits you now.” We were transferred to Megiddo Prison. We were about 16 detainees. Then they took us in for interrogation one by one. When it was my turn, the interrogator asked me about my brother Ibrahim and told me to turn him in. I told him I didn’t know where he was and that he didn’t have a phone. The interrogator said: “That’s your problem. He’s your brother and you have to turn him in.” I told the interrogator: “I won’t do it. It’s his business. He’s old enough and responsible for himself.” That was the end of the interrogation. After the interrogation, we were taken back to the bus, and at that point, our hands weren’t in cuffs. The detainees were called by name, and we had to answer without raising our heads. One of the detainees raised his head, and then the guard cursed his mother and sister. The detainee answered him with the same curse: “Your sister and mother are no better than my mother and sister.” Then the guard shoved him and said: “I’ll make sure the dog plays between your legs at Megiddo.” From there, we were taken to Megiddo. When we got off the bus, a soldier said to us: “Welcome to hell.” One of the detainees, a resident of Jenin, told the soldier “Welcome to Jenin”. He answered him: “We’ll soon find out.”
At admission, we were strip-searched again, fully naked. The most humiliating thing was that it was three female soldiers who did the search. I told one of the soldiers: “I’m not going to take my clothes off in front of the [female] soldiers,” and he replied: “Shut your mouth.” I had no choice but to obey them. The detainees went into the search, that was conducted by five male and female soldiers, two at a time. Of course, during the search, there was swearing, beating and kicking of the legs, on the pretext that we had to spread our legs wider. These kicks knocked people down on the floor. Then, they took us to the doctor, where they asked us the usual questions, i.e. if we had any medical conditions or take any medication. Then they took pictures of us and then they took us into the Shin Bet [Israel Security Service] one by one. There was a huge Israeli flag on the wall. The first question the Shin Bet officer asked was: “Which organization do you belong to?” Then he ordered me to kiss the flag while I was being filmed. There were about 20 soldiers in the room. I told the officer I wouldn’t do it, and he said, “You have to kiss the flag.” I told him “No, I don’t want to.” Suddenly, the 20 soldiers in the room started beating me. They hit me all over my body with whatever they could find. One of them kicked me in the head, and I passed out. They were still beating me when I came to. Then they made me stand and took pictures of me with the flag behind me. I was taken out of the room and beaten again until I passed out again.
I woke up when someone said: “He’s dead, he’s dead,” in Hebrew, “Get away from him.” He told me to get up and wash my face in the bathroom. I saw that my whole body was covered in blood. I was bleeding from the nose, mouth and head too. He told me in Arabic not to talk about what happened. It was one of the prison guards.
Testimony of Shaimaa Abu Jiab Abu Ful (Female) 32, a resident of Jabalya R.C., who was held in the Anatot and Damun prisons. At the beginning of the war, I moved to my parents’ house in the a-Saftawi neighborhood in the northern Gaza Strip. After about a month and a half, we all moved to a rented apartment in the a-Sheikh Radwan neighborhood. On 3 December 2023, my father, Khaled Abu Jiab, 72, was sitting at the entrance to the house when suddenly, the area was heavily bombed. He was seriously injured. I called my husband, Ahmad Abu Foul, who works as a paramedic, and he came with an ambulance and took my father to al-Awda Hospital. My father had surgery at the hospital, but his condition was severe and he passed away the next day. We buried him in a soccer field nearby. It was a very hard day. ......
Then they took me out of the cage and blindfolded me again. They put me in a jeep and took me back to Anatot Prison. I really thought I was being released, and suddenly I found myself in that prison again. They took my details again and took me into interrogation that was like the previous one. The same questions. The interrogator told me: “Sign.” I said: “I don't want to sign anything in Hebrew.” He said, “Sign, for your own good.” So I signed.
Then they took me to a room, untied me and ordered me to strip. I took everything off except my underwear because I was menstruating. They told me: “Stand facing the wall.” A female soldier came and felt my underwear, to make sure I wasn’t hiding anything. Then they said: “Get dressed.” They took my sanitary pad and threw it away.
Testimony of M.A., Hebron District I was arrested on 7 July 2020. The day before, the army raided our house early in the morning while I wasn’t home, and an officer summoned me over the phone for interrogation. I went to the place they told me at 9:00 A.M. Soldiers were waiting for me there. They pointed their guns at me and tied my hands. .....
After we all went back to the cell, the prison commander, who was known as “Abu Yusef”, came and opened the door. He laughed and said we’d killed Thaer and wanted to frame the prison for it. I started laughing at what he said, and then he asked, “Why are you laughing?” I said, “No reason.” He started swearing at me, and I swore back. At 8:00 P.M. the guards counted us, and after roll call the special forces came in again, beat us again in the same way, and left.
Testimony of A.A., Hebron District On Thursday, 18 January 2024, at 4:30 A.M., I woke up when the Israeli army blew up our front door and about five soldiers came into my bedroom. They grabbed me by the arms and led me to the yard, where they tied my hands very tightly behind my back with zip ties. There were about 20 soldiers there, on foot. .....
The next day I went to Etzion, where they interrogated me. The officer asked me the same questions: If I had any weapons and belonged to any organization. I asked him about the money they took from me and told him it belonged to my wife, who works at the Palestinian Authority’s Ministry of Interior. He said my wife was my accomplice and had to share the responsibility. He said they would continue to come to my house and confiscate whatever they found.
Testimony of F.J., Hebron District
On 17 October 2023, around 1:25 A.M., we were woken up by loud banging on the front door. I opened the door and saw an Israeli officer and four soldiers. Dozens more soldiers were spread out around the house. The officer asked my name and demanded my ID card. I gave it to him, and he told me they were there to arrest me. I asked him to let me put on my shoes and jacket because it was cold. He refused at first, but eventually agreed and ordered me to put them on quickly. My wife brought me the shoes, and I put them on. .......
We were taken to Etzion Prison, where they threw us violently out of the vehicle into the yard, blindfolded. They sat us there, and the soldiers started hitting us with their guns, kicking us, spitting on us and humiliating us. Whenever one of the detainees told them he was sick or injured, they deliberately beat him in the part of the body he complained about. After I told them I had a heart condition, they hit me again and again in the chest. I heard the screams of one detainee I knew from before, who had Mediterranean fever. The soldiers attacked him brutally. Another detainee told them he had a herniated disc and pain in his spine, so they deliberately hit him in the back. The soldiers also peed on some of the detainees. We were thirsty, but the soldiers hit us and kicked us every time someone asked for a drink of water or go to the bathroom. One detainee told me later that a soldier peed on him and then wiped his penis on his face.
Testimony of Sufian Abu Saleh 43, a resident of ‘Abasan al-Kabirah in Khan Yunis District, the Gaza Strip, who was held in the Sde Teiman detention facility I’m married to Hanaa Abu Saleh and we have four children, ‘Abd a-Rahman, 14, Iman, 13, Aya, 12, and ‘Issam, 10. Before the war, I worked as a taxi driver, but now I’m unemployed and live with my family in a tent in the al-Fukhari area in Khan Yunis, near the European Hospital.
On 7 October, we left our house in the ‘Abasan al-Kabirah area of Khan Yunis, because it’s close to the border and there were a lot of bombings there. At first, we moved to my parents, who live one kilometer away from our house. We stayed with them for about three days, and then moved to a relative’s house in downtown Khan Yunis and stayed with them for almost 50 days. .....
I was in pain for a week and had a high fever. The soldiers took me in a minibus to a hospital in the interrogation center, and on the way, they hit my injured leg with batons and with their guns and stepped on my legs. I screamed in pain. A soldier asked me: ‘Which of your legs is hurt?’ and started hitting me hard on that leg, brutally. Even when they took me off the minibus, they kept hitting me on the leg and head. Pus started oozing out of the wound. They swore at me, too: “I’ll do this and that to your mother, your sister and your wife” and “Damn your dignity, you son of a whore,” and other similar abuses. ......
They put me in a diaper. I passed out. I didn’t even feel them examining me. When I woke up, someone told me: “You’ve had surgery.” I was still blindfolded. I didn’t know if the person talking to me was a doctor or a soldier. I wasn’t given any information about the surgery. I asked them how my leg was doing, and they said it was fine. They gave me intravenous painkillers and did a glucose test. Three days later, I had another operation. They said it was to clean and disinfect the leg. .....
When I got to the hospital, I heard them saying ‘Shiba in Tel Hashomer.’ A vascular doctor came and told me: “Your leg needs to be amputated. We need to consult an orthopedist.” The soldiers laughed and made fun of me: “Cut off his leg.” ...
When the orthopedist came and examined me, he told me: “You have to choose: Your leg or your life. It’s your choice.” It was the hardest decision I ever had to make, deciding to have my leg amputated. I was shocked, especially because I was alone and there was no one from the family with me to consult.
Testimony of Hisham Saleh a resident of a-Sawiyah in Nablus District, who was held in Ofer Prison On Saturday, 28 October 2023, at around 1:30 P.M. I took a CNN team to the place where my brother Bilal Salah, 39, was killed by a settler earlier that day, while we were picking olives. .....
The police officers detained me and searched me. One of them asked if I'd been at the scene at the time of the incident. I said I had and explained that my brother, our children, and I were harvesting our olives with other people from a-Sawiyah when four settlers arrived. One was carrying a handgun and another a rifle. He asked if we’d thrown stones at the settlers and I said no, that it was the settlers who started shouting at us to leave, claiming that the grove was theirs – that it belonged to the settlement of Rehelim. I told him the land is ours going back generations, and that as far back as I can remember, I used to come here with my father – long before they established Rehelim 500 meters away from our plot. .....
The interrogator said, “You're coming with us.” They put me in a white jeep and took me to the police station in the settlement of Ariel. He showed me a picture of my brother’s funeral on his computer and told me there were Hamas flags there. I told him I had no idea what was there and that our whole town attended the funeral. My brother was killed right in front of me, and that’s all I cared about. I don’t belong to any political faction, plus there were Fatah flags there, too.
Testimony of ‘Imad a-Din Abu al-Heija 36, a father of four and resident of a-Sawiyah in Nablus District, who was held in the Negev Prison (Ketziot), and before the war in Megiddo Prison I was arrested on 1 March 2022, when an Israeli military force raided our house and took me to the detention facility in Huwarah, where they held me for eight days. Three days after I was arrested, the Shin Bet (ISA) officer in Huwarah told me a six-month administrative detention order was issued for me. From Huwarah, I was transferred to detention at Megiddo Prison. ......
I was kept in administrative detention for two years in total. Every time the order expired, it was renewed, for different lengths of time. That happened six times. The last time, they renewed the administrative detention for another 80 days, and after that I was released, on 15 March 2024.
Testimony of Att. Ahmad Khalifah (42), a father of three from Um al-Fahem, Israel Three minute video I am married and have three children, a 10-year-old and twins who are 7. We live in the city of Um al-Fahem. I’m a lawyer and a member of the Um al-Fahem City Council.
On Thursday, 19 October 2023, at around 8:00 P.M., I was at a protest against the attack on Gaza, speaking to the demonstrators through a loudspeaker. Suddenly, several police units raided the protest. I saw officers wearing three different types of uniforms. They threw stun grenades. I heard one of them say, “Khalifah, Khalifah.” He approached me. I held out my hands to show I wasn’t afraid of being arrested, and then I was surprised when he actually detained me and put me in metal handcuffs. They led me to a jeep, where there were 10 other detained demonstrators. On the way to the jeep they hit me, tore my shirt and kicked me. They threw me to the ground, and one of them kneed me in the chest several times. It was very painful. He also hit me hard in the face, and other police officers beat me, too. .....
That day, during the break, one of the guards threatened me that if I mentioned the name of any guard on his shift to the judge or to anyone else, he would punish me. He said there were no laws in the prison except his law. He threatened me in front of other prisoners, saying that when I was released, he would send a special unit to kill me in Um al-Fahem. I told him that wouldn’t be a problem—Um al-Fahem is close to the prison and he was welcome to send them.
Later that day, I was transferred to wing 1 as punishment for mentioning the torture and abuse of the detainees in court. I was specifically punished for mentioning what happened to ‘Abd a-Rahman Mar’i, a detainee from the Salfit area who was held in solitary confinement near the one I was in at the time, along with the lawyer Sari Khuriyeh and someone else I know. I heard him groaning in pain all the time and asking for medical help. After three days, they transferred him to another isolation cell (in a wing known as Tora Bora), and I found out he died there. Sari was also transferred as punishment to solitary confinement near ‘Abd al-Rahman’s cell, after he gave the finger to the judge at a court hearing in Acre.
Testimony of Attn. Sari Huriyyah (53), a father of four from Shfaram, Israel I’m married and live with my wife and our four kids, who are between the ages of six and 17. I work as a real estate lawyer and have a private office in Haifa.
On 4 November 2023, around 11:00 A.M., I was at my office when my brother called to tell me there were a lot of cops at our family’s home in Shfaram, looking for me. I called the police to ask why officers were looking for me and what they wanted, and they said they wanted me. I asked if I should come to them and they said no. .....
They led me into my home with my hands tied. My wife asked them to untie them so my young kids wouldn’t see me like that, but they refused. They asked if I had cash, and I replied that I had 10,000 shekels (~2,700 USD). They took documents and books from the house. After the raid on my home, they took me to the police station in Shfaram, where they put metal cuffs on my hands and feet. It was hard to walk. They put me in an interrogation room, where I found that the reason for my arrest was a Facebook post. I admitted to posting it. The investigator asked me about my cell phone, and I answered that they needed a permit to get it, but that I had nothing to hide. I gave him my phone and password. ....
They cut us off from the outside world. They confiscated everything. There was nothing, no radio and no means of communication. Each time a new detainee arrived, everyone would ask him what happened. There was a special unit whose role was to beat detainees. People who were beaten sat for hours afterward, unable to speak. All this also generated considerable psychological stress, of course. There was constant yelling. At night they would bang on doors, several times each night, and turn on flashlights. And that was in addition to the beatings we heard. ....
On my second day in solitary confinement, I saw them severely beating another detainee. Along with the guards beating him was a female guard shouting and swearing at him. Because of what they said, I understood that he was from Gaza and that he might be part of the Nukhbah. There were four guards who beat him and abused him. In the end, one of the guards told the female guard to leave because he wanted to pee on him, and then I heard him peeing and saying: “Drink, you son of a bitch.” .....
After a few hours, a medic brought me a pill for my diabetes. I told him the detainee who died had kept shouting and asking for treatment. The medic told me that Mar’i fell from the top bunk of the concrete bed in the cell. I said to him: “No, you killed him,” and he told me not to interfere. After 30 minutes, five guards came into my cell, raging like wild beasts, and said they would kill me. I felt a true threat to my life, and got the message that I shouldn’t speak of what happened to Mar’i.
Testimony of Muhammad al-Jamal (41), father of five from the city of Rafah I’ve been suffering from issues with cartilage in my neck for several years. I had lots of treatments at the European Hospital and at a-Shifaa Hospital in Gaza City, and because I wasn’t getting better, the doctors referred me for treatment at al-Makassed Hospital in East Jerusalem. I received an entry permit from the Israelis and arrived at the hospital on 26 September 2023. I was discharged on 7 October 2023 and was supposed to go back to Gaza, but because of the attack by Hamas, Israel closed the crossings.
I went to Rahat and stayed with friends there for three days. Then I decided to go to Hebron with some workers from Gaza who had been working in Rahat, and wait there until they opened Erez Crossing and we could return to the Gaza Strip. ......
The interrogator told me several times that my family had been bombed and everyone died. They showed me pictures of the bombings and said it was near my house. I got very stressed. I was worried for my family, but I tried not to show it so they wouldn’t use it against me. Then they took me out of the interrogation room.
Testimony of Khalil Skeik (24), a medical student from the Rimal neighborhood in Gaza City I am a sixth-year medical student and live with my parents and siblings in the Rimal neighborhood of Gaza City. On 7 October 2023, I was at home and we all woke up to the sound of rockets and bombs. Two days later, on 9 October, the army ordered the residents of the neighborhood to evacuate and move to the south of the [Gaza] Strip, but we stayed home and didn’t leave. That same day, our home was bombed with us inside. It’s a three-story building, and there were about 10 people inside. We all managed to climb out of the rubble and leave safely, even my grandmother, Mu’azaz Skeik, 80, who later died of natural causes in March. .....
On 18 March 2024, after volunteering there for about three months, I was sitting with other doctors eating suhur [the Ramadan pre-dawn meal], when we heard planes and tanks and heavy fire. We realized the Israeli military was at the entrance to the hospital. We gathered – doctors and nurses – in one room. We listened to the news to find out what was going on and then I called my parents to reassure them I was fine. The army surrounded the hospital and we didn’t leave the building. We stayed like that until 21 March 2024, and then the army came inside the hospital. The soldiers interrogated the doctors, including me. They checked our identity and asked about work, hospital wards, and about terrorists and militants. Later, the soldiers ordered me to leave the hospital. But when I left, at around 3:00 P.M., I was suddenly shot at by a tank that was at the gate to the hospital. I got a light, superficial head injury and my right thumb was severed. .....
After about a week, they took me to a hospital in an ambulance. I wasn’t told which hospital or where it was. I had surgery there, with my hands and feet tied to the bed and my eyes covered. I was under full anesthesia, so I don’t know how long the surgery lasted. They didn’t tell me what they did, so I wasn’t even sure if they’d operated on me. But I felt metal wires had been put in my mouth. After the surgery I stayed in the hospital for about five days. The entire time I was completely naked, in a diaper, with my hands cuffed and my eyes covered. I was only given chocolate-flavored liquid food to drink, and then they took me back to the detention facility. Throughout the detention, I was forced to sit on the floor, handcuffed and blindfolded. They didn’t take my poor state of health into consideration at all. We were only allowed to sleep six hours a night, and sometimes the soldiers woke us up at night, with banging on the barbed wire fence and dogs barking. The facility only had one restroom for 120 people, and we stood in line to get in there. I was given food three times a day – the chocolate-flavored liquid. They let us shower once or twice a week, for two minutes at a time, four of us together in the shower. ......
The detention really affected me. I was close to completing my medical studies and getting certified. The army detained me for no reason and then soldiers beat me and degraded me. They didn’t even file charges against me. It makes you feel worthless, that you don’t have the basic rights every human being deserves. We don’t know what will happen to us, and I have no idea if I’ll be able to complete my studies with Israel’s ongoing war in Gaza.
Testimony of Lama al-Fakhuri (47), a mother of five who is an author and political analyst from Khallet Sharif [M2] , west of Hebron On Thursday, 26 October 2023, at around 1:30 A.M., my husband, children and I were woken by loud banging on the door. I got dressed quickly. Eleven masked soldiers burst in. One of them was a woman. They made us all go into the living room and took away all our phones. They shouted and swore at us. They were really aggressive. Some of them spread out in the house. I heard glass shattering and furniture breaking. The officer accused me of belonging to Hamas and supporting ISIS and terrorism. He swore at me. He showed me all kinds of media photos of the events of 7 October 2023, and said ISIS people raped women and burned children in settlements near the Gaza border. I told him that Islamic morals and religion forbid it. He said Israel would take vengeance on us and that all Palestinians would pay dearly. ......
An interrogator came in and asked me in English what I thought about what Hamas did. He swore at me and called me “whore”. He said there were 20 soldiers in the room and that they would rape me like Hamas-ISIS raped Jewish women in southern Israel. He kept swearing at me, and threatening me and my family. Then a female soldier came and took me to another room with more female soldiers, who told me: “Welcome to hell.” They sat me in a chair and started laughing at me and calling me “whore” again and again. I sat on the chair until about 7:00 A.M. I was very thirsty, but they didn’t give me water.
The day I was released, 30 October 2023, a lot of soldiers came into our unit. They told me and some other prisoners we were being released. We were strip-searched, fully naked, and put in a filthy room. A while later, a Shin Bet[M3] officer came and threatened me that I’d be arrested again if I spoke to the media. After that, we were transferred to Ofer Prison. We were kept there for 12 hours with nothing to eat or drink, and taken for interrogation during that time. Then they handed us over to the Red Cross.
Testimony of Ruqayah ‘Amru (25), female, an Islamic Law MA student from Dura, Hebron District On 26 October 2023, at around 1:00 A.M., I was at home with my mother and siblings. I saw out of the window a few military vehicles coming towards our house. I put on modest clothes quickly, and in the meantime soldiers started coming. My mother opened the door, and more than 10 male soldiers and two female soldiers immediately burst in. They told us to stay in the living room and searched the entire house. The officer spoke to us in Arabic and demanded our ID cards and phones. .....
The interrogator showed me some posts and accused me of belonging to Hamas. I denied it and told him the posts weren’t mine. He asked me about what happened near the Gaza border, about women being raped and children murdered, burned and decapitated. I told him that our religion, Islam, does not allow such behavior and that I knew nothing about it except what we saw on social media. He said I was a liar and hurled accusations at me, but I denied everything. After about half an hour of shouting, threats and swearing, the interrogator told me to sign the interrogation transcript. Then they took me to be photographed, took my fingerprints and led me to a cell where there were more detainees. .......
On 30 November 2023, some guards came and took me and a few more detainees. They told us we were being released. Before they released me, they strip-searched me again, and an officer threatened me that if my family celebrated my release they would hurt us. Then we were transferred to Ofer Prison, where they kept us for about 12 hours without food or water in a small, dirty and smelly room. It was very cold there. After midnight, they handed us over to the Red Cross.
Testimony of Muhammad Mafarjah, 16, from Shu’fat Refugee Camp in East Jerusalem On 12 February 2024, at around 4:00 A.M., Border Police officers blew up our front door and burst into our home. The explosion woke me up. Four Border Police officers broke into the bedroom I share with my brothers, and one of them ordered me to get up and give him my phone. Meanwhile, other Border Police officers led my brothers out of the room. While I was looking for the phone, one of the officers took off his helmet and hit me on the head with it. I screamed in pain. Another officer kicked me and told me to hurry up. I found the phone on a shelf in the bookcase we have in the room. .....
When I went back to room 4, the interrogation started again immediately. I told the interrogator I was thirsty and hadn't drunk in the court, either, and asked for water. The interrogator said I was a kid who didn’t deserve water and didn’t give me a drink. He yelled at me and demanded that I confess, and then I remembered what the kids in the waiting room said about room 4, that it was like a slaughterhouse, and I decided to confess to something I hadn’t done – throwing stones. ......
At round 4:00 A.M. the guard came to count us and found us sleeping. He grabbed the fingers on one of my hands and started bending them and twisting them. He threatened to break our fingers if we refused to obey and cursed us. He demanded that I say that my father was a collaborator, and I said it because I was afraid he would break my finger.
Testimony of A. D. (19), female A pharmacy student from Jabalya Refugee Camp I lived in Jabalya R.C. with my parents, Hatem and Khawlah, my three brothers, Ousamah, 17, Muhammad, 16, and ‘Abdallah, 14, and my two sisters, Sarah, 4, and Mays, 9. There were bombings and gunfire at the beginning of the war, but it wasn’t that close to us, so we stayed home. But on 7 November 2023, there were bombings really close to us, and the military also scatted flyers calling us to leave. We didn’t leave right away. We waited to see what would happen. On 18 November, after morning prayers, we gathered some clothes, bedding, documents and our phones, and we left. First we went to an UNRWA school at the al-Falujah area in the camp, and after a few hours, we moved to the house of my uncle Iyad Salem, 53, inside the camp. ......
They blindfolded me with a piece of cloth and handcuffed me in front with white zip ties. Two soldiers held me on either side and led me from there to a place where I was told to sign a document. I was still blindfolded, and I signed without seeing what I was signing. They made me sit on a chair. My blindfold was taken off, and there was a man there who asked me in Arabic what my full name was and how old I was. He asked me what I was studying and what year I was, and asked for the names of my parents and siblings and what they did. I told him my mother was a teacher at an UNRWA school, and my father was a doctor and a lecturer at the university. I heard the voices of other female detainees there. I think there were about six. The soldiers brought us water. It was cold and one of the girls asked for a blanket, but she wasn’t given one. They tied a piece of plastic to my hand with the number 12 on it. ......
He asked me about the Israeli hostages in Gaza and told me to mark my house and the neighbors’ houses on a map. Every time I said I didn’t know something, he yelled at me. The interrogation took about an hour, and most of that time, the interrogator swore at me and didn’t ask questions. He called us dirty asses and said we didn’t deserve to live. He cursed my brother who was killed in the bombing, and said that the children in Gaza should be exterminated, that we should all be deported, that our houses should be destroyed and that we should be erased. He said the Palestinian people were garbage. At the end of the interrogation, he told me: “You are rude, rude, rude!” And then he said: “Take her away.” .....
They transferred us to another detention center, with our hands and feet tied. I saw a sign that said Beersheba. We stayed there for three days. We were treated particularly badly there. We were forced to sit on gravel, and the female soldiers were very violent. They pushed us and hit us on the head. That went on for three days. We weren’t allowed to lie down, move or touch the blindfold. They only took us to the bathroom. All we got to eat was a bit of tuna and bread. ...
No one from the ICRC visited us during my arrest, and we weren’t allowed to speak with a lawyer or tell our families where we were.
Testimony of Farid ‘Amer (65), father of six from Gaza I live with my wife and four sons in a building east of Khan Yunis. Two of our sons are married and live in separate apartments with their wives and children. Our area came under fire and bombardment right at the start of the war, mostly farmland, but also houses about 400 to 500 meters from ours. .......
I immediately said to one of the soldiers, in Hebrew: “I own this house. I’m a civilian. I’m 65.” I repeated it twice. The soldier told me: “Get down on the ground and crawl.” He also ordered me to strip completely, including my underwear. I took all my clothes off and when I was naked, a soldier came up from behind and hit me hard on the right side of my back with his hand, which was in a glove with a hard part. It still hurts where he hit me. Then he tied my hands behind my back and blindfolded me.
Testimony of Diaa al-Kahlut (38), a father of five and journalist from Gaza City I am a journalist and the bureau chief of the Al-Araby Al-Jadeed newspaper in Gaza. I lived with my wife and our five children, Nada, 17, Hamza, 15, ‘Ali, 13, Malak, 10, and Sham, 3, in the al-Karameh neighborhood in the western part of Gaza City.
On the morning of 7 October 2023, I was woken by the sound of bombing and the screams of my daughter Nada, who is disabled due to cerebral palsy. She was knocking on the door of the room in a panic and screaming, “Missiles!” “Missiles!” .....
The following evening, I heard the neighbors shouting “Evacuate, evacuate the area! They’re bombing the Istanbul building!” That building is behind my home. Then my phone rang and an Israeli officer was on the line. He said to me: “You are Diaa al-Kahlut, and your ID number is such and such. You need to evacuate the house.” He also told me that we should head to the southern Gaza Strip. I told him, “We don’t have anyone in the south. My parents are in the northern Gaza Strip, in Beit Lahiya, and I want to go to them.” He replied, “Don’t go there.” ....
On 7 December 2023, at precisely 7:00 in the morning, the Israeli military invaded the area of Beit Lahiya. The soldiers announced to us over loudspeakers, “Women, children and the elderly, to Kamal Adwan Hospital. Men from 16 to 60 to the street – take off your clothes and remain in your underwear.”
I went down to the street, as the soldiers ordered us, and took off my clothes. About 10 minutes later the military gathered all the men in the area, roughly 300 men. They tied our hands behind our backs, and one soldier asked me what my name was and what I did for a living. I replied that I was a journalist and handed him my press card, and he took it and broke it. From there they took us to the market in Beit Lahiya. .....
Then they sorted us and took an eye-print with a phone or some other device, I’m not sure. Then a soldier took me to a group of men who, I gathered from him, would be returned to the Gaza Strip. I was there for roughly an hour and then soldiers took me to be interrogated. The interrogator was an officer from the Shin Bet (ISA). I was handcuffed and blindfolded. The officer asked me if they were bothering me and I said they were, and then he said to me: “Now I’ll help you get rid of them.” Immediately after that, he asked a soldier there to really tighten the handcuffs and blindfold. Then he accused me of being a Hamas commander. I denied that and said I was a journalist. He started saying that people said I was Hamas, and I denied it again and told him I was a journalist.
Then a soldier hit me hard on the back and again I told him that I was a journalist, and the same soldier hit me on the back again and the interrogator said to me: “You’re not a journalist.” After he said to me: “You’re a journalist, and you wrote an article about Sayeret Matkal, a [elite Israeli military] unit that entered Khan Yunis in 2018 and clashed with Hamas.” I said to him: “I don’t remember such an article.” He started reading from his phone and saying, “You’re Hamas.” Then the officer mentioned Azmi Bishara, who is the editor-in-chief of the newspaper I work for, Al-Araby Al-Jadeed. Then they all started beating me. .......
We didn’t even know where we were being held. We were entirely cut off from the world. An officer from the ISA would come and tell us, “We’ve razed the northern Gaza Strip. We took the women and children to Al-Azhar University, and the men to the prisons.” Or: “Your families are no longer alive,” “After your families went to Kamal Adwan Hospital, we took them to the al-Qassam Mosque in Beit Lahiya and bombed the mosque and its courtyard and everyone who was there.” The ISA people used the ugliest measures possible to psychologically pressure us. Throughout the entire period, not one of us met with a lawyer either.
Testimony of Fadi Baker, a 25-year-old father of one from the Tell al-Hawa neighborhood in Gaza City I am a lawyer and have my own practice in Gaza City. Like many residents, I was home on 7 October 2023, with my pregnant wife, when we started hearing rockets and bombs. I went out to stock up on food and water right away, and when I came back we stayed home. We were newlyweds. We got married just two months earlier and preferred to stay home. .....
Then they put me in a tank and took me to another place. When I got there, they took me out and laid me down on something foul-smelling for about three minutes. The soldier took my blindfold off, and I saw it was a rotting corpse. Then they took me to another officer, and he also asked me which tunnel I’d come out of. I told him, too, that I was a civilian. The soldiers pointed their guns at me, and I thought they were going to shoot me, so I said the shahada. Then one of them fired a shot on the ground in front of me. They blindfolded me, and I stayed lying outside on gravel, in the cold, until the middle of the night. .....
I was kept in the pen for five days, and then I had surgery, without anesthesia, on my swollen left leg. I asked for anesthetics and they said I wasn't in a position to ask for anything and ordered me to keep quiet. When I screamed in pain, they hit me in the abdomen with a plastic stick until I shut up. They drained the pus from my leg.
Testimony of Ahmad Salah (37), a father of two from al-Khader, Bethlehem District I live with my wife and our two daughters, Basmah, about 2, and Aylul, 8 months, in the old city of al-Khader, in the same building as my parents.
On Saturday, 20 January 2024, at around 1:00 A.M., we were woken by banging, knocking and people’s voices. A few moments later, while we were still in bed, an officer and more than 10 soldiers, some of them masked, entered the room. They broke into the house using devices to open the door.
Testimony of Dr. Khaled Hamudah, 34, a surgeon at the Indonesian Hospital and resident of Beit Lahiya I am a surgeon and I worked in the Indonesian hospital in Beit Lahiya. I lost my father in the war, my wife Lama, 31, and our oldest daughter Rim. I still have two children, Ahmad, 5, and Razan, 3.
On 7 October 2023, I was at home because it was a weekend and I wasn’t on duty. When the wounded and dead started coming in, I was called to work at the hospital. It was a very tough day, a lot of casualties came in, and it was just the start of a tough period. ....
The hospitals were not prepared to treat casualties at that scale. We treated the worst cases and had to neglect others who were injured – which sometimes led to their death. Due to the power cut, we relied on generators to perform surgeries and sometimes, due to the lack of fuel, we also had to rely on solar power. There was also a severe shortage of medicine and food for the patients and for the staff. .......
Then they placed us on a truck once more and took us to a prison facility, only when I was released did I learn that the place was called Sde Teiman and that it was in the Negev. I was imprisoned there for 21 days, until I was released on 2 January 2024.
Testimony of Ruzan al-Bursh, Dr. al-Bursh's niece
A 20-year-old student from the a-Saftawi neighborhood in Gaza City whose uncle, Dr. ‘Adnan al-Bursh, died in Israeli custody after being tortured
Testimony of I.A., in her twenties, a Palestinian citizen of Israel studying at an Israeli university On 9 October 2023, I received a letter from my university that I was suspended from studies, with no prior warning. Eight other Palestinian-Israeli students were also suspended following social media posts. .....
There were already eight female inmates in the cell they put me in, and I slept on the floor along with two others. The inmates there were entirely cut off from the world and had no idea what was happening outside. There was no means of communication – no radio, no television, no family visits and no meetings with lawyers. The only way to get news was new inmates. .....
In early 2024, I resumed my studies. I was really scared Jewish students would attack me, especially since there was a group of right-wing students who had campaigned and demanded we be expelled from the university, persecuted and punished. Many students now attend classes armed with rifles and guns, and enter lecture halls like that. I often sit next to someone armed like that during a lecture. It’s a really scary situation, especially in a reality of ongoing incitement against Arab students.
Testimony of Nabilah Miqdad (39), mother of five from Gaza City On 7 October 2023, Israel started heavily bombing our neighborhood, al-Mukhabarat, in Gaza City. The next day, I left home with the children: Adam, 5, Menatallah, 13, Ahmad, 16, Maram, 19 and Muhammad, 20. My husband Mahmoud, 47, stayed home. We moved to my 36-year-old sister Ikram’s house in a-Naser neighborhood, in the western part of the city. Two days later, the bombings in our neighborhood grew even heavier and things got scary, so my husband joined us at my sister’s house. By that time, there was no electricity or running water there. ......
I held Adam, my 5-year-old, by the hand. He was crying all the time, because he had an upset stomach and was in pain. Suddenly, one of the soldiers told me to let go of Adam’s hand and hand him over to my sister. Another soldier told me to move aside and give him my ID card. The soldiers started reading out the women’s names, and then a few female soldiers led the women to a house nearby. They made me stand on the side and then a female soldier told me to strip down to my underwear and bra. I did, and then she scanned my whole body with a device. Then she told me to get dressed, and then an interrogator came and started asking me what I was doing on 7 October and whether I was eating candy that day. He asked me if there were any Hamas people at the school. When I said I didn’t know, he said that if I didn’t help him get information, the army would take me and I’d never see my little boy again.
Testimony of Nadiah al-Hilu (45), mother of three from a-Sheikh Radwan neighborhood in Gaza City Up until the war, I lived with my husband Yihya al-Hilu and our three children, Maria, 13, Malak, 12, and Muhammad, 7, in a-Sheikh Radwan neighborhood in Gaza City. Now we’re in Rafah, in a school that has been turned into an IDP camp.
Testimony of ‘Abd al-Qader Tafesh (32), father of two from Jabalya Refugee Camp Until the war broke out on 7 October, I lived in Jabalya R.C. in the northern Gaza Strip with my wife Islam, 37, and our two children, Rifan, 10, and Jamal, 8. Last June I had a cycling accident and broke three bones in my chest. My upper body was set with platinum. I had skull fractures, too. .....
At some point, a soldier trod on my neck and I felt I was choking. I told him: “I have a platinum implant in my neck.” He immediately started hitting me on the shoulder and the platinum broke. While he was beating me, the blindfold fell off my eyes. My head was full of sand. I told the soldier: “I want a doctor,” and he said: “You want a doctor from me, you son of a bitch?” He swore at me, dragged me along the ground and kept hitting and kicking me all over my body. He hit me on the nose and I started bleeding, and then he poured water on my face and blindfolded me again. Then they put me in a corner and a lot of soldiers hit me there. One of them cut the zip ties and tied my hands behind my back. The platinum was sticking out of the top of my chest. They hit me on the neck, slapped me and kicked me all over my body. I started calling out for God and praying to die. A soldier told me: “You’re Hamas.” I told him I was just a displaced civilian whose home was destroyed. He asked my name and before I could answer, another soldier hit me on the head. ......
The truck stopped, and I think we were at Erez Crossing. I managed to take a look under the blindfold and saw a lot of soldiers there. One soldier peed on all of us. They took us off the truck. I was shivering with cold. They beat us hard with sticks while they were getting us out, and then they made us stand single-file in a long line, in the rain. We cried and prayed to God. .....
I started shouting: “Platinum, platinum,” hoping they would have mercy on me and stop beating me. Suddenly, I heard my father. I didn’t even know he was next to me. He recognized my voice and called my name. But before I could answer him, the soldiers jumped on him and beat him badly. They also tightened the zip ties on his hands until they hurt and he started shouting: “My hand! My hand”. .....
I discovered we were in a military prison. I don’t know what it was called. We had no rights there. We didn’t see any lawyers or Red Cross representatives. I was kept there with my hands in metal handcuffs day and night, and sometimes my legs, too. Sometimes they hung me by one hand and left me like that for three or four hours until I fainted. I couldn’t move the other hand because my shoulder must have been broken from the beatings when the platinum came out. I heard strange sounds, yelling and dogs barking. I was taken to the interrogation room about five or six times. In the interrogations, I was asked about my friends and neighbors and whether I had undergone military training. All they gave us to eat was a slice of bread, a cucumber and a small piece of cheese. Now and then we got some tuna fish and a bit of water to drink.
I was held there for 40 days – 40 days of beatings, swear words, kneeling and being hung up by my hands. It was very cold and there were no blankets. We were only allowed to sleep from midnight to 4:00 A.M. I didn’t know what was going on with my father until a detainee transferred to my cell said he was in very poor health.
Testimony of ‘Atef ‘Awawdeh, 53, a father of seven from Deir Samit, Hebron District I’m a merchant. Four of my children are under the age of 18. On 28 August 2023, around 3:30 A.M., army and Shin Bet forces came and broke into our house. They were looking for my son Ahmad, 19, who they claimed was wanted by the Shin Bet. Ahmad wasn’t home. He was in Jenin. The soldiers broke everything in the house and arrested me and two of my sons: ‘Alaa, 23, and Wajih, 29. My son Wajdi, 24, was arrested by the army a month earlier. They came to our house looking for Ahmad that time too, saying he was wanted, and when they didn’t find him, they arrested Wajdi. .....
On 14 December 2023, I was transferred to Nafha Prison. The situation there was even worse than Ofer. When I got there, they took all my clothes except my shirt and gave me prison pants. They took my shoes too and gave me slides. I was put in Cell 18 in Ward 1. Khaled a-Shawish, another sick prisoner who died in prison later, was there too. He was paralyzed and suffered a lot because he didn’t get any treatment and he had bedsores. I stayed there until I was released in January, on 31 January 2024, after about five months in administrative detention. After I was released, I found out that Muhammad a-Sabbar died in prison. Everyone in prison just dreams of being released and going back to their family, but he didn’t get released and didn’t go back.
Testimony of Hadil a-Dahduh Zaza (24), mother of two from Gaza City When the war broke out, we stayed in our home in a-Zeitun neighborhood in Gaza City: my husband Rushdi, 30, our two children, Muhammad, 4, and Zein, 1, and me. My husband’s parents and siblings lived in the same building. We heard shooting and heavy bombings around us all the time but we stayed put, until our house was damaged. We moved to my husband’s uncle’s house for 20 days, and when the hudna (ceasefire) was declared, we went back home. .....
Then I was put in a pit in the ground. When I was in it, with all the other detainees, the soldiers ordered me to take off my hijab. One of them told me: “I killed your husband and I want to bury you alive. Let the dogs eat you.”
Testimony of Maryam Salhab (21), a pharmaceutics student from Khirbet Qalqas, Hebron District On 26 October 2023, at midnight, I was sitting with my parents and sister when about 11 soldiers, one of them a woman, stormed into our house. Some of them were masked. They pointed their guns at us and ordered us not to move. I was wearing light half-sleeve pajamas and didn’t have time to change, so I put on my prayer clothes quickly to cover my hair. ......
Then a male guard came and took me into interrogation. I was exhausted and asked for water. They gave me a little. The interrogator asked me about my studies, about university and about my political affiliation. I said I was just a medical physics student and didn’t have any political affiliation. Then he asked about what Hamas did, about raping Jewish women and killing children. I told him I didn’t know anything about that, and then he swore at me, threatened me and made baseless accusations. Then the guard took my fingerprints and a DNA sample and led me back to the cell.
Testimony of Rami Abu Ras (36), a father of six from the a-Zeitun neighborhood in Gaza City Before the war broke out, I lived with my wife, Iman, 30, and our six children, between the ages of 5 and 13, in the a-Zeitun neighborhood in Gaza City, and worked the Tafesh – Frozen Meat and Poultry store. Within a week I stopped working, because there was no regular electricity and there was no poultry or meat. .......
When they took me down, they took me to a shed. I couldn't walk because my whole body hurt from being in the "Shabah." They kept me in the shed for 15 days, in which we all kneeled the whole time. We ate, slept and relieved ourselves with our hands tied. Our hands were tied the whole time and we weren’t allowed to talk, move or even turn our heads to look aside. .......
A few days later, they took me to the interrogation room. The officer asked about names of my relatives, who my brothers were and how many people were in the family. In the end, I signed what he wrote down from my answers. .....
I also wondered why they arrested me. Why are they still holding me? What will happen to me here? When will they let me go? I thought about my difficult situation, especially the darkness I was drowning in under the blindfold without seeing anything, about the fierce cold and the strong wind. I was freezing all the time, and hungry and thirsty.
Testimony of Mahmoud Abu Qadus (47), father of four Before the war, we lived in the a-Sheikh Radwan neighborhood in Gaza City. I worked as a sales manager in a communications company. On 13 October 2023, the military scattered flyers calling for us to evacuate. My family, along with several other neighbors, decided not to leave for the time being.
Testimony of Mahmoud al-Bassiuni (34), a father of four from Beit Hanoun I lived with my wife and our four children, Muamen and Rimas, 9-year-old twins, Yusef, 5, and Muhammad, 4, in Beit Hanoun in the northern Gaza Strip. .....
There were about 80 of us who’d been taken from the school at the post. My brothers were also there: Akram al-Bassiuni, 40, Muhammad al-Bassiuni, 33, and ‘Abd a-Rahman al-Bassiuni, 45. At the post, we were split into two groups and the group I was in was released by the army five hours later. My brothers weren’t in this group and weren’t released. We still don’t know what happened to them. ......
No one came to visit us, not a lawyer, not the Red Cross. We didn’t get medical attention generally, but sometimes we did, for example, sometimes after the beatings. It depended on the duty medic’s mood. The entire time in detention was ongoing torture - beatings, dogs being set on us, hands cuffed behind the back, sleeping with handcuffs and blindfolds. Some prisoners got hit on their genitals. One of the detainees, who hasn’t been released to this day, started peeing his pants and had to wear diapers after he was hit in the groin a lot. When they beat them there, they’d tell them: “We don’t want you to ever have children.”
Testimony of Muhammad Abu Marsah (43), father of five from Jabalya Refugee Camp Until the war I lived with my wife and our five children – Nasim, 19, Ahmad, 17, Maryam, 14, Amjad, 11, and Majd, 9 – along with mother, Zalfa, 89, in a house in Jabalya Refugee Camp. We had just finished building a new house and were supposed to move into it in October, when the war broke out. ......
I was arrested arbitrarily, torture and humiliated. All that time, I never stopped thinking about my family. But when I was released from prison, I discovered a very harsh and frightening reality, filled with bombings, hunger and diseases everywhere around me. There is no security and no way to live with dignity, and the future is uncertain.
About 4,000 Gazans have been arrested since the outbreak of the war, more than 1,500 have been released due to lack of evidence. 05/27/2024 High Court judges asked the state to respond within a week to their request to establish a mechanism to examine complaints from detainees about their conditions of imprisonment. In a hearing held on a petition against the law that allows detainees to be held for 45 days without judicial review, Justice Kasher said: "I am looking for someone who has the ability to scream in my ear, 'They are doing terrible and horrible things to me.'" ... About 4,000 Gazans have been arrested since the outbreak of the war by the army, and more than 1,500 of them were released after no evidence was found to allow them to continue being held in detention - this is according to the state's response to the High Court of Justice. The response was provided last week and at a hearing held today (Monday) in a petition against the new amendment to the law for the detention of illegal combatants, which allows them to be held in detention for 45 days without seeing a judge. In addition, permanent detention orders were issued for about 2,000 Gazans, whom the army believes have acted against the IDF and Israeli citizens or belong to terrorist organizations in the Gaza Strip.
The Israeli Prison System as a Network of Torture Camps
This report concerns the treatment of Palestinian prisoners1 and the inhuman conditions they have been subjected to in Israeli prisons since 7 October. B’Tselem collected testimonies from 55 Palestinians incarcerated in Israeli prisons and detention facilities during this time. Thirty of the witnesses are residents of the West Bank, including East Jerusalem; 21 are residents of the Gaza Strip; and four are Israeli citizens. They spoke with B’Tselem after they were released from detention, the overwhelming majority of them without being tried. Their testimonies uncover a systemic, institutional policy focused on the continual abuse and torture of all Palestinian prisoners. This includes frequent acts of severe, arbitrary violence; sexual assault; humiliation and degradation; deliberate starvation; forced unhygienic conditions; sleep deprivation; prohibition on, and punitive measures for, religious worship; confiscation of all communal and personal belongings; and denial of adequate medical treatment. These descriptions appear time and again in the testimonies, in horrifying detail and with chilling similarities. The prisoners’ testimonies lay bare the outcomes of a rushed process in which more than a dozen Israeli prison facilities, both military and civilian, were converted into a network of camps dedicated to the abuse of inmates. Such spaces, in which every inmate is intentionally condemned to severe, relentless pain and suffering, operate in fact as torture camps. p.5
The circumstances and pretexts for arrest varied. Among the prisoners, both male and female, are physicians, academics, lawyers, students, children and political leaders. Some were jailed simply for expressing sympathy for the suffering of Palestinians. Others were taken into custody during military activity in the Gaza Strip, on the sole grounds that they came under the vague definition of "men of fighting age." Some were imprisoned over suspicions, substantiated or not, that they were operatives or supporters of armed Palestinian organizations. The prisoners form a wide spectrum of people from different areas, with varying political opinions. The only thing they have in common is being Palestinian. These people found themselves on their way to detention, handcuffed and blindfolded, for an unknown period of time. p.6
Israeli Cabinet Approves New Prison Chief, Violating Wartime Gov't Agreement 01/14/2024
The heinous attack by Hamas and other armed Palestinian organizations on 7 October, and the widespread targeting of civilians – about 800 of the 1,200 Israelis killed that day were civilians, and about 250 people were taken hostage, some still being held in Gaza – deeply traumatized Israeli society, evoking deepseated fears and an instinct for revenge among many. For the government and the National Security Minister, this provided an opportunity to press harder with applying their racist ideology, using the oppressive mechanisms at their disposal. In record speed, the IPS molded itself in Minister Ben Gvir’s image. For example, the Negev (Ketziot) Prison Commander Brigadier General Yosef Knipes proudly described the conditions in which prisoners are kept at his facility:10 "Most of the day they are actually inside the cells, 23 out of 24 hours, except for those who are in the tents [...] There are between 10 and 12 terrorists in each cell. The cells are currently crowded because we are in an emergency situation. They have a mattress and a blanket, with the minimum conditions required by law." Knipes clarified that "as far as we are concerned, they are all terrorists. We’ve reduced the conditions to a minimum." Koby Yaakobi, a close associate of Minister Ben Gvir appointed by him as IPS Commissioner in the height of the war, declared his intent to "revolutionize" the IPS in keeping with the minister’s policies as soon as he took office, naming the downgrading of prison conditions a top priority.11 p.8
"Without electrical appliances and a television, locked in a cell": What are the conditions like for the Nuhba terrorists in prison? 12/0/2025 Thousands of terrorists have been arrested since the start of the ground maneuver in Gaza, including operatives from Hamas' elite unit. Against the backdrop of massive overcrowding in prisons, the commander of Ketziot Prison describes to Walla! the way the IPS staff deal with the terrorists and the conditions they receive. "They spend 23 out of 24 hours in a cell, they have a mattress and a blanket, minimal conditions."
A clear indicator of the severity of the situation and the moral degradation of the Israeli prison system can be seen in the number of Palestinian prisoners who have died in Israeli custody since the war started – no less than 60. Forty-eight of them were from the Gaza Strip. Some of these perished in the new military detention camps, and others died on their way there, likely due to extreme violence at the hands of soldiers transporting them from the Gaza Strip to Israel.12 B’Tselem is aware of another 12 Palestinians who died in IPS custody. In some cases, the circumstances strongly suggest abuse and deliberate withholding of medical attention. p.9
The prison system is one of the most violent and oppressive state mechanisms that the Israeli regime uses to uphold Jewish supremacy between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea. Israel has incarcerated hundreds of thousands of Palestinians from all walks of life over decades, as a way of undermining and unraveling the social and political fabric of the Palestinian population. The scale of the project speaks for itself: according to various estimates, since 1967, Israel has imprisoned over 800,000 Palestinian men and women from the West Bank (including East Jerusalem) and the Gaza Strip, which accounts for about 20% of the total population and about 40% of all Palestinian men.13 p.10
The dehumanization of Palestinian prisoners begins the moment they are arrested, as their individual identity is erased and they are treated as a homogenous, faceless mass – whether the prisoner is a veteran doctor from Gaza, a teen from East Jerusalem, a student from Haifa or a military wing operative of an armed group. All are deemed "human animals" and "terrorists" simply because they are behind bars, whether their detention was justified or arbitrary, lawful or not. This is how abuse, degradation, and the violation of rights becomes permissible. Arbitrary and extreme violence, withholding medical care from the injured or ill, denying food and water in overcrowded cells – none of these would have been possible if the guards saw Palestinians as human. p.11
The testimonies presented here tell the story of how Israel’s prison system turned into a network of torture camps. p.12
In the early days after 7 October, Israel unlawfully arrested thousands of Palestinian workers from the Gaza Strip who were inside its territory with official work permits.14 Hundreds of detainees were taken to an unknown location, with no notification of their arrest or whereabouts given to their families or anyone else representing them to this day. Some of these detainees are still in Israeli custody. All attempts made by families, lawyers and human rights organizations to find out who has been arrested and where they are being held have been rejected outright. Several petitions filed seeking this information have also been dismissed, with the Supreme Court accepting the state’s position that it had no obligation to provide it.15 p.14
Another UN document, the Body of Principles for the Protection of All Persons under Any Form of Detention or Imprisonment,25 concerns the obligation to treat prisoners humanely, stipulating, among other things, that all prisoners have the right to receive visits from family members and communicate with them, the right to communicate with legal counsel and the right to file complaints with the competent authorities concerning their treatment and incarceration conditions, particularly torture and cruel or inhumane punishment. The document also stipulates the state must ensure oversight of prison facilities by an appointed external body. The Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners, now known as the Mandela Rules,26 is another important UN document. The rules listed in this document concern prison conditions, including the obligation to maintain an adequate level of cleanliness and hygiene, comply with medical standards, provide good quality food that meets prisoners’ nutritional needs, and allow prisoners contact with the outside world. These rules are aimed at ensuring that the penalty imposed on prisoners does not amount to cruel or degrading punishment and that prison facilities come under regular, proper oversight.
(Video) Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners aka The Nelson Mandela Rules Adopted by the First United Nations Congress on the Prevention of Crime and the Treatment of Offenders, held at Geneva in 1955, and approved by the Economic and Social Council by its resolutions 663 C (XXIV) of 31 July 1957 and 2076 (LXII) of 13 May 1977
From the testimony of Muhammad Srur 34, a father of two and resident of Ni’lin in Ramallah District, who was held in the Etzion detention facility and in the Ofer and Nafha prisons | Full testimony p.25
Muhammad Srur (34), a father of two from Ni’lin, Ramallah District
After 7 October 2023, […] the prison administration collectively punished us on a regular basis. The first thing was increasing the number of prisoners in each cell from six to 14. This meant reduced privacy and a much longer wait to use the toilet in the cell. In addition, the new detainees who came to the cell had to sleep on the floor, because there were only three bunk beds. p.27
Testimony of S.B. a resident of East Jerusalem
Testimony of Musa 'Aasi 58, a father of five and resident of Beit Liqya in Ramallah District, who was held in the Etzion detention facility and in the Nafha and Negev (Ketziot) prisons
56 The High Court of Justice instructed the State to respond to the proposal to institute a system for examining complaints made by Palestinian detainees about prison conditions within a week. In the hearing of the petition brought against the law, which currently allows holding detainees for 45 days without judicial review, Justice Kasher said: "I am looking for someone in whose ear one can scream, ‘They’re doing awful and terrible things to me." See here (Hebrew). p.32
About 4,000 Gazans have been arrested since the outbreak of the war, more than 1,500 have been released due to lack of evidence. 05/27/2024 High Court judges asked the state to respond within a week to their request to establish a mechanism to examine complaints from detainees about their conditions of imprisonment. In a hearing held on a petition against the law that allows detainees to be held for 45 days without judicial review, Justice Kasher said: "I am looking for someone who has the ability to scream in my ear, 'They are doing terrible and horrible things to me.'" ... About 4,000 Gazans have been arrested since the outbreak of the war by the army, and more than 1,500 of them were released after no evidence was found to allow them to continue being held in detention - this is according to the state's response to the High Court of Justice. The response was provided last week and at a hearing held today (Monday) in a petition against the new amendment to the law for the detention of illegal combatants, which allows them to be held in detention for 45 days without seeing a judge. In addition, permanent detention orders were issued for about 2,000 Gazans, whom the army believes have acted against the IDF and Israeli citizens or belong to terrorist organizations in the Gaza Strip.
The vast majority of the witnesses whose testimonies are presented here went days, weeks, and in some cases, months before being brought before a judge for the first time. In keeping with the temporary order, and barring exceptional cases, the hearings themselves took place remotely via Zoom, and in at least two cases, the detainee attended the hearing using nothing more than the prison guard’s cell phone. In these circumstances, judges are unlikely to observe whether detainees are injured, hurt or physically deteriorated, and the menacing presence of the prison guards inhibits prisoners from complaining to the judges or reporting the torture they underwent. In the few cases in which prisoners dared to complain about their treatment, the guards made sure to take revenge on them for it. p.33-4
A guard came and told me I had a court hearing to approve the detention. He asked if I wanted to go and I said yes. During the hearing, I told the judge that we were being beaten and attacked, and that our privacy and rights were violated. The judge claimed that the beatings had stopped. I told him: "They beat us today, Your Honor." He put his hands on his head and said nothing. p.35
Various testimonies revealed repeated use of sexual violence, in varying degrees of severity, by soldiers or prison guards against Palestinian detainees as an additional punitive measure. The witnesses described blows to the genitals and other body parts of naked prisoners; the use of metal tools and batons to cause genital pain; the photographing of naked prisoners; penises being grabbed; and strip-searches for the sake of humiliation and degradation. The testimonies also reveal cases of gang sexual violence and assault committed by a group of prison guards or soldiers. One particularly grave testimony, quoted at length below, reports the attempted anal rape of a Palestinian detainee by several prison guards. Similar incidents were mentioned in other testimonies. p.58-9
Testimony of 'A.A., a resident of Hebron District Two of them stripped me like the other prisoners, and then threw me on top of the other prisoners. One of them brought a carrot and tried to shove it in my anus. While he was trying to shove the carrot in, some of the others filmed me on their cell phones. I screamed in pain and terror. It went on like that for about three minutes.
When I arrived at the hospital, I heard them saying ‘Shiba in Tel Hashomer.’ A vascular doctor came and told me: "Your leg needs to be amputated. We need to consult an orthopedist." The soldiers laughed and made fun of me: "Cut off his leg." […] When the orthopedist came and examined me, he told me: "You have to choose: Your leg or your life. It’s your choice." It was the hardest decision of my life, deciding to have my leg amputated. I was shocked, especially since I was alone and there was no one from the family with me to consult. p.71
Testimony of Sufian Abu Saleh 43, a resident of ‘Abasan al-Kabirah in Khan Yunis District, the Gaza Strip, who was held in the Sde Teiman detention facility
112 Upon taking office, Minister Ben Gvir declared his number one priority for the IPS was downgrading prison conditions for Palestinian prisoners (see: Meir Turgeman, "Acting IPS Commissioner Presents: ‘A Revolution per Minister Ben Gvir׳s Policy: ‘Downgrading Terrorists’ Prison Conditions: No. 1 Priority," Ynet, 24 January 2024 (Hebrew). On 9 November 2023, Minister Ben Gvir held a meeting to discuss the budgetary implications of the Gaza war for the IPS, including the cost of food for Palestinian prisoners: "At the conclusion of the discussion, the minister ordered to consider changes to security prisoners’ menu". Accordingly, the logistics division chief made changes to the menu which entered into effect on 1 December 2023, per the Commissioner’s orders of 16 October 2023. The minister’s order to deny Palestinian prisoners meat products was explained as follows: ‘Our hostages in Gaza are suffering from hunger... As far as I’m concerned, they [Palestinian prisoners] will get the minimum we are obligated to give them." (see, Meir Turgeman, "Ben Gvir v. IPS: Change Nukhba Terrorists’ Menu", Ynet, 31 December 2023, and a similar English language report available here; see also, posts on the Minister’s Twitter account here and here (Hebrew). See also, Josh Breiner, "Israel Reduces Food for Palestinian Security Prisoners, Conceals Data, Sources Say", Haaretz, 26 June 2024. p.73
Deputy Commissioner of the Prison Service presented a "revolution according to Minister Ben Gvir's policy": "Worsening conditions for terrorists - goal number 1" 01/24/2024 Superintendent Kobi Yaakovi, who took office last night, presented to the members of the senior command of the Prison Service the revolution he is planning "according to the minister's policy." He said he will promote polygraphs in the organization following the pimping affair in the guardhouses - and will prioritize the treatment of security prisoners. Yacoubi wrote to the senior command staff that his main strategic issues, according to the policy of National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, are also promoting the establishment of a dedicated wing and later a dedicated facility for "arch-terrorists" and heads of criminal organizations. In addition, he said that he intends to establish "a dedicated headquarters body for professional treatment of security prisoners, for the implementation of a cross-cutting policy across all wings and prisons," and also to promote the blocking of cell phones in prisons.
Ben Gvir against the Prison Service: Change the menu for the Nahva prisoners 12/31/2024 The Minister of National Security claimed that he had ordered all types of meat to be removed from the meals that terrorists receive in prison: "It is impossible that while our hostages are suffering from hunger, the prisoners are receiving hearty meals." The Prison Service responded: "The food has been updated in accordance with the policy of reducing living conditions to the minimum required by law."
National Security Minister orders: Change Nukhba terrorists' menu 01/01/2024
Itamar Ben Gvir: The Attorney General Maya Her seems to be conducting herself as if she doesn't live in the State of Israel and hasn't seen what those damned terrorists did to us on 7.10 - a deep disconnect from the people, though not surprising. I'm sorry to disappoint her, but it won't deter me. I will continue to toughen their conditions within the framework of the law and harden them even more. The days are over when terrorists partied in the prisons! 04/11/2024
Itamar Ben Gvir: Our hostages are dying of hunger, and the Attorney General is concerned for the kidnappers' fruits. It's indescribable. 04/18/2024 Readers added context they thought people might want to know: Minister Ben Gvir takes the Attorney General's words out of context. The Attorney General is not "worrying about fruit snatchers," she is gathering information in preparation for formulating a position in a petition submitted to the High Court of Justice on the subject.
Israel Reduces Food for Palestinian Security Prisoners, Conceals Data, Sources Say 06/26/2024 Since Oct. 7, prisoners reported weight loss due to drastic food reductions in the prisons, to the point of starvation. As Israel's top court hears a petition filed on the matter, far-right Minister Ben-Gvir states this is a 'deterrent measure'
The attack lasted a long time, more than half an hour of nonstop beating. It looked like they wanted to cause as much damage as possible. When it was over, I felt I was going to pass out. Afterwards, we lay on the floor for hours. None of us could move, not even to go to the bathroom. We were all dizzy and lost balance. My right eye swelled up, and I was afraid I’d lose my sight. We were in a very bad state. One prisoner said in tears that they’d raped him with a stick. p.89
Testimony of Firas Hassan 50, a father of four and resident of Hindaza in Bethlehem District, who was held in the Negev Prison (Ketziot) X
Complete article
Israeli Cabinet Approves New Prison Chief, Violating Wartime Gov't Agreement 01/14/2024
"Without electrical appliances and a television, locked in a cell": What are the conditions like for the Nuhba terrorists in prison? 12/0/2025 Thousands of terrorists have been arrested since the start of the ground maneuver in Gaza, including operatives from Hamas' elite unit. Against the backdrop of massive overcrowding in prisons, the commander of Ketziot Prison describes to Walla! the way the IPS staff deal with the terrorists and the conditions they receive. "They spend 23 out of 24 hours in a cell, they have a mattress and a blanket, minimal conditions."
(Video) Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners aka The Nelson Mandela Rules Adopted by the First United Nations Congress on the Prevention of Crime and the Treatment of Offenders, held at Geneva in 1955, and approved by the Economic and Social Council by its resolutions 663 C (XXIV) of 31 July 1957 and 2076 (LXII) of 13 May 1977
Testimony of S.B. a resident of East Jerusalem I’m a resident of Jerusalem. I was arrested in April 2021 on security charges, and I was incarcerated until March 2024. During these 35 months, I moved between three prisons: Rimon, Negev and Nafha. I was at Nafha from August 2023 until March 2024 - meaning during the war too. ......
On 7 October, we still had TVs in our cells, so that’s how we found out about what happened near the Gaza border that day. The prison administration told us nothing. But that day, they confiscated everything in the cells: TVs, electric kettles, hotplates, heaters, fans, pillows, sheets, blankets and mattress covers. They left only one blanket for each prisoner. Family visits and lawyer visits were banned, and even Red Cross visits. So we were cut off from the outside world. Of course, they also confiscated cell phones that people had hidden in the wings.
Testimony of Musa 'Aasi 58, a father of five and resident of Beit Liqya in Ramallah District, who was held in the Etzion detention facility and in the Nafha and Negev (Ketziot) prisons I am unemployed and make a living off raising birds and occasional odd jobs. I have a lot of health problems, some of them due to previous periods in Israeli prison. I have hypoglycemia, an ulcer, and high blood pressure, and I've had two operations: disc surgery in my back in 2010 and meniscus surgery in my knee in 2000, after a soldier hit me. From the first intifada in 1988 to October 2023, I was arrested six times and spent a total of 3.5 years in prison. All that is nothing compared to what I went through in the last imprisonment – after 7 October 2023.
On 19 October 2023, at 2:15 AM, about 30 to 40 soldiers came to my house. They tried to break down the door but I opened it before they managed to. The second I opened the door, the officer asked straight away if I belonged to Hamas. Before I could answer, he said, "The whole family is Hamas." Then he suddenly punched me in the mouth, and my lips started to bleed. I spat out the blood and he yelled, "Why are you spitting?" and punched me again along with two other soldiers. I answered, "I spat out blood, my lips are bleeding." After that, a group of soldiers attacked my son Seif a-Din, 24, for no reason. They beat him hard with their rifles, punched him and kicked him while some of them held him. I heard him shouting. .....
There were no family visits and there was no contact with anyone on the outside, not even the Red Cross. We were cut off from the news and the outside world. The only information we could get was when a lawyer visited one of the detainees.
While I was in Negev, I attended an appeal filed on my behalf on Zoom. The lawyer managed to get two months off my detention. I used the opportunity and complained to the judge about the policy of leaving us hungry and thirsty and holding back on medication and treatments. I told him I had hypoglycemia and was forced to eat toothpaste. He was surprised when he heard that. ......
Testimony of Muhammad Srur 34, a father of two and resident of Ni’lin in Ramallah District, who was in the Etzion detention facility and in the Ofer and Nafha prisons. On 18 October 2023, around 2:00 A.M., a military force led by a Shin Bet officer invaded my home in the Wadi al-’Ein neighborhood. I was at the market in Nablus at the time, buying vegetables for my shops in Ni’lin. When they didn’t find me at home, they invaded the homes of my twin brothers, ‘Abd a-Rahman and Ahmad, 29. The officer called me from ‘Abd a-Rahman’s phone, introduced himself as “Bashar” and said they’d arrested my brothers. He threatened that he’d let them go only if I turned myself in. I told him I was in Nablus and he said I had 30 minutes to get there. I told him: “How can I get to you from Nablus within half an hour?” I asked him to let me turn myself in at the Huwarah checkpoint, but he refused. I proposed going to Ofer Camp in the morning, but he refused that too. He insisted that I come to the Ni’lin checkpoint and said I’d be considered a wanted fugitive if I didn’t. I told him I had no intention of running away. I had no choice. I left the market and drove back towards Ni’lin, but the trip took longer because of the checkpoints and the closed roads in the West Bank, and I didn’t arrive until 5:00 A.M. ..... When we were there, they brought my brothers ‘Abd a-Rahman and Ahmad, and the father and brother of the other detainee, who were also held hostage until he turned himself in. ...... They ordered us to sing and repeat the phrase “Am Yisrael Chai” (the People of Israel live).
After about three hours of a tough, tiring journey, we arrived at Nafha Prison. We were taken out of the bus and on the way to the cell, were treated the same way we were treated at Ofer Prison. They set dogs on us, beat us badly and hurled insults at us. Before we went into the cells, they took me and another detainee to a room where they sat us in front of a computer to participate in a live court hearing. Before the hearing began, we were attacked and beaten hard with metal batons all over our bodies for more than 30 minutes. At the court hearing there were judges, prosecutors, a translator and a lawyer. When the lawyer saw me on the computer with my face red, swollen and bruised, he asked what happened to me. I told him what happened before the hearing and he asked me to tell the judge. I did get the chance to speak at the hearing and I told the judge what happened. He asked me if I had been taken in for a medical check and if a doctor had treated me. I said no. He recommended taking me to a doctor. During the hearing, I found out I’d been issued an administrative detention order for six months. Because of my health condition, and because of the severe beating and abuse, it was shortened to five months.
During the hearing, I also spoke about what happened to ‘Arafat, and about how we were brutally attacked and abused by the guards during transfers, but the judge didn’t pay attention to that. After the hearing, on the way to the cell, the IPS people took revenge on me for complaining about their behavior. They hit and kicked me brutally the whole way. When we arrived, they put me in cell 68 on wing 12. I think that wing is designated for Hamas prisoners. The cells were dilapidated and it looked like we were the first ones to be put in them. It smelled damp and there was mold on the walls. It was impossible to breathe inside. All you dream of in there is a breath of fresh air. The cells had no windows facing the yard, and they were connected by a long, roofed corridor, so no sunlight or clean air came through. The cells were 7x3.5 meters. There was no electricity in there and nothing for basic needs. There were only four bunk beds, which could hold eight people, but they put 10, 12 and sometimes 14 prisoners in each cell. ......
Administrative detention is one of the worst detentions there is. The prisoner is not accused of anything; there are no court hearings, and it’s impossible to know when the detention will end. They decide on a specific period of detention and then renew it once or twice, or ten times or even more. That’s why the major difficulty with that kind of detention is the detainee’s mental state, sitting and waiting to be released, not knowing if it’s going to happen, or whether the order will be renewed again.
Testimony of Thaer Halahleh 45, a father of four and resident of Kharas in Hebron District, who was held in the Ofer and Nafha prisons I live in the town of Kharas, west of Hebron, with my wife and four children. I was arrested on 6 June 2022. I previously spent 16 years in Israeli prison, ten of which were under administrative detention without any charge or trial. I suffer from a viral liver disease, which I contracted during my previous stint in prison. ......
On 7 October 2023, I was in Nafha Prison, in cell 3 on wing 4 with eight other inmates. As soon as the war started, the prison turned into a torture facility. The guards locked the cell doors and forbade us from leaving. They also confiscated everything we had: the TV, hot plate, kettle, and all electrical appliances in the room, as well as our clothes and shoes. They left each of us with one set of clothes, one pair of shoes, one blanket, a mattress, a bottle of shampoo and a toothbrush.
Testimony of Muhammad Nazzal 18, a resident of Qabatiyah in Jenin District, who was held in the Megiddo and Negev (Ketziot) prisons On 27 August 2023, at around 4:00 A.M., about 15 Israeli soldiers raided our home in the western neighborhood of Qabatiyah. They tied my hands, and blindfolded me with a piece of cloth and took me outside. They put me in a military jeep and sat a dog opposite me. The dog terrified me. During the trip, the occupation soldiers hit me on the head and neck. They let me out at the Dotan camp, where I stayed for four hours, then they transferred me to another camp, where I stayed for about two hours. I still don’t know where it was. From there, they took me to the Huwarah camp, where I was held me for eight days. During that time I was taken to the court at Salem, where I was remanded in custody for another eight days. .....
The guards turned very violent after the war broke out. One day, I heard shouts from the inmates in the next cell. Later, I found out that one of them asked a guard if there was a ceasefire or any sort of solution because we weren’t getting any news from the outside, and in response to that question, they beat him to death. The guards simply left him there for half an hour after the assault. His name was Thaer Abu ‘Asab. He was from Qalqiliyah, and he was in prison from 2005. .......
The night after the assault, when I went to the toilet, I passed out and fell on the floor. Other inmates pulled me back to bed. The next day, a female medic or doctor came and checked me, especially my upper body – my back and shoulders and hands. She disinfected my wounds and put iodine on them. She also bandaged my hands and came back every 48 hours to change the bandages. I felt that she was sad about what happened to me. She seemed sad and upset by what the guards did. ........
...... Before I was released, a Shin Bet (ISA) officer warned me not to have any celebrations or talk to the media. He said I should keep quiet and threatened that if I didn’t meet those conditions, they would arrest me again. Then they handed us over to the Red Cross people. As soon as I got on the bus, I told one of them that I’d been beaten and my hands hurt. There was a Red Cross doctor there. He changed the bandages on both my hands. I was taken to Ramallah.
Testimony of Ashraf al-Muhtaseb 53, a father of five and resident of Hebron who was held in the Etzion detention facility and in the Ofer and Negev (Ketzio) prisons Four minute video testimony I live with my wife Nidaa, 32, and our four children, Muhammad, 12, Zeid, 10, Adam, 8, and Iman, 7. I have another son from my first marriage, who is married and lives elsewhere. I have a BA in arts and am a wedding band manager. I also coach music bands. I used to have a mosaics studio. I’ve spent a total of six years in Israeli prisons. I was first arrested in 1989 and held for three months.
Testimony of Z.T., a resident of Bethlehem District On Saturday, 8 November 2023, I was sitting on the street with a friend. Around 3:30 A.M., we saw that young guys from the town sent a Whatsapp update that soldiers were entering the town on foot. We waited there, because we wanted to know where the army was going. A few minutes later, I learned that the army was at my uncle's house, where we lived about three years ago. After a few more minutes, the soldiers left his house and went to the house we live in now. Then my brother Ahmad, who was at home, called and told me to come home because the soldiers were asking about me. Then someone took his phone and spoke to me. He introduced himself as an officer and told me I had to come home. I told him I was in Bethlehem and would turn myself in at 8:00 A.M. He said he would turn my home into a military camp until I came and turned myself in, and then he hung up. I wasn’t sure what to do.
Ten minutes later, my brother called again and told me the army was arresting him, as well as my father, until I turned myself in. I told him to ask the officer to leave them alone and that I was coming to turn myself in. I walked along the street to the house, and found my mother waiting outside for me. The soldiers had already taken my father and brother about a kilometer ahead. I went after them with my mother. When we caught up with them, they immediately released my father and brother.
Testimony of Firas Hassan 50, a father of four and resident of Hindaza in Bethlehem District, who was held in the Negev Prison (Ketziot) On 10 August 2022, I was on my way to the Al-Quds Open University in Ramallah, where I was enrolled. ...... The cell was small and had a toilet. It smelled strongly of mold. I was in it for seven days. Then I had a court hearing, after which I was informed that I was under administrative detention for six months. .....
Later on, my administrative detention was extended for another six months. I filed an appeal but the charges against me were classified, so it was just a show of legal process. When the detention period ended, they extended it again by another six months. Life in prison continued as usual until 7 October 2023. After that, it was like living inside a tsunami. .....
From there, they took us one by one to a room where we attended our hearings via Zoom. On the way there, IRF members punched me very hard in the chest. An Arabic-speaking guard was in the room, and he listened to the entire conversation between me, the judge and the lawyer. He threatened that if I complained to the judge, I would pay. The lawyer told me before the hearing that the judges already knew about everything that was going on in the prison, so there was no point talked about it. Still, in the hearing he asked me, “Have you been exposed to violence in prison?” I didn't dare answer, because I was afraid the guards would retaliate and beat me even more brutally. .....
The attack lasted a long time, more than half an hour of nonstop beating. It looked like they wanted to cause as much damage as possible. When it was over, I felt I was going to pass out. Afterwards, we lay on the floor for hours. None of us could move, not even to go to the bathroom. We were all dizzy and lost balance. My right eye swelled up, and I was afraid I’d lose my sight. We were in a very bad state. One prisoner said in tears that they’d raped him with a stick. ......
The violence subsided a bit after 19 November 2023. At first, we didn’t know why they’d suddenly eased up on us. A week later, I hear from other inmates that someone named Thaer Abu ‘Asab had died because of the beating.
Testimony of 'A.H., a resident of Hebron District
I was arrested on 12 April 2022, at about 4:00 A.M. I was interrogated for 17 days for suspected membership in Hamas, and then I was taken to Ofer Prison, where they kept me for 23 days. From there I was transferred to Ketziot Prison, where I found out I’d been issued an administrative detention order for four months. .......
We were afraid that would be the end of us. While they hit us, they forced us to curse God and our mothers. I said, “My mother is a whore” and cursed God. One of them grabbed me by the hair and ordered me to say, “The people of Israel are a strong people.” He hit me hard for about 10 minutes. Then, they left the cell. The prisoner who was bitten was seriously injured, but we had nothing to treat him with. They left us one plastic bottle to fill up tap water, when the supply was turned on. All the prisoners used that bottle, and we had very little water. We had no choice but to pray without washing first. They also forbade us to pray together. We had to pray individually. During roll call, they swore at us every day. We felt we’d been cut off from the rest of the world. .....
The guards drew a pig and male genitals on the walls of our cell, and wrote: “Ahmad Yassin is a pig,” and things like that. They also drew a Star of David and wrote under it “The People of Israel live.” At the entrance to Wing 5, they hung a sign that read in Hebrew and Arabic: “Welcome to hell.” At night, they would play songs praising the “sons of M’aruf,” (the Druze community) and rap music very loudly to keep us from sleeping. ......
..... They also forced us to kiss the Israeli flag and sing the Israeli national anthem.
I was shaking with fear, and then they pounced on me. One of them slapped me, and the other spat in my face and said to me in Arabic: “Yihya Sinwar will die.” They ordered me to repeat what he said. Two of them stripped me like the other prisoners, and then threw me on top of the other prisoners. One of them brought a carrot and tried to shove it in my anus. While he was trying to shove the carrot in, some of the others filmed me on their cell phones. I screamed in pain and terror. It went on like that for about three minutes. ......
The next day, Saturday, 11 November 2023, when I was just sitting, I started slipping out of consciousness, probably due to a combination of fear, the beatings and the malnutrition. My hands started cramping. I don’t know what caused it exactly. One of the prisoners started screaming: “’Amer is dead.” I heard him, but I couldn’t move. A few guards and a medic came to the cell door. I heard the medic tell the prisoners to give me water to drink, but they said there was no water. One of the young guys in the cell gave the guard an empty bottle to fill, and he left and came back a while later and said, “I don’t have permission to give you water.” He returned the bottle to them empty. I was in bad shape physically and couldn’t move. When evening roll call started, I was still in the same position. The force people came into the cell to count, and I was still lying on the floor. The unit commander told everyone to go back and called the dog handlers. She ordered me to put my hands on my head. The force people brought the dog into the cell, and at that point, I completely lost consciousness. ........
One day, roll call was delayed until 8:00 P.M. The other prisoners and I were very scared, because we didn’t know what was going on. Before they reached our wing, I heard an ambulance siren. I told the prisoners in the cell that there was a dead prisoner. I was terrified of what would happen to us. That evening, the IRF came in and counted us without attacking us.
Then, four female soldiers in tight clothes and an officer entered the cell and played loud music. The female soldiers started to dance obscenely, shamelessly. They screamed and made fun of us, and then some guards joined them and danced with them, while the officer stood at the cell’s doorway, watching. He filmed us on his phone, and then everyone quickly left the cell and closed the door. I was terrified. I was sure the unit would storm the room. I expected them to beat us after that, but we were surprised it didn’t happen. ......
On 6 December 2023, the prison administration left the lights on all night. I turned off the light in the cell because we couldn’t sleep. During morning roll call, the officer asked who turned off the light, and then he and other guards beat me and the other prisoners on the head and then they left. After about an hour, a guard came and told me I had a court hearing to approve the detention. He asked if I wanted to go and I said yes. During the hearing, I told the judge that we were being beaten and attacked, and that our privacy and rights were violated. The judge claimed that the beatings had stopped. I told him: “They beat us today, Your Honor.” He put his hands on his head and said nothing.
The officer was there, and he looked at me menacingly. Then, he handcuffed me from behind, even though the other prisoners who had hearings were handcuffed in front. As soon as I went back into the wing, escorted by two guards I know, one of them kicked my leg and the other took the slippers I was wearing and hit me on the head. When I advanced a little, the guards attacked me again. One of them kicked me from behind and knocked me to the floor and then he beat me badly. He took a metal hammer and hit me on my lower back and right thigh and then he hit my testicles again and I started screaming. .....
On 14 April 2024, one of the guards, who usually treated us well and never hit a single prisoner, came to the cell door and said to me: “What happened to you is a shame on Israel [...] We are a despicable country.”
Testimony of Muhammad Salah 27, a resident of Burqah in Nablus District, who was held in Megiddo Prison On Monday, 16 October 2023, at around 3:00 A.M., Ranim and I woke up to loud banging on the door. I quickly ran to open it because I was afraid they would blow it up. As soon as I opened the door, soldiers burst into the house. One of them asked for my name and ordered me to give him my ID card, and another ordered me to give him my phone. I handed over both. .....
At the beginning of December 2023, I was in wing 6 when it was raided. A lot of guards entered all the cells, tied our hands, and made us stand facing the wall. They beat us with sticks for a few minutes. I was beaten on my back and shoulders. Then they left the cells, but took the prisoners from one cell to another cell and continued beating them there. I later learned that they broke the ribs of an inmate named ‘Abd a-Rahman al-Bahash from Nablus. After that, he was in terrible pain and his condition grew worse every day. On 1 January 2024, he died. We declared a hunger strike for three days, but they beat us again and we had to give up. I was in cell 4 at the time, but about every two weeks, they moved us from wing to wing and from room to room. .....
Throughout the entire period of detention, I didn’t meet with a lawyer. I also didn’t see my parents or other family members, because they canceled visits altogether. We were in complete isolation, cut off from the world and unaware of what was happening outside. We couldn’t follow the news because they took away the TVs and radios. Our only source of information was new detainees. We were mainly interested in hearing if there would be a prisoner exchange deal. We just wanted to escape that hell. All the prisoners’ conversations centered on that.
Testimony of N.H., a resident of East Jerusalem I’m from East Jerusalem. I was arrested in 2021 on a security charge and sentenced to 12 years in prison. I was put in Wing 3 of Damun Prison, the women’s wing.
On 7 October 2023, we heard on the news that Hamas attacked Israeli communities near the Gaza border. That day, about 20 guards burst with batons into the cell I shared with five other inmates and beat us for about half an hour. .......
All medical treatments we used to get in prison also stopped. They even tried to extort information about plans to protest the punishment policy from prisoners, in exchange for medical treatment. I remember a 21-year-old prisoner from Hebron who almost fainted from hunger and thirst in the shower because there was no proper drinking water. As “treatment,” they gave her a bag of salt to eat, so she'd have to drink a lot of the foul tap water after. She refused to eat it, of course.
I was supposed to be released in the fourth round of the prisoner swap between Hamas and the occupation authorities. On the day of the first round, the guards came into the cells and told us some of us were being released. Because we weren’t getting any news from outside, we didn’t know anything about the deal and they didn’t explain why. They handcuffed 24 prisoners and dragged them out of the cell by the handcuffs, which was painful.
Testimony of Sami Khalili 41, a resident of Nablus who was serving a prison sentence from 2003 and was held in the Negev Prison (Ketziot) Three minute video testimony I was arrested on 10 February 2003 and sentenced to 22 years in prison on security grounds. The sentence ended on 8 February 2024. During that time, I was transferred between many prisons: Ashkelon (Shikma), Shata, Gilboa, Megiddo, Eshel, Ramon, Keidar, Hadarim and Negev (Ketziot). I saw a lot of things. ......
They also hit prisoners and cursed and humiliated them on the way to meetings with lawyers. Prisoners would forego the meeting just to spare themselves the humiliation, swearing and beating and for their clothes not to be confiscated.
Testimony of Z.A., a resident of East Jerusalem
On 12 October 2023, around 1:30 P.M., while I was riding my motorcycle to work, an unmarked Kia Sportage car suddenly blocked my way. Four armed men in gray uniforms got out of it. They didn’t identify themselves and simply pointed their guns at me right away. I stopped quickly and got off the motorcycle, which fell down.
Testimony of Fouad Hassan 45, a father of five and resident of Qusrah in Nablus District, who was held in Megiddo Prison On 4 November 2023, I woke up around 2:00 A.M., when I heard voices near my house. I looked through the bedroom window, on the second floor of the house, and noticed several soldiers trying to open the front door. I woke up my wife, Rinad Hassan, 38, and asked her to put on her hijab and wear appropriate clothes, because the army was going to invade the house. I woke up all our children, too, so they wouldn’t be frightened: Yusef, 15, Sanaa, 13, Ahmad, 10, Janat, 10, and ‘Omar, 6. ......
I spent one night in Huwarah, and on the next day, we were taken to Salem. On the way to the bus, we had to walk hunched over and put our hands on the back of the person in front of us. When we got on the bus, with hands and legs tied, soldiers beat us and swore at us. They cursed God and the Prophet and told us: “Let’s see how the resistance benefits you now.” We were transferred to Megiddo Prison. We were about 16 detainees. Then they took us in for interrogation one by one. When it was my turn, the interrogator asked me about my brother Ibrahim and told me to turn him in. I told him I didn’t know where he was and that he didn’t have a phone. The interrogator said: “That’s your problem. He’s your brother and you have to turn him in.” I told the interrogator: “I won’t do it. It’s his business. He’s old enough and responsible for himself.” That was the end of the interrogation. After the interrogation, we were taken back to the bus, and at that point, our hands weren’t in cuffs. The detainees were called by name, and we had to answer without raising our heads. One of the detainees raised his head, and then the guard cursed his mother and sister. The detainee answered him with the same curse: “Your sister and mother are no better than my mother and sister.” Then the guard shoved him and said: “I’ll make sure the dog plays between your legs at Megiddo.” From there, we were taken to Megiddo. When we got off the bus, a soldier said to us: “Welcome to hell.” One of the detainees, a resident of Jenin, told the soldier “Welcome to Jenin”. He answered him: “We’ll soon find out.”
At admission, we were strip-searched again, fully naked. The most humiliating thing was that it was three female soldiers who did the search. I told one of the soldiers: “I’m not going to take my clothes off in front of the [female] soldiers,” and he replied: “Shut your mouth.” I had no choice but to obey them. The detainees went into the search, that was conducted by five male and female soldiers, two at a time. Of course, during the search, there was swearing, beating and kicking of the legs, on the pretext that we had to spread our legs wider. These kicks knocked people down on the floor. Then, they took us to the doctor, where they asked us the usual questions, i.e. if we had any medical conditions or take any medication. Then they took pictures of us and then they took us into the Shin Bet [Israel Security Service] one by one. There was a huge Israeli flag on the wall. The first question the Shin Bet officer asked was: “Which organization do you belong to?” Then he ordered me to kiss the flag while I was being filmed. There were about 20 soldiers in the room. I told the officer I wouldn’t do it, and he said, “You have to kiss the flag.” I told him “No, I don’t want to.” Suddenly, the 20 soldiers in the room started beating me. They hit me all over my body with whatever they could find. One of them kicked me in the head, and I passed out. They were still beating me when I came to. Then they made me stand and took pictures of me with the flag behind me. I was taken out of the room and beaten again until I passed out again.
I woke up when someone said: “He’s dead, he’s dead,” in Hebrew, “Get away from him.” He told me to get up and wash my face in the bathroom. I saw that my whole body was covered in blood. I was bleeding from the nose, mouth and head too. He told me in Arabic not to talk about what happened. It was one of the prison guards.
Testimony of Shaimaa Abu Jiab Abu Ful (Female) 32, a resident of Jabalya R.C., who was held in the Anatot and Damun prisons. At the beginning of the war, I moved to my parents’ house in the a-Saftawi neighborhood in the northern Gaza Strip. After about a month and a half, we all moved to a rented apartment in the a-Sheikh Radwan neighborhood. On 3 December 2023, my father, Khaled Abu Jiab, 72, was sitting at the entrance to the house when suddenly, the area was heavily bombed. He was seriously injured. I called my husband, Ahmad Abu Foul, who works as a paramedic, and he came with an ambulance and took my father to al-Awda Hospital. My father had surgery at the hospital, but his condition was severe and he passed away the next day. We buried him in a soccer field nearby. It was a very hard day. ......
Then they took me out of the cage and blindfolded me again. They put me in a jeep and took me back to Anatot Prison. I really thought I was being released, and suddenly I found myself in that prison again. They took my details again and took me into interrogation that was like the previous one. The same questions. The interrogator told me: “Sign.” I said: “I don't want to sign anything in Hebrew.” He said, “Sign, for your own good.” So I signed.
Then they took me to a room, untied me and ordered me to strip. I took everything off except my underwear because I was menstruating. They told me: “Stand facing the wall.” A female soldier came and felt my underwear, to make sure I wasn’t hiding anything. Then they said: “Get dressed.” They took my sanitary pad and threw it away.
Testimony of M.A., Hebron District I was arrested on 7 July 2020. The day before, the army raided our house early in the morning while I wasn’t home, and an officer summoned me over the phone for interrogation. I went to the place they told me at 9:00 A.M. Soldiers were waiting for me there. They pointed their guns at me and tied my hands. .....
After we all went back to the cell, the prison commander, who was known as “Abu Yusef”, came and opened the door. He laughed and said we’d killed Thaer and wanted to frame the prison for it. I started laughing at what he said, and then he asked, “Why are you laughing?” I said, “No reason.” He started swearing at me, and I swore back. At 8:00 P.M. the guards counted us, and after roll call the special forces came in again, beat us again in the same way, and left.
Testimony of A.A., Hebron District On Thursday, 18 January 2024, at 4:30 A.M., I woke up when the Israeli army blew up our front door and about five soldiers came into my bedroom. They grabbed me by the arms and led me to the yard, where they tied my hands very tightly behind my back with zip ties. There were about 20 soldiers there, on foot. .....
The next day I went to Etzion, where they interrogated me. The officer asked me the same questions: If I had any weapons and belonged to any organization. I asked him about the money they took from me and told him it belonged to my wife, who works at the Palestinian Authority’s Ministry of Interior. He said my wife was my accomplice and had to share the responsibility. He said they would continue to come to my house and confiscate whatever they found.
Testimony of F.J., Hebron District
On 17 October 2023, around 1:25 A.M., we were woken up by loud banging on the front door. I opened the door and saw an Israeli officer and four soldiers. Dozens more soldiers were spread out around the house. The officer asked my name and demanded my ID card. I gave it to him, and he told me they were there to arrest me. I asked him to let me put on my shoes and jacket because it was cold. He refused at first, but eventually agreed and ordered me to put them on quickly. My wife brought me the shoes, and I put them on. .......
We were taken to Etzion Prison, where they threw us violently out of the vehicle into the yard, blindfolded. They sat us there, and the soldiers started hitting us with their guns, kicking us, spitting on us and humiliating us. Whenever one of the detainees told them he was sick or injured, they deliberately beat him in the part of the body he complained about. After I told them I had a heart condition, they hit me again and again in the chest. I heard the screams of one detainee I knew from before, who had Mediterranean fever. The soldiers attacked him brutally. Another detainee told them he had a herniated disc and pain in his spine, so they deliberately hit him in the back. The soldiers also peed on some of the detainees. We were thirsty, but the soldiers hit us and kicked us every time someone asked for a drink of water or go to the bathroom. One detainee told me later that a soldier peed on him and then wiped his penis on his face.
Testimony of Sufian Abu Saleh 43, a resident of ‘Abasan al-Kabirah in Khan Yunis District, the Gaza Strip, who was held in the Sde Teiman detention facility I’m married to Hanaa Abu Saleh and we have four children, ‘Abd a-Rahman, 14, Iman, 13, Aya, 12, and ‘Issam, 10. Before the war, I worked as a taxi driver, but now I’m unemployed and live with my family in a tent in the al-Fukhari area in Khan Yunis, near the European Hospital.
On 7 October, we left our house in the ‘Abasan al-Kabirah area of Khan Yunis, because it’s close to the border and there were a lot of bombings there. At first, we moved to my parents, who live one kilometer away from our house. We stayed with them for about three days, and then moved to a relative’s house in downtown Khan Yunis and stayed with them for almost 50 days. .....
I was in pain for a week and had a high fever. The soldiers took me in a minibus to a hospital in the interrogation center, and on the way, they hit my injured leg with batons and with their guns and stepped on my legs. I screamed in pain. A soldier asked me: ‘Which of your legs is hurt?’ and started hitting me hard on that leg, brutally. Even when they took me off the minibus, they kept hitting me on the leg and head. Pus started oozing out of the wound. They swore at me, too: “I’ll do this and that to your mother, your sister and your wife” and “Damn your dignity, you son of a whore,” and other similar abuses. ......
They put me in a diaper. I passed out. I didn’t even feel them examining me. When I woke up, someone told me: “You’ve had surgery.” I was still blindfolded. I didn’t know if the person talking to me was a doctor or a soldier. I wasn’t given any information about the surgery. I asked them how my leg was doing, and they said it was fine. They gave me intravenous painkillers and did a glucose test. Three days later, I had another operation. They said it was to clean and disinfect the leg. .....
When I got to the hospital, I heard them saying ‘Shiba in Tel Hashomer.’ A vascular doctor came and told me: “Your leg needs to be amputated. We need to consult an orthopedist.” The soldiers laughed and made fun of me: “Cut off his leg.” ...
When the orthopedist came and examined me, he told me: “You have to choose: Your leg or your life. It’s your choice.” It was the hardest decision I ever had to make, deciding to have my leg amputated. I was shocked, especially because I was alone and there was no one from the family with me to consult.
Testimony of Hisham Saleh a resident of a-Sawiyah in Nablus District, who was held in Ofer Prison On Saturday, 28 October 2023, at around 1:30 P.M. I took a CNN team to the place where my brother Bilal Salah, 39, was killed by a settler earlier that day, while we were picking olives. .....
The police officers detained me and searched me. One of them asked if I'd been at the scene at the time of the incident. I said I had and explained that my brother, our children, and I were harvesting our olives with other people from a-Sawiyah when four settlers arrived. One was carrying a handgun and another a rifle. He asked if we’d thrown stones at the settlers and I said no, that it was the settlers who started shouting at us to leave, claiming that the grove was theirs – that it belonged to the settlement of Rehelim. I told him the land is ours going back generations, and that as far back as I can remember, I used to come here with my father – long before they established Rehelim 500 meters away from our plot. .....
The interrogator said, “You're coming with us.” They put me in a white jeep and took me to the police station in the settlement of Ariel. He showed me a picture of my brother’s funeral on his computer and told me there were Hamas flags there. I told him I had no idea what was there and that our whole town attended the funeral. My brother was killed right in front of me, and that’s all I cared about. I don’t belong to any political faction, plus there were Fatah flags there, too.
Testimony of ‘Imad a-Din Abu al-Heija 36, a father of four and resident of a-Sawiyah in Nablus District, who was held in the Negev Prison (Ketziot), and before the war in Megiddo Prison I was arrested on 1 March 2022, when an Israeli military force raided our house and took me to the detention facility in Huwarah, where they held me for eight days. Three days after I was arrested, the Shin Bet (ISA) officer in Huwarah told me a six-month administrative detention order was issued for me. From Huwarah, I was transferred to detention at Megiddo Prison. ......
I was kept in administrative detention for two years in total. Every time the order expired, it was renewed, for different lengths of time. That happened six times. The last time, they renewed the administrative detention for another 80 days, and after that I was released, on 15 March 2024.
Testimony of Att. Ahmad Khalifah (42), a father of three from Um al-Fahem, Israel Three minute video I am married and have three children, a 10-year-old and twins who are 7. We live in the city of Um al-Fahem. I’m a lawyer and a member of the Um al-Fahem City Council.
On Thursday, 19 October 2023, at around 8:00 P.M., I was at a protest against the attack on Gaza, speaking to the demonstrators through a loudspeaker. Suddenly, several police units raided the protest. I saw officers wearing three different types of uniforms. They threw stun grenades. I heard one of them say, “Khalifah, Khalifah.” He approached me. I held out my hands to show I wasn’t afraid of being arrested, and then I was surprised when he actually detained me and put me in metal handcuffs. They led me to a jeep, where there were 10 other detained demonstrators. On the way to the jeep they hit me, tore my shirt and kicked me. They threw me to the ground, and one of them kneed me in the chest several times. It was very painful. He also hit me hard in the face, and other police officers beat me, too. .....
That day, during the break, one of the guards threatened me that if I mentioned the name of any guard on his shift to the judge or to anyone else, he would punish me. He said there were no laws in the prison except his law. He threatened me in front of other prisoners, saying that when I was released, he would send a special unit to kill me in Um al-Fahem. I told him that wouldn’t be a problem—Um al-Fahem is close to the prison and he was welcome to send them.
Later that day, I was transferred to wing 1 as punishment for mentioning the torture and abuse of the detainees in court. I was specifically punished for mentioning what happened to ‘Abd a-Rahman Mar’i, a detainee from the Salfit area who was held in solitary confinement near the one I was in at the time, along with the lawyer Sari Khuriyeh and someone else I know. I heard him groaning in pain all the time and asking for medical help. After three days, they transferred him to another isolation cell (in a wing known as Tora Bora), and I found out he died there. Sari was also transferred as punishment to solitary confinement near ‘Abd al-Rahman’s cell, after he gave the finger to the judge at a court hearing in Acre.
Testimony of Attn. Sari Huriyyah (53), a father of four from Shfaram, Israel I’m married and live with my wife and our four kids, who are between the ages of six and 17. I work as a real estate lawyer and have a private office in Haifa.
On 4 November 2023, around 11:00 A.M., I was at my office when my brother called to tell me there were a lot of cops at our family’s home in Shfaram, looking for me. I called the police to ask why officers were looking for me and what they wanted, and they said they wanted me. I asked if I should come to them and they said no. .....
They led me into my home with my hands tied. My wife asked them to untie them so my young kids wouldn’t see me like that, but they refused. They asked if I had cash, and I replied that I had 10,000 shekels (~2,700 USD). They took documents and books from the house. After the raid on my home, they took me to the police station in Shfaram, where they put metal cuffs on my hands and feet. It was hard to walk. They put me in an interrogation room, where I found that the reason for my arrest was a Facebook post. I admitted to posting it. The investigator asked me about my cell phone, and I answered that they needed a permit to get it, but that I had nothing to hide. I gave him my phone and password. ....
They cut us off from the outside world. They confiscated everything. There was nothing, no radio and no means of communication. Each time a new detainee arrived, everyone would ask him what happened. There was a special unit whose role was to beat detainees. People who were beaten sat for hours afterward, unable to speak. All this also generated considerable psychological stress, of course. There was constant yelling. At night they would bang on doors, several times each night, and turn on flashlights. And that was in addition to the beatings we heard. ....
On my second day in solitary confinement, I saw them severely beating another detainee. Along with the guards beating him was a female guard shouting and swearing at him. Because of what they said, I understood that he was from Gaza and that he might be part of the Nukhbah. There were four guards who beat him and abused him. In the end, one of the guards told the female guard to leave because he wanted to pee on him, and then I heard him peeing and saying: “Drink, you son of a bitch.” .....
After a few hours, a medic brought me a pill for my diabetes. I told him the detainee who died had kept shouting and asking for treatment. The medic told me that Mar’i fell from the top bunk of the concrete bed in the cell. I said to him: “No, you killed him,” and he told me not to interfere. After 30 minutes, five guards came into my cell, raging like wild beasts, and said they would kill me. I felt a true threat to my life, and got the message that I shouldn’t speak of what happened to Mar’i.
Testimony of Muhammad al-Jamal (41), father of five from the city of Rafah I’ve been suffering from issues with cartilage in my neck for several years. I had lots of treatments at the European Hospital and at a-Shifaa Hospital in Gaza City, and because I wasn’t getting better, the doctors referred me for treatment at al-Makassed Hospital in East Jerusalem. I received an entry permit from the Israelis and arrived at the hospital on 26 September 2023. I was discharged on 7 October 2023 and was supposed to go back to Gaza, but because of the attack by Hamas, Israel closed the crossings.
I went to Rahat and stayed with friends there for three days. Then I decided to go to Hebron with some workers from Gaza who had been working in Rahat, and wait there until they opened Erez Crossing and we could return to the Gaza Strip. ......
The interrogator told me several times that my family had been bombed and everyone died. They showed me pictures of the bombings and said it was near my house. I got very stressed. I was worried for my family, but I tried not to show it so they wouldn’t use it against me. Then they took me out of the interrogation room.
Testimony of Khalil Skeik (24), a medical student from the Rimal neighborhood in Gaza City I am a sixth-year medical student and live with my parents and siblings in the Rimal neighborhood of Gaza City. On 7 October 2023, I was at home and we all woke up to the sound of rockets and bombs. Two days later, on 9 October, the army ordered the residents of the neighborhood to evacuate and move to the south of the [Gaza] Strip, but we stayed home and didn’t leave. That same day, our home was bombed with us inside. It’s a three-story building, and there were about 10 people inside. We all managed to climb out of the rubble and leave safely, even my grandmother, Mu’azaz Skeik, 80, who later died of natural causes in March. .....
On 18 March 2024, after volunteering there for about three months, I was sitting with other doctors eating suhur [the Ramadan pre-dawn meal], when we heard planes and tanks and heavy fire. We realized the Israeli military was at the entrance to the hospital. We gathered – doctors and nurses – in one room. We listened to the news to find out what was going on and then I called my parents to reassure them I was fine. The army surrounded the hospital and we didn’t leave the building. We stayed like that until 21 March 2024, and then the army came inside the hospital. The soldiers interrogated the doctors, including me. They checked our identity and asked about work, hospital wards, and about terrorists and militants. Later, the soldiers ordered me to leave the hospital. But when I left, at around 3:00 P.M., I was suddenly shot at by a tank that was at the gate to the hospital. I got a light, superficial head injury and my right thumb was severed. .....
After about a week, they took me to a hospital in an ambulance. I wasn’t told which hospital or where it was. I had surgery there, with my hands and feet tied to the bed and my eyes covered. I was under full anesthesia, so I don’t know how long the surgery lasted. They didn’t tell me what they did, so I wasn’t even sure if they’d operated on me. But I felt metal wires had been put in my mouth. After the surgery I stayed in the hospital for about five days. The entire time I was completely naked, in a diaper, with my hands cuffed and my eyes covered. I was only given chocolate-flavored liquid food to drink, and then they took me back to the detention facility. Throughout the detention, I was forced to sit on the floor, handcuffed and blindfolded. They didn’t take my poor state of health into consideration at all. We were only allowed to sleep six hours a night, and sometimes the soldiers woke us up at night, with banging on the barbed wire fence and dogs barking. The facility only had one restroom for 120 people, and we stood in line to get in there. I was given food three times a day – the chocolate-flavored liquid. They let us shower once or twice a week, for two minutes at a time, four of us together in the shower. ......
The detention really affected me. I was close to completing my medical studies and getting certified. The army detained me for no reason and then soldiers beat me and degraded me. They didn’t even file charges against me. It makes you feel worthless, that you don’t have the basic rights every human being deserves. We don’t know what will happen to us, and I have no idea if I’ll be able to complete my studies with Israel’s ongoing war in Gaza.
Testimony of Lama al-Fakhuri (47), a mother of five who is an author and political analyst from Khallet Sharif [M2] , west of Hebron On Thursday, 26 October 2023, at around 1:30 A.M., my husband, children and I were woken by loud banging on the door. I got dressed quickly. Eleven masked soldiers burst in. One of them was a woman. They made us all go into the living room and took away all our phones. They shouted and swore at us. They were really aggressive. Some of them spread out in the house. I heard glass shattering and furniture breaking. The officer accused me of belonging to Hamas and supporting ISIS and terrorism. He swore at me. He showed me all kinds of media photos of the events of 7 October 2023, and said ISIS people raped women and burned children in settlements near the Gaza border. I told him that Islamic morals and religion forbid it. He said Israel would take vengeance on us and that all Palestinians would pay dearly. ......
An interrogator came in and asked me in English what I thought about what Hamas did. He swore at me and called me “whore”. He said there were 20 soldiers in the room and that they would rape me like Hamas-ISIS raped Jewish women in southern Israel. He kept swearing at me, and threatening me and my family. Then a female soldier came and took me to another room with more female soldiers, who told me: “Welcome to hell.” They sat me in a chair and started laughing at me and calling me “whore” again and again. I sat on the chair until about 7:00 A.M. I was very thirsty, but they didn’t give me water.
The day I was released, 30 October 2023, a lot of soldiers came into our unit. They told me and some other prisoners we were being released. We were strip-searched, fully naked, and put in a filthy room. A while later, a Shin Bet[M3] officer came and threatened me that I’d be arrested again if I spoke to the media. After that, we were transferred to Ofer Prison. We were kept there for 12 hours with nothing to eat or drink, and taken for interrogation during that time. Then they handed us over to the Red Cross.
Testimony of Ruqayah ‘Amru (25), female, an Islamic Law MA student from Dura, Hebron District On 26 October 2023, at around 1:00 A.M., I was at home with my mother and siblings. I saw out of the window a few military vehicles coming towards our house. I put on modest clothes quickly, and in the meantime soldiers started coming. My mother opened the door, and more than 10 male soldiers and two female soldiers immediately burst in. They told us to stay in the living room and searched the entire house. The officer spoke to us in Arabic and demanded our ID cards and phones. .....
The interrogator showed me some posts and accused me of belonging to Hamas. I denied it and told him the posts weren’t mine. He asked me about what happened near the Gaza border, about women being raped and children murdered, burned and decapitated. I told him that our religion, Islam, does not allow such behavior and that I knew nothing about it except what we saw on social media. He said I was a liar and hurled accusations at me, but I denied everything. After about half an hour of shouting, threats and swearing, the interrogator told me to sign the interrogation transcript. Then they took me to be photographed, took my fingerprints and led me to a cell where there were more detainees. .......
On 30 November 2023, some guards came and took me and a few more detainees. They told us we were being released. Before they released me, they strip-searched me again, and an officer threatened me that if my family celebrated my release they would hurt us. Then we were transferred to Ofer Prison, where they kept us for about 12 hours without food or water in a small, dirty and smelly room. It was very cold there. After midnight, they handed us over to the Red Cross.
Testimony of Muhammad Mafarjah, 16, from Shu’fat Refugee Camp in East Jerusalem On 12 February 2024, at around 4:00 A.M., Border Police officers blew up our front door and burst into our home. The explosion woke me up. Four Border Police officers broke into the bedroom I share with my brothers, and one of them ordered me to get up and give him my phone. Meanwhile, other Border Police officers led my brothers out of the room. While I was looking for the phone, one of the officers took off his helmet and hit me on the head with it. I screamed in pain. Another officer kicked me and told me to hurry up. I found the phone on a shelf in the bookcase we have in the room. .....
When I went back to room 4, the interrogation started again immediately. I told the interrogator I was thirsty and hadn't drunk in the court, either, and asked for water. The interrogator said I was a kid who didn’t deserve water and didn’t give me a drink. He yelled at me and demanded that I confess, and then I remembered what the kids in the waiting room said about room 4, that it was like a slaughterhouse, and I decided to confess to something I hadn’t done – throwing stones. ......
At round 4:00 A.M. the guard came to count us and found us sleeping. He grabbed the fingers on one of my hands and started bending them and twisting them. He threatened to break our fingers if we refused to obey and cursed us. He demanded that I say that my father was a collaborator, and I said it because I was afraid he would break my finger.
Testimony of A. D. (19), female A pharmacy student from Jabalya Refugee Camp I lived in Jabalya R.C. with my parents, Hatem and Khawlah, my three brothers, Ousamah, 17, Muhammad, 16, and ‘Abdallah, 14, and my two sisters, Sarah, 4, and Mays, 9. There were bombings and gunfire at the beginning of the war, but it wasn’t that close to us, so we stayed home. But on 7 November 2023, there were bombings really close to us, and the military also scatted flyers calling us to leave. We didn’t leave right away. We waited to see what would happen. On 18 November, after morning prayers, we gathered some clothes, bedding, documents and our phones, and we left. First we went to an UNRWA school at the al-Falujah area in the camp, and after a few hours, we moved to the house of my uncle Iyad Salem, 53, inside the camp. ......
They blindfolded me with a piece of cloth and handcuffed me in front with white zip ties. Two soldiers held me on either side and led me from there to a place where I was told to sign a document. I was still blindfolded, and I signed without seeing what I was signing. They made me sit on a chair. My blindfold was taken off, and there was a man there who asked me in Arabic what my full name was and how old I was. He asked me what I was studying and what year I was, and asked for the names of my parents and siblings and what they did. I told him my mother was a teacher at an UNRWA school, and my father was a doctor and a lecturer at the university. I heard the voices of other female detainees there. I think there were about six. The soldiers brought us water. It was cold and one of the girls asked for a blanket, but she wasn’t given one. They tied a piece of plastic to my hand with the number 12 on it. ......
He asked me about the Israeli hostages in Gaza and told me to mark my house and the neighbors’ houses on a map. Every time I said I didn’t know something, he yelled at me. The interrogation took about an hour, and most of that time, the interrogator swore at me and didn’t ask questions. He called us dirty asses and said we didn’t deserve to live. He cursed my brother who was killed in the bombing, and said that the children in Gaza should be exterminated, that we should all be deported, that our houses should be destroyed and that we should be erased. He said the Palestinian people were garbage. At the end of the interrogation, he told me: “You are rude, rude, rude!” And then he said: “Take her away.” .....
They transferred us to another detention center, with our hands and feet tied. I saw a sign that said Beersheba. We stayed there for three days. We were treated particularly badly there. We were forced to sit on gravel, and the female soldiers were very violent. They pushed us and hit us on the head. That went on for three days. We weren’t allowed to lie down, move or touch the blindfold. They only took us to the bathroom. All we got to eat was a bit of tuna and bread. ...
No one from the ICRC visited us during my arrest, and we weren’t allowed to speak with a lawyer or tell our families where we were.
Testimony of Farid ‘Amer (65), father of six from Gaza I live with my wife and four sons in a building east of Khan Yunis. Two of our sons are married and live in separate apartments with their wives and children. Our area came under fire and bombardment right at the start of the war, mostly farmland, but also houses about 400 to 500 meters from ours. .......
I immediately said to one of the soldiers, in Hebrew: “I own this house. I’m a civilian. I’m 65.” I repeated it twice. The soldier told me: “Get down on the ground and crawl.” He also ordered me to strip completely, including my underwear. I took all my clothes off and when I was naked, a soldier came up from behind and hit me hard on the right side of my back with his hand, which was in a glove with a hard part. It still hurts where he hit me. Then he tied my hands behind my back and blindfolded me.
Testimony of Diaa al-Kahlut (38), a father of five and journalist from Gaza City I am a journalist and the bureau chief of the Al-Araby Al-Jadeed newspaper in Gaza. I lived with my wife and our five children, Nada, 17, Hamza, 15, ‘Ali, 13, Malak, 10, and Sham, 3, in the al-Karameh neighborhood in the western part of Gaza City.
On the morning of 7 October 2023, I was woken by the sound of bombing and the screams of my daughter Nada, who is disabled due to cerebral palsy. She was knocking on the door of the room in a panic and screaming, “Missiles!” “Missiles!” .....
The following evening, I heard the neighbors shouting “Evacuate, evacuate the area! They’re bombing the Istanbul building!” That building is behind my home. Then my phone rang and an Israeli officer was on the line. He said to me: “You are Diaa al-Kahlut, and your ID number is such and such. You need to evacuate the house.” He also told me that we should head to the southern Gaza Strip. I told him, “We don’t have anyone in the south. My parents are in the northern Gaza Strip, in Beit Lahiya, and I want to go to them.” He replied, “Don’t go there.” ....
On 7 December 2023, at precisely 7:00 in the morning, the Israeli military invaded the area of Beit Lahiya. The soldiers announced to us over loudspeakers, “Women, children and the elderly, to Kamal Adwan Hospital. Men from 16 to 60 to the street – take off your clothes and remain in your underwear.”
I went down to the street, as the soldiers ordered us, and took off my clothes. About 10 minutes later the military gathered all the men in the area, roughly 300 men. They tied our hands behind our backs, and one soldier asked me what my name was and what I did for a living. I replied that I was a journalist and handed him my press card, and he took it and broke it. From there they took us to the market in Beit Lahiya. .....
Then they sorted us and took an eye-print with a phone or some other device, I’m not sure. Then a soldier took me to a group of men who, I gathered from him, would be returned to the Gaza Strip. I was there for roughly an hour and then soldiers took me to be interrogated. The interrogator was an officer from the Shin Bet (ISA). I was handcuffed and blindfolded. The officer asked me if they were bothering me and I said they were, and then he said to me: “Now I’ll help you get rid of them.” Immediately after that, he asked a soldier there to really tighten the handcuffs and blindfold. Then he accused me of being a Hamas commander. I denied that and said I was a journalist. He started saying that people said I was Hamas, and I denied it again and told him I was a journalist.
Then a soldier hit me hard on the back and again I told him that I was a journalist, and the same soldier hit me on the back again and the interrogator said to me: “You’re not a journalist.” After he said to me: “You’re a journalist, and you wrote an article about Sayeret Matkal, a [elite Israeli military] unit that entered Khan Yunis in 2018 and clashed with Hamas.” I said to him: “I don’t remember such an article.” He started reading from his phone and saying, “You’re Hamas.” Then the officer mentioned Azmi Bishara, who is the editor-in-chief of the newspaper I work for, Al-Araby Al-Jadeed. Then they all started beating me. .......
We didn’t even know where we were being held. We were entirely cut off from the world. An officer from the ISA would come and tell us, “We’ve razed the northern Gaza Strip. We took the women and children to Al-Azhar University, and the men to the prisons.” Or: “Your families are no longer alive,” “After your families went to Kamal Adwan Hospital, we took them to the al-Qassam Mosque in Beit Lahiya and bombed the mosque and its courtyard and everyone who was there.” The ISA people used the ugliest measures possible to psychologically pressure us. Throughout the entire period, not one of us met with a lawyer either.
Testimony of Fadi Baker, a 25-year-old father of one from the Tell al-Hawa neighborhood in Gaza City I am a lawyer and have my own practice in Gaza City. Like many residents, I was home on 7 October 2023, with my pregnant wife, when we started hearing rockets and bombs. I went out to stock up on food and water right away, and when I came back we stayed home. We were newlyweds. We got married just two months earlier and preferred to stay home. .....
Then they put me in a tank and took me to another place. When I got there, they took me out and laid me down on something foul-smelling for about three minutes. The soldier took my blindfold off, and I saw it was a rotting corpse. Then they took me to another officer, and he also asked me which tunnel I’d come out of. I told him, too, that I was a civilian. The soldiers pointed their guns at me, and I thought they were going to shoot me, so I said the shahada. Then one of them fired a shot on the ground in front of me. They blindfolded me, and I stayed lying outside on gravel, in the cold, until the middle of the night. .....
I was kept in the pen for five days, and then I had surgery, without anesthesia, on my swollen left leg. I asked for anesthetics and they said I wasn't in a position to ask for anything and ordered me to keep quiet. When I screamed in pain, they hit me in the abdomen with a plastic stick until I shut up. They drained the pus from my leg.
Testimony of Ahmad Salah (37), a father of two from al-Khader, Bethlehem District I live with my wife and our two daughters, Basmah, about 2, and Aylul, 8 months, in the old city of al-Khader, in the same building as my parents.
On Saturday, 20 January 2024, at around 1:00 A.M., we were woken by banging, knocking and people’s voices. A few moments later, while we were still in bed, an officer and more than 10 soldiers, some of them masked, entered the room. They broke into the house using devices to open the door.
Testimony of Dr. Khaled Hamudah, 34, a surgeon at the Indonesian Hospital and resident of Beit Lahiya I am a surgeon and I worked in the Indonesian hospital in Beit Lahiya. I lost my father in the war, my wife Lama, 31, and our oldest daughter Rim. I still have two children, Ahmad, 5, and Razan, 3.
On 7 October 2023, I was at home because it was a weekend and I wasn’t on duty. When the wounded and dead started coming in, I was called to work at the hospital. It was a very tough day, a lot of casualties came in, and it was just the start of a tough period. ....
The hospitals were not prepared to treat casualties at that scale. We treated the worst cases and had to neglect others who were injured – which sometimes led to their death. Due to the power cut, we relied on generators to perform surgeries and sometimes, due to the lack of fuel, we also had to rely on solar power. There was also a severe shortage of medicine and food for the patients and for the staff. .......
Then they placed us on a truck once more and took us to a prison facility, only when I was released did I learn that the place was called Sde Teiman and that it was in the Negev. I was imprisoned there for 21 days, until I was released on 2 January 2024.
Testimony of Ruzan al-Bursh, Dr. al-Bursh's niece
A 20-year-old student from the a-Saftawi neighborhood in Gaza City whose uncle, Dr. ‘Adnan al-Bursh, died in Israeli custody after being tortured
Testimony of I.A., in her twenties, a Palestinian citizen of Israel studying at an Israeli university On 9 October 2023, I received a letter from my university that I was suspended from studies, with no prior warning. Eight other Palestinian-Israeli students were also suspended following social media posts. .....
There were already eight female inmates in the cell they put me in, and I slept on the floor along with two others. The inmates there were entirely cut off from the world and had no idea what was happening outside. There was no means of communication – no radio, no television, no family visits and no meetings with lawyers. The only way to get news was new inmates. .....
In early 2024, I resumed my studies. I was really scared Jewish students would attack me, especially since there was a group of right-wing students who had campaigned and demanded we be expelled from the university, persecuted and punished. Many students now attend classes armed with rifles and guns, and enter lecture halls like that. I often sit next to someone armed like that during a lecture. It’s a really scary situation, especially in a reality of ongoing incitement against Arab students.
Testimony of Nabilah Miqdad (39), mother of five from Gaza City On 7 October 2023, Israel started heavily bombing our neighborhood, al-Mukhabarat, in Gaza City. The next day, I left home with the children: Adam, 5, Menatallah, 13, Ahmad, 16, Maram, 19 and Muhammad, 20. My husband Mahmoud, 47, stayed home. We moved to my 36-year-old sister Ikram’s house in a-Naser neighborhood, in the western part of the city. Two days later, the bombings in our neighborhood grew even heavier and things got scary, so my husband joined us at my sister’s house. By that time, there was no electricity or running water there. ......
I held Adam, my 5-year-old, by the hand. He was crying all the time, because he had an upset stomach and was in pain. Suddenly, one of the soldiers told me to let go of Adam’s hand and hand him over to my sister. Another soldier told me to move aside and give him my ID card. The soldiers started reading out the women’s names, and then a few female soldiers led the women to a house nearby. They made me stand on the side and then a female soldier told me to strip down to my underwear and bra. I did, and then she scanned my whole body with a device. Then she told me to get dressed, and then an interrogator came and started asking me what I was doing on 7 October and whether I was eating candy that day. He asked me if there were any Hamas people at the school. When I said I didn’t know, he said that if I didn’t help him get information, the army would take me and I’d never see my little boy again.
Testimony of Nadiah al-Hilu (45), mother of three from a-Sheikh Radwan neighborhood in Gaza City Up until the war, I lived with my husband Yihya al-Hilu and our three children, Maria, 13, Malak, 12, and Muhammad, 7, in a-Sheikh Radwan neighborhood in Gaza City. Now we’re in Rafah, in a school that has been turned into an IDP camp.
Testimony of ‘Abd al-Qader Tafesh (32), father of two from Jabalya Refugee Camp Until the war broke out on 7 October, I lived in Jabalya R.C. in the northern Gaza Strip with my wife Islam, 37, and our two children, Rifan, 10, and Jamal, 8. Last June I had a cycling accident and broke three bones in my chest. My upper body was set with platinum. I had skull fractures, too. .....
At some point, a soldier trod on my neck and I felt I was choking. I told him: “I have a platinum implant in my neck.” He immediately started hitting me on the shoulder and the platinum broke. While he was beating me, the blindfold fell off my eyes. My head was full of sand. I told the soldier: “I want a doctor,” and he said: “You want a doctor from me, you son of a bitch?” He swore at me, dragged me along the ground and kept hitting and kicking me all over my body. He hit me on the nose and I started bleeding, and then he poured water on my face and blindfolded me again. Then they put me in a corner and a lot of soldiers hit me there. One of them cut the zip ties and tied my hands behind my back. The platinum was sticking out of the top of my chest. They hit me on the neck, slapped me and kicked me all over my body. I started calling out for God and praying to die. A soldier told me: “You’re Hamas.” I told him I was just a displaced civilian whose home was destroyed. He asked my name and before I could answer, another soldier hit me on the head. ......
The truck stopped, and I think we were at Erez Crossing. I managed to take a look under the blindfold and saw a lot of soldiers there. One soldier peed on all of us. They took us off the truck. I was shivering with cold. They beat us hard with sticks while they were getting us out, and then they made us stand single-file in a long line, in the rain. We cried and prayed to God. .....
I started shouting: “Platinum, platinum,” hoping they would have mercy on me and stop beating me. Suddenly, I heard my father. I didn’t even know he was next to me. He recognized my voice and called my name. But before I could answer him, the soldiers jumped on him and beat him badly. They also tightened the zip ties on his hands until they hurt and he started shouting: “My hand! My hand”. .....
I discovered we were in a military prison. I don’t know what it was called. We had no rights there. We didn’t see any lawyers or Red Cross representatives. I was kept there with my hands in metal handcuffs day and night, and sometimes my legs, too. Sometimes they hung me by one hand and left me like that for three or four hours until I fainted. I couldn’t move the other hand because my shoulder must have been broken from the beatings when the platinum came out. I heard strange sounds, yelling and dogs barking. I was taken to the interrogation room about five or six times. In the interrogations, I was asked about my friends and neighbors and whether I had undergone military training. All they gave us to eat was a slice of bread, a cucumber and a small piece of cheese. Now and then we got some tuna fish and a bit of water to drink.
I was held there for 40 days – 40 days of beatings, swear words, kneeling and being hung up by my hands. It was very cold and there were no blankets. We were only allowed to sleep from midnight to 4:00 A.M. I didn’t know what was going on with my father until a detainee transferred to my cell said he was in very poor health.
Testimony of ‘Atef ‘Awawdeh, 53, a father of seven from Deir Samit, Hebron District I’m a merchant. Four of my children are under the age of 18. On 28 August 2023, around 3:30 A.M., army and Shin Bet forces came and broke into our house. They were looking for my son Ahmad, 19, who they claimed was wanted by the Shin Bet. Ahmad wasn’t home. He was in Jenin. The soldiers broke everything in the house and arrested me and two of my sons: ‘Alaa, 23, and Wajih, 29. My son Wajdi, 24, was arrested by the army a month earlier. They came to our house looking for Ahmad that time too, saying he was wanted, and when they didn’t find him, they arrested Wajdi. .....
On 14 December 2023, I was transferred to Nafha Prison. The situation there was even worse than Ofer. When I got there, they took all my clothes except my shirt and gave me prison pants. They took my shoes too and gave me slides. I was put in Cell 18 in Ward 1. Khaled a-Shawish, another sick prisoner who died in prison later, was there too. He was paralyzed and suffered a lot because he didn’t get any treatment and he had bedsores. I stayed there until I was released in January, on 31 January 2024, after about five months in administrative detention. After I was released, I found out that Muhammad a-Sabbar died in prison. Everyone in prison just dreams of being released and going back to their family, but he didn’t get released and didn’t go back.
Testimony of Hadil a-Dahduh Zaza (24), mother of two from Gaza City When the war broke out, we stayed in our home in a-Zeitun neighborhood in Gaza City: my husband Rushdi, 30, our two children, Muhammad, 4, and Zein, 1, and me. My husband’s parents and siblings lived in the same building. We heard shooting and heavy bombings around us all the time but we stayed put, until our house was damaged. We moved to my husband’s uncle’s house for 20 days, and when the hudna (ceasefire) was declared, we went back home. .....
Then I was put in a pit in the ground. When I was in it, with all the other detainees, the soldiers ordered me to take off my hijab. One of them told me: “I killed your husband and I want to bury you alive. Let the dogs eat you.”
Testimony of Maryam Salhab (21), a pharmaceutics student from Khirbet Qalqas, Hebron District On 26 October 2023, at midnight, I was sitting with my parents and sister when about 11 soldiers, one of them a woman, stormed into our house. Some of them were masked. They pointed their guns at us and ordered us not to move. I was wearing light half-sleeve pajamas and didn’t have time to change, so I put on my prayer clothes quickly to cover my hair. ......
Then a male guard came and took me into interrogation. I was exhausted and asked for water. They gave me a little. The interrogator asked me about my studies, about university and about my political affiliation. I said I was just a medical physics student and didn’t have any political affiliation. Then he asked about what Hamas did, about raping Jewish women and killing children. I told him I didn’t know anything about that, and then he swore at me, threatened me and made baseless accusations. Then the guard took my fingerprints and a DNA sample and led me back to the cell.
Testimony of Rami Abu Ras (36), a father of six from the a-Zeitun neighborhood in Gaza City Before the war broke out, I lived with my wife, Iman, 30, and our six children, between the ages of 5 and 13, in the a-Zeitun neighborhood in Gaza City, and worked the Tafesh – Frozen Meat and Poultry store. Within a week I stopped working, because there was no regular electricity and there was no poultry or meat. .......
When they took me down, they took me to a shed. I couldn't walk because my whole body hurt from being in the "Shabah." They kept me in the shed for 15 days, in which we all kneeled the whole time. We ate, slept and relieved ourselves with our hands tied. Our hands were tied the whole time and we weren’t allowed to talk, move or even turn our heads to look aside. .......
A few days later, they took me to the interrogation room. The officer asked about names of my relatives, who my brothers were and how many people were in the family. In the end, I signed what he wrote down from my answers. .....
I also wondered why they arrested me. Why are they still holding me? What will happen to me here? When will they let me go? I thought about my difficult situation, especially the darkness I was drowning in under the blindfold without seeing anything, about the fierce cold and the strong wind. I was freezing all the time, and hungry and thirsty.
Testimony of Mahmoud Abu Qadus (47), father of four Before the war, we lived in the a-Sheikh Radwan neighborhood in Gaza City. I worked as a sales manager in a communications company. On 13 October 2023, the military scattered flyers calling for us to evacuate. My family, along with several other neighbors, decided not to leave for the time being.
Testimony of Mahmoud al-Bassiuni (34), a father of four from Beit Hanoun I lived with my wife and our four children, Muamen and Rimas, 9-year-old twins, Yusef, 5, and Muhammad, 4, in Beit Hanoun in the northern Gaza Strip. .....
There were about 80 of us who’d been taken from the school at the post. My brothers were also there: Akram al-Bassiuni, 40, Muhammad al-Bassiuni, 33, and ‘Abd a-Rahman al-Bassiuni, 45. At the post, we were split into two groups and the group I was in was released by the army five hours later. My brothers weren’t in this group and weren’t released. We still don’t know what happened to them. ......
No one came to visit us, not a lawyer, not the Red Cross. We didn’t get medical attention generally, but sometimes we did, for example, sometimes after the beatings. It depended on the duty medic’s mood. The entire time in detention was ongoing torture - beatings, dogs being set on us, hands cuffed behind the back, sleeping with handcuffs and blindfolds. Some prisoners got hit on their genitals. One of the detainees, who hasn’t been released to this day, started peeing his pants and had to wear diapers after he was hit in the groin a lot. When they beat them there, they’d tell them: “We don’t want you to ever have children.”
Testimony of Muhammad Abu Marsah (43), father of five from Jabalya Refugee Camp Until the war I lived with my wife and our five children – Nasim, 19, Ahmad, 17, Maryam, 14, Amjad, 11, and Majd, 9 – along with mother, Zalfa, 89, in a house in Jabalya Refugee Camp. We had just finished building a new house and were supposed to move into it in October, when the war broke out. ......
I was arrested arbitrarily, torture and humiliated. All that time, I never stopped thinking about my family. But when I was released from prison, I discovered a very harsh and frightening reality, filled with bombings, hunger and diseases everywhere around me. There is no security and no way to live with dignity, and the future is uncertain.
About 4,000 Gazans have been arrested since the outbreak of the war, more than 1,500 have been released due to lack of evidence. 05/27/2024 High Court judges asked the state to respond within a week to their request to establish a mechanism to examine complaints from detainees about their conditions of imprisonment. In a hearing held on a petition against the law that allows detainees to be held for 45 days without judicial review, Justice Kasher said: "I am looking for someone who has the ability to scream in my ear, 'They are doing terrible and horrible things to me.'" ... About 4,000 Gazans have been arrested since the outbreak of the war by the army, and more than 1,500 of them were released after no evidence was found to allow them to continue being held in detention - this is according to the state's response to the High Court of Justice. The response was provided last week and at a hearing held today (Monday) in a petition against the new amendment to the law for the detention of illegal combatants, which allows them to be held in detention for 45 days without seeing a judge. In addition, permanent detention orders were issued for about 2,000 Gazans, whom the army believes have acted against the IDF and Israeli citizens or belong to terrorist organizations in the Gaza Strip.
Have any IDF soldiers from "Breaking the Silence" or elsewhere admitted they extract confessions using torture? 01/21/2026
Yes, several former and active-duty IDF soldiers, as well as whistleblowers through organizations like Breaking the Silence, have provided testimonies admitting to or describing the use of torture and severe abuse to extract information or confessions.
Key reported instances and whistleblower admissions include:
Sde Teiman Military Base: Soldiers and whistleblowers have described a "breakdown in norms" at this facility, comparing it to "Abu Ghraib". Testimonies from personnel at the base confirm that soldiers were explicitly told they would have to physically abuse detainees.
Coerced Confessions: Human rights organizations and former soldiers have reported the use of "special interrogation methods"—including beatings, stress positions, and sleep deprivation—to coerce confessions from both adults and minors.
Targeting UNRWA Staff: Reports from 2024 indicate that Israeli interrogators used torture—including waterboarding and physical beatings—to force UNRWA employees to confess to false ties with Hamas or participation in the October 7 attacks.
Whistleblower Admissions: Some soldiers have published personal accounts of "medieval-style" torture and "gratuitous acts of cruelty" against Palestinians, often motivated by revenge or psychological stress rather than purely for intelligence gathering.
Systemic Methods: While Israeli officials often deny these practices, human rights groups like Military Court Watch and B’Tselem have compiled thousands of testimonies from both detainees and soldiers detailing systematic abuse, such as broken bones and sexual assault, designed to break prisoners.
The IDF frequently states it investigates complaints of "inappropriate behavior," but NGOs note that formal investigations into these soldier-led reports are rare. Complete article
Wikipedia: Torture during the Gaza war According to February 2024 UNRWA report, Israeli officials detained and tortured UN staff, coercing them into falsely stating that agency staff had participated in the 7 October attack.[89][90] The allegations of torture came from staff who stated they were forced to make confessions under torture and ill-treatment, including "beatings, sleep deprivation, sexual abuse and threats of sexual violence against both men and women" in Israeli detention.[91] Detainees reported being stripped down to their underwear and forced completely naked.[92] The report found that UN staff were "pressured to make false statements against the Agency, including that the Agency has affiliations with Hamas and that UNRWA staff members took part in the 7 October 2023 atrocities" through beatings, waterboarding, and threats to their families.[93] In a statement, the UNRWA communications director stated, "When the war comes to an end there needs to be a series of inquiries to look into all violations of human rights".[94] The Israel Defense Forces stated it was investigating "complaints of inappropriate behavior".[95] In response to the report, the World Organisation Against Torture condemned Israel, stating, "Both torture and the use of any such information violates the UN Convention Against Torture".[96]
A soldier spoke to Channel 4 about what he saw at "Sde Teiman" — the detention facility that became a torture camp. Everyone knew it was happening, and nothing was done. 07/08/2025
I know we have a torture facility 2023 Is it (serving in the Sde Teiman detention camp infirmary) something that stayed with you?
Israel, Golan Heights, West Bank, and Gaza – West Bank and Gaza: Executive Summary No sooner than 2018
Palestinian children victims of Israeli abuse designed to coerce confessions 02/10/2015 Ramallah, February 9, 2015—Palestinian children detained by Israeli forces in the occupied West Bank last year fell victim to a pattern of abuse designed to coerce confessions, according to Defense for Children International Palestine research.
UNRWA: Israeli Army Forced Staff to Confess Ties to Hamas Using Torture 04/17/2024 A report published by the UN agency for Palestinian refugees includes accounts by its staff members who were detained in Israel of being threatened and coerced to make false confessions that agency staffers took part in the October 7 Hamas attacks
Israeli who revealed “medieval-style” torture of Palestinians faces virulent backlash 11/13/2012
Israeli Soldiers CONFESS Sickening CRIMES 11/11/2025
Palestinians endure ‘systemic abuse’ in Israeli prisons, rights group says 01/20/2026
Israeli prisons are akin to ‘torture camps’, Israeli rights group finds 01/20/2026 B’Tselem’s latest report sounds alarm on abuse, dozens of deaths of Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails. At least 84 Palestinian prisoners have died in Israeli prisons since October 2023 after being subjected to systematic abuse, including physical and psychological violence, inhuman conditions, deliberate starvation and denial of medical treatment, the Israeli human rights group B’Tselem says.
B’Tselem: Living Hell January 2026
Not just the UNRWA report: Countless accounts of Israeli torture in Gaza 03/13/2024
Yes, several former and active-duty IDF soldiers, as well as whistleblowers through organizations like Breaking the Silence, have provided testimonies admitting to or describing the use of torture and severe abuse to extract information or confessions.
Key reported instances and whistleblower admissions include:
Sde Teiman Military Base: Soldiers and whistleblowers have described a "breakdown in norms" at this facility, comparing it to "Abu Ghraib". Testimonies from personnel at the base confirm that soldiers were explicitly told they would have to physically abuse detainees.
Coerced Confessions: Human rights organizations and former soldiers have reported the use of "special interrogation methods"—including beatings, stress positions, and sleep deprivation—to coerce confessions from both adults and minors.
Targeting UNRWA Staff: Reports from 2024 indicate that Israeli interrogators used torture—including waterboarding and physical beatings—to force UNRWA employees to confess to false ties with Hamas or participation in the October 7 attacks.
Whistleblower Admissions: Some soldiers have published personal accounts of "medieval-style" torture and "gratuitous acts of cruelty" against Palestinians, often motivated by revenge or psychological stress rather than purely for intelligence gathering.
Systemic Methods: While Israeli officials often deny these practices, human rights groups like Military Court Watch and B’Tselem have compiled thousands of testimonies from both detainees and soldiers detailing systematic abuse, such as broken bones and sexual assault, designed to break prisoners.
The IDF frequently states it investigates complaints of "inappropriate behavior," but NGOs note that formal investigations into these soldier-led reports are rare. Complete article
Wikipedia: Torture during the Gaza war According to February 2024 UNRWA report, Israeli officials detained and tortured UN staff, coercing them into falsely stating that agency staff had participated in the 7 October attack.[89][90] The allegations of torture came from staff who stated they were forced to make confessions under torture and ill-treatment, including "beatings, sleep deprivation, sexual abuse and threats of sexual violence against both men and women" in Israeli detention.[91] Detainees reported being stripped down to their underwear and forced completely naked.[92] The report found that UN staff were "pressured to make false statements against the Agency, including that the Agency has affiliations with Hamas and that UNRWA staff members took part in the 7 October 2023 atrocities" through beatings, waterboarding, and threats to their families.[93] In a statement, the UNRWA communications director stated, "When the war comes to an end there needs to be a series of inquiries to look into all violations of human rights".[94] The Israel Defense Forces stated it was investigating "complaints of inappropriate behavior".[95] In response to the report, the World Organisation Against Torture condemned Israel, stating, "Both torture and the use of any such information violates the UN Convention Against Torture".[96]
A soldier spoke to Channel 4 about what he saw at "Sde Teiman" — the detention facility that became a torture camp. Everyone knew it was happening, and nothing was done. 07/08/2025
I know we have a torture facility 2023 Is it (serving in the Sde Teiman detention camp infirmary) something that stayed with you?
Israel, Golan Heights, West Bank, and Gaza – West Bank and Gaza: Executive Summary No sooner than 2018
Palestinian children victims of Israeli abuse designed to coerce confessions 02/10/2015 Ramallah, February 9, 2015—Palestinian children detained by Israeli forces in the occupied West Bank last year fell victim to a pattern of abuse designed to coerce confessions, according to Defense for Children International Palestine research.
UNRWA: Israeli Army Forced Staff to Confess Ties to Hamas Using Torture 04/17/2024 A report published by the UN agency for Palestinian refugees includes accounts by its staff members who were detained in Israel of being threatened and coerced to make false confessions that agency staffers took part in the October 7 Hamas attacks
Israeli who revealed “medieval-style” torture of Palestinians faces virulent backlash 11/13/2012
Israeli Soldiers CONFESS Sickening CRIMES 11/11/2025
Palestinians endure ‘systemic abuse’ in Israeli prisons, rights group says 01/20/2026
Israeli prisons are akin to ‘torture camps’, Israeli rights group finds 01/20/2026 B’Tselem’s latest report sounds alarm on abuse, dozens of deaths of Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails. At least 84 Palestinian prisoners have died in Israeli prisons since October 2023 after being subjected to systematic abuse, including physical and psychological violence, inhuman conditions, deliberate starvation and denial of medical treatment, the Israeli human rights group B’Tselem says.
B’Tselem: Living Hell January 2026
Not just the UNRWA report: Countless accounts of Israeli torture in Gaza 03/13/2024
Does Israel detain Palestinians on "administrative detention" without charges or disclosing reasons for six months with multiple renewals possible, also without explanation? Did this happen before October 7 2023? 12/21/2025
Yes, Israel does detain Palestinians on "administrative detention" without charges or disclosing the reasons, for renewable periods that can last for six months at a time, effectively allowing for indefinite detention. This practice occurred frequently before October 7, 2023, and has been used for decades.
Details of the Policy
No Charges or Trial: Administrative detention is a procedure that allows individuals to be held without criminal charges or an intention to bring them to trial. The stated basis is a preventative security measure against a future threat.
Undisclosed Reasons/Evidence: Detainees and their legal representatives are often not informed of the specific reasons for their detention or allowed to see the alleged "secret evidence" against them on national security grounds, making it difficult to mount an effective defense.
Six-Month Renewable Periods: Initial orders are commonly issued for up to six months and can be renewed repeatedly and indefinitely by a military commander. Some individuals have been held for years under this system.
Judicial Review: While a judge reviews the detention order within eight days, this process often upholds the initial order, and the courts routinely confirm the detention requested by the military prosecution.
Pre-October 7, 2023 Context
The use of administrative detention is a long-standing practice in Israel, inherited from British Mandate-era emergency regulations. It was widely used against Palestinians long before October 7, 2023:
Historical Use: Since 1967, approximately 100,000 administrative detention orders have been issued against Palestinians. The numbers have fluctuated over the years, with peaks during the Intifadas.
Pre-October 2023 Numbers: In September 2021, around 520 Palestinians were in administrative detention. By May 2022, that number had risen to about 600. Prior to the October 7 attacks, in 2023, the number was already at a 30-year high of around 1,300 detainees.
Differential Application: The policy is used almost exclusively against Palestinians in the occupied territories, with only a handful of cases involving Israeli citizens over several decades.
Human rights organizations, including Amnesty International and B'Tselem, have long condemned the practice as a violation of international law and a form of arbitrary, political detention. Complete article
B'Tselem: Administrative Detention .... Israel routinely uses administrative detention and has, over the years, placed thousands of Palestinians behind by bars for periods ranging from several months to several years, without charging them, without telling them what they are accused of, and without disclosing the alleged evidence to them or to their lawyers. Some of the detainees were under 18 years of age.
Fact Sheet: Palestinian Political Prisoners in Israel 09/08/2021
ISRAEL'S POLICY OF ADMINISTRATIVE DETENTION May 2012
How Israel jails hundreds of Palestinians without charge 12/15/2023
Addameer: Stop Administrative Detention
Thousands of Palestinians are held without charge under Israeli detention policy 12/01/2023
Some 600 Palestinians held by Israel without charge, group says 05/02/2022 So-called administrative detainees are held based on ‘secret evidence’, and are held for renewable six-month periods.
Administrative detention: Despair, uncertainty and lack of due process June 2021
Front Line Defenders: 📍OPT/ISRAEL: 🚨On 1 December, HRD Ayman Ghraieb was issued a 6-month administrative detention order by the Israeli Military Commander. This comes following his arrest on 17 November. He was first held in the Samra Israeli military base in the Jordan Valley before being transferred to a detention centre. 12/03/2025 The detention order was issued on the grounds that the defender is “endangering the safety of the region.” A judicial review hearing will be held at Salem Military Court within 12 days from the issue date. Ayman's work focuses on documenting human rights violations committed by Israeli authorities and settlers against Palestinians in the West Bank. Front Line Defenders is deeply concerned by the administrative detention order issued against the HRD. We call on Israeli authorities to quash the administrative order and immediately and unconditionally release Ayman Ghraieb.
Court upholds six-month administrative detention of Ayman Ghraieb 12/25/2025
Arbitrary Arrests, Enforced Disappearance, Inhumane Treatment, and Torture of Palestinians by the Israeli Occupying Forces 03/21/2024
Yes, Israel does detain Palestinians on "administrative detention" without charges or disclosing the reasons, for renewable periods that can last for six months at a time, effectively allowing for indefinite detention. This practice occurred frequently before October 7, 2023, and has been used for decades.
Details of the Policy
No Charges or Trial: Administrative detention is a procedure that allows individuals to be held without criminal charges or an intention to bring them to trial. The stated basis is a preventative security measure against a future threat.
Undisclosed Reasons/Evidence: Detainees and their legal representatives are often not informed of the specific reasons for their detention or allowed to see the alleged "secret evidence" against them on national security grounds, making it difficult to mount an effective defense.
Six-Month Renewable Periods: Initial orders are commonly issued for up to six months and can be renewed repeatedly and indefinitely by a military commander. Some individuals have been held for years under this system.
Judicial Review: While a judge reviews the detention order within eight days, this process often upholds the initial order, and the courts routinely confirm the detention requested by the military prosecution.
Pre-October 7, 2023 Context
The use of administrative detention is a long-standing practice in Israel, inherited from British Mandate-era emergency regulations. It was widely used against Palestinians long before October 7, 2023:
Historical Use: Since 1967, approximately 100,000 administrative detention orders have been issued against Palestinians. The numbers have fluctuated over the years, with peaks during the Intifadas.
Pre-October 2023 Numbers: In September 2021, around 520 Palestinians were in administrative detention. By May 2022, that number had risen to about 600. Prior to the October 7 attacks, in 2023, the number was already at a 30-year high of around 1,300 detainees.
Differential Application: The policy is used almost exclusively against Palestinians in the occupied territories, with only a handful of cases involving Israeli citizens over several decades.
Human rights organizations, including Amnesty International and B'Tselem, have long condemned the practice as a violation of international law and a form of arbitrary, political detention. Complete article
B'Tselem: Administrative Detention .... Israel routinely uses administrative detention and has, over the years, placed thousands of Palestinians behind by bars for periods ranging from several months to several years, without charging them, without telling them what they are accused of, and without disclosing the alleged evidence to them or to their lawyers. Some of the detainees were under 18 years of age.
Fact Sheet: Palestinian Political Prisoners in Israel 09/08/2021
ISRAEL'S POLICY OF ADMINISTRATIVE DETENTION May 2012
How Israel jails hundreds of Palestinians without charge 12/15/2023
Addameer: Stop Administrative Detention
Thousands of Palestinians are held without charge under Israeli detention policy 12/01/2023
Some 600 Palestinians held by Israel without charge, group says 05/02/2022 So-called administrative detainees are held based on ‘secret evidence’, and are held for renewable six-month periods.
Administrative detention: Despair, uncertainty and lack of due process June 2021
Front Line Defenders: 📍OPT/ISRAEL: 🚨On 1 December, HRD Ayman Ghraieb was issued a 6-month administrative detention order by the Israeli Military Commander. This comes following his arrest on 17 November. He was first held in the Samra Israeli military base in the Jordan Valley before being transferred to a detention centre. 12/03/2025 The detention order was issued on the grounds that the defender is “endangering the safety of the region.” A judicial review hearing will be held at Salem Military Court within 12 days from the issue date. Ayman's work focuses on documenting human rights violations committed by Israeli authorities and settlers against Palestinians in the West Bank. Front Line Defenders is deeply concerned by the administrative detention order issued against the HRD. We call on Israeli authorities to quash the administrative order and immediately and unconditionally release Ayman Ghraieb.
Court upholds six-month administrative detention of Ayman Ghraieb 12/25/2025
Arbitrary Arrests, Enforced Disappearance, Inhumane Treatment, and Torture of Palestinians by the Israeli Occupying Forces 03/21/2024
Did Israel learn the practice of using human Shields from the British who developed this practice in India before using it in Palestine? 01/24/2026
Based on historical documentation, there is a recognized link between British counterinsurgency tactics in mandated Palestine and the subsequent adoption of similar methods by Israeli security forces. British forces used human shields—a practice they referred to as "minesweeping taxis" or forcing locals to sit on train tracks—during the Great Arab Revolt (1936–1939) in Palestine to protect themselves from Arab attacks.
British Use of Human Shields in Palestine
Methodology: During the 1936–1939 revolt, British forces, facing ambushes, sniping, and landmines, began forcing Palestinian civilians to accompany patrols, stand on rooftops, or sit on the front of trains and vehicles to deter attacks.
Systematic Use: The practice was officially sanctioned in some cases. Reports from 1938 indicate British military units in the north and central regions of Palestine regularly used civilians as shields.
The "Neighbor Procedure": The current Israeli practice known as the "neighbor procedure" is documented as sharing, in part, the same legal, administrative, and tactical heritage as British Mandate emergency regulations and tactics.
Adoption by Israeli Forces
Continuity of Laws: Following the establishment of Israel in 1948, the new state incorporated many of the 1945 British Defence (Emergency) Regulations into its own legal system, using them to rule over Palestinian citizens.
Documentation: Israeli human rights organizations, such as B'Tselem, have documented the Israeli military’s use of Palestinians as human shields—officially referred to as the "neighbor procedure"—since at least the early 1980s.
"Neighborhood Procedure": Under this practice, soldiers would order Palestinian civilians to approach the homes of militants, often to encourage them to surrender, or to enter buildings ahead of soldiers.
Illegal Status: In 2005, the Israeli High Court of Justice ruled the practice unlawful and in violation of international law. Despite this, documented incidents have continued, particularly during military operations in Gaza and the West Bank.
Conclusion
While the practice of using human shields is ancient and has been used by many militaries, research by historians and organizations like B'Tselem shows that the Israeli military's "neighbor procedure" inherited and adapted the methods developed by the British during the 1930s in Palestine to suppress local resistance. Complete article
Wikipedia: Human shield The practice began on 24 September 1936 when Brigadier J. F. Evetts reacted to Palestinian rebel attacks against British positions in Nablus by forcing the city mayor, Suleiman Abdul Razzaq Tuqan, to sit exposed on the roof of a garrison building under fire, as a 'high-value human shield'. Tuqan returned his Order of the British Empire commendation in protest.[17]
Israel’s brutality against Palestinians draws on British rule 05/07/2024 In November 2023, following a four-day humanitarian “pause” between Israel and Hamas, the Israeli government released hundreds of Palestinian prisoners. This shone a spotlight for western audiences on the fact that thousands of Palestinians are regularly imprisoned today in Israeli jails. What drew most attention was that so many of them, including children, were held under the policy of administrative detention, an unlawful process that allows Israel to hold detainees without charge or trial. However, Israel appears to have inherited the practice from the British, who regularly detained thousands of Palestinians without trial. Following its establishment in 1948, Israel has practised detention without trial as a staple of military rule. After the end of the revolt in 1939, Britain strengthened the powers of the mandate administration and in 1945 introduced the Defence (Emergency) Regulations. Ironically, this was in response to violence carried out by Zionist paramilitary groups at that time.
When Palestinians Became Human Shields: Counterinsurgency, Racialization, and the Great Revolt (1936–1939) 11/05/2021 This article examines the origins of human shielding—the practice of employing hostages on the battlefield—in Arab Palestine during the Great Revolt in the 1930s. The Palestinian rebellion vexed the British for over three years, and during its second phase (1937–1939), lightly armed rebels beat back the colonial authorities from broad stretches of the country, putting continued colonial control of the territory in serious jeopardy. Britain only defeated the insurgency through a harsh repertoire of collective punishments and “dirty war” tactics. British forces used Palestinians as human shields in a systematic fashion during the revolt's second phase, attempting thereby to stave off the insurgents’ consistent and effective attacks on transportation arteries. Beyond its battlefield rationale, this article contends that human shielding was critically tied to two other dynamic processes. The military's adoption of unauthorized tactics like human shielding was part of a broader pattern of rejecting its institutional subordination to civilian authorities and of seeking direct control over the Palestine government in order to assure its unfettered command over the revolt's suppression.
B'Tselem: Human Shields Updated regularily Over the years, the military practiced an official policy of using Palestinians as human shields, ordering them to carry out military activities that put their lives in jeopardy: Palestinians were forced to remove suspicious objects from roads, tell other Palestinians to come out and surrender themselves, physically shield soldiers while they fired, and more. In 2005, the High Court of Justice ruled the practice unlawful, yet soldiers still occasionally used Palestinians as human shields, particularly during military operations. In most cases, no one was held accountable.
The “Neighbor Procedure”: Israel’s Use of Palestinian Human Shields 11/15/2012 In reality, while there’s scant evidence that Hamas and other Palestinian groups deliberately use civilians as human shields, the Israeli military has a long and well-documented history of using Palestinian and other civilians as human shields, a practice officially known as the “neighbor procedure.” To put Israel’s accusations into context, the IMEU offers the following fact sheet on Israel’s use of Palestinian human shields. Since at least the early 1980s, the Israeli army has systematically used Palestinian civilians as human shields under a practice known officially as the “neighbor procedure,” so-called because it often involves soldiers ordering the neighbors of Palestinian militants to approach their homes and encourage them to surrender. In May 2002, seven Israeli and Palestinian human rights organizations file a complaint with the Israeli Supreme Court against the Israeli army’s widespread use of Palestinian civilians as human shields. In response, the army tells the court that it will cease using Palestinian civilians in military operations, except for the “neighbor procedure,” which it claims does not qualify as using human shields.
The Israeli military has used Palestinians as human shields in Gaza, soldier and former detainees say 10/24/2024 The exact scale and scope of the practice by the Israeli military is not known. But the testimony of both the soldier and five civilians shows that it was widespread across the territory: in northern Gaza, Gaza City, Khan Younis, and Rafah. The soldier explained that, at first, his unit, which at the time was in northern Gaza, used standardized procedures before entering a suspect building: sending in a dog or punching a hole through its side with a tank shell or an armored bulldozer.
How Israeli soldiers use Palestinians as human shields in Gaza 09/06/2024
Based on historical documentation, there is a recognized link between British counterinsurgency tactics in mandated Palestine and the subsequent adoption of similar methods by Israeli security forces. British forces used human shields—a practice they referred to as "minesweeping taxis" or forcing locals to sit on train tracks—during the Great Arab Revolt (1936–1939) in Palestine to protect themselves from Arab attacks.
British Use of Human Shields in Palestine
Methodology: During the 1936–1939 revolt, British forces, facing ambushes, sniping, and landmines, began forcing Palestinian civilians to accompany patrols, stand on rooftops, or sit on the front of trains and vehicles to deter attacks.
Systematic Use: The practice was officially sanctioned in some cases. Reports from 1938 indicate British military units in the north and central regions of Palestine regularly used civilians as shields.
The "Neighbor Procedure": The current Israeli practice known as the "neighbor procedure" is documented as sharing, in part, the same legal, administrative, and tactical heritage as British Mandate emergency regulations and tactics.
Adoption by Israeli Forces
Continuity of Laws: Following the establishment of Israel in 1948, the new state incorporated many of the 1945 British Defence (Emergency) Regulations into its own legal system, using them to rule over Palestinian citizens.
Documentation: Israeli human rights organizations, such as B'Tselem, have documented the Israeli military’s use of Palestinians as human shields—officially referred to as the "neighbor procedure"—since at least the early 1980s.
"Neighborhood Procedure": Under this practice, soldiers would order Palestinian civilians to approach the homes of militants, often to encourage them to surrender, or to enter buildings ahead of soldiers.
Illegal Status: In 2005, the Israeli High Court of Justice ruled the practice unlawful and in violation of international law. Despite this, documented incidents have continued, particularly during military operations in Gaza and the West Bank.
Conclusion
While the practice of using human shields is ancient and has been used by many militaries, research by historians and organizations like B'Tselem shows that the Israeli military's "neighbor procedure" inherited and adapted the methods developed by the British during the 1930s in Palestine to suppress local resistance. Complete article
Wikipedia: Human shield The practice began on 24 September 1936 when Brigadier J. F. Evetts reacted to Palestinian rebel attacks against British positions in Nablus by forcing the city mayor, Suleiman Abdul Razzaq Tuqan, to sit exposed on the roof of a garrison building under fire, as a 'high-value human shield'. Tuqan returned his Order of the British Empire commendation in protest.[17]
Israel’s brutality against Palestinians draws on British rule 05/07/2024 In November 2023, following a four-day humanitarian “pause” between Israel and Hamas, the Israeli government released hundreds of Palestinian prisoners. This shone a spotlight for western audiences on the fact that thousands of Palestinians are regularly imprisoned today in Israeli jails. What drew most attention was that so many of them, including children, were held under the policy of administrative detention, an unlawful process that allows Israel to hold detainees without charge or trial. However, Israel appears to have inherited the practice from the British, who regularly detained thousands of Palestinians without trial. Following its establishment in 1948, Israel has practised detention without trial as a staple of military rule. After the end of the revolt in 1939, Britain strengthened the powers of the mandate administration and in 1945 introduced the Defence (Emergency) Regulations. Ironically, this was in response to violence carried out by Zionist paramilitary groups at that time.
When Palestinians Became Human Shields: Counterinsurgency, Racialization, and the Great Revolt (1936–1939) 11/05/2021 This article examines the origins of human shielding—the practice of employing hostages on the battlefield—in Arab Palestine during the Great Revolt in the 1930s. The Palestinian rebellion vexed the British for over three years, and during its second phase (1937–1939), lightly armed rebels beat back the colonial authorities from broad stretches of the country, putting continued colonial control of the territory in serious jeopardy. Britain only defeated the insurgency through a harsh repertoire of collective punishments and “dirty war” tactics. British forces used Palestinians as human shields in a systematic fashion during the revolt's second phase, attempting thereby to stave off the insurgents’ consistent and effective attacks on transportation arteries. Beyond its battlefield rationale, this article contends that human shielding was critically tied to two other dynamic processes. The military's adoption of unauthorized tactics like human shielding was part of a broader pattern of rejecting its institutional subordination to civilian authorities and of seeking direct control over the Palestine government in order to assure its unfettered command over the revolt's suppression.
B'Tselem: Human Shields Updated regularily Over the years, the military practiced an official policy of using Palestinians as human shields, ordering them to carry out military activities that put their lives in jeopardy: Palestinians were forced to remove suspicious objects from roads, tell other Palestinians to come out and surrender themselves, physically shield soldiers while they fired, and more. In 2005, the High Court of Justice ruled the practice unlawful, yet soldiers still occasionally used Palestinians as human shields, particularly during military operations. In most cases, no one was held accountable.
The “Neighbor Procedure”: Israel’s Use of Palestinian Human Shields 11/15/2012 In reality, while there’s scant evidence that Hamas and other Palestinian groups deliberately use civilians as human shields, the Israeli military has a long and well-documented history of using Palestinian and other civilians as human shields, a practice officially known as the “neighbor procedure.” To put Israel’s accusations into context, the IMEU offers the following fact sheet on Israel’s use of Palestinian human shields. Since at least the early 1980s, the Israeli army has systematically used Palestinian civilians as human shields under a practice known officially as the “neighbor procedure,” so-called because it often involves soldiers ordering the neighbors of Palestinian militants to approach their homes and encourage them to surrender. In May 2002, seven Israeli and Palestinian human rights organizations file a complaint with the Israeli Supreme Court against the Israeli army’s widespread use of Palestinian civilians as human shields. In response, the army tells the court that it will cease using Palestinian civilians in military operations, except for the “neighbor procedure,” which it claims does not qualify as using human shields.
The Israeli military has used Palestinians as human shields in Gaza, soldier and former detainees say 10/24/2024 The exact scale and scope of the practice by the Israeli military is not known. But the testimony of both the soldier and five civilians shows that it was widespread across the territory: in northern Gaza, Gaza City, Khan Younis, and Rafah. The soldier explained that, at first, his unit, which at the time was in northern Gaza, used standardized procedures before entering a suspect building: sending in a dog or punching a hole through its side with a tank shell or an armored bulldozer.
How Israeli soldiers use Palestinians as human shields in Gaza 09/06/2024
Is there conclusive evidence Of Israel's accusations that Palestinians use their own civilians as human shields? 01/25/2026
Whether there is "conclusive evidence" of Palestinians using civilians as human shields is a subject of intense debate, with heavily contested documentation from both Israeli authorities and international rights groups. There is evidence that Hamas and other Palestinian militant groups operate within civilian areas, but international observers often differ on whether this constitutes a deliberate "human shield" strategy as defined by international law, or if it is a result of operating in a densely populated area.
Evidence Cited by Israel and Allies
Military Infrastructure: Israel frequently provides evidence of weapons, tunnel entrances, and rocket launch sites located inside or near residential homes, schools, and hospitals in Gaza.
Operational Behavior: Reports have documented fighters launching attacks from civilian areas. In 2024, reports surfaced of Hamas using Israeli hostages as shields during the October 7, 2023, attacks.
Rhetoric: Israeli officials cite speeches by Hamas leadership encouraging residents to confront, or remain in place during, Israeli airstrikes as evidence of urging civilians to act as shields.
Independent Sightings: Some independent journalists and observers have reported encountering armed militants inside or near civilian facilities like hospitals in past conflicts.
Counter-Arguments and Independent Investigations
Lack of Proved Intent: Human Rights Watch (HRW) and Amnesty International have noted that while militants have operated near civilians, they have not found conclusive evidence that civilians were forced to remain by Hamas to protect specific military objectives in many past conflicts.
Definition of Human Shielding: International law requires the specific intent to use a civilian to render a target immune from attack. Some analysts argue that in the extremely high-density environment of Gaza, operating near civilians is unavoidable, rather than a deliberate strategy.
Contested Evidence: Many claims, such as those regarding the extensive command centers under Al-Shifa hospital, have been heavily scrutinized, with some media analyses finding the evidence presented by the IDF to be less than conclusive.
Documented Use of Human Shields by Israel
Independent investigations by Amnesty International, B’Tselem, and others have documented that the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) have used Palestinians as human shields, a practice officially known as the "neighbor procedure".
While the Israeli Supreme Court banned this practice in 2005, testimonies from soldiers and civilians suggest its continued, occasional use, sometimes described as the "mosquito protocol," where Palestinian civilians are sent into buildings or tunnels ahead of soldiers.
Conclusion on "Conclusive Evidence"
There is documented evidence of Palestinian militant activity in close proximity to civilians, but there is no international consensus that this constitutes a systematic,, deliberate use of human shields, or that such evidence is "conclusive" in all cases. Conversely, there is also documented evidence of the Israeli military using Palestinians as human shields. Complete article
Wikipedia: Use of human shields by Hamas Amnesty International investigated Israeli claims that Hamas used human shields during the 2008–2009 Gaza War and the 2014 Gaza War but found no evidence to support these claims. During the war, Amnesty International pointed to several cases of destruction of houses, schools and mosques, which Israel said were housing ammunition; Amnesty found no example of "secondary conflagration", which would be expected if weapons were present.[16] In their report on the 2008–2009 war, Amnesty stated they found no evidence of Hamas directing civilians to shield military assets or forcing them to stay near buildings used by fighters. They did find that Hamas launched rockets from civilian areas, which endangered civilians and violated the requirement to protect civilians from military action, but this does not qualify as shielding under international law.[2] In 2014, Amnesty reported they had no evidence that Hamas or other Palestinian armed groups intentionally used civilians as shields to protect specific locations or military assets from Israeli attacks. They suggested that Hamas's urging of residents to ignore Israeli evacuation warnings might have been intended to minimize panic and displacement, rather than to use civilians as human shields.[18]
CNN: The Israeli military has used Palestinians as human shields in Gaza, soldier and former detainees say 01/24/2026 Israel has long accused Hamas of using civilians in Gaza as human shields, embedding military infrastructure in civilian areas – allegations Hamas has denied. There is ample evidence for it: weapons located inside homes, tunnels dug beneath residential neighborhoods and rockets fired from those same neighborhoods in the densely packed territory. (This excerpt from CNN certainly seems to support Israel's accusations, but many other sources, and other parts of this article show that Israel uses a more extreme version of Human Shields.)
Human shields or shielding Israel from accountability? 05/10/2024 The answers to these questions are likely to come as a surprise to many. Despite the ubiquitousness of the allegation, the Israeli claims that Hamas systematically and intentionally uses Palestinian civilians as human shields does not hold up to scrutiny. Moreover, even if it were true, the assertion would still not be enough to justify or explain the magnitude of death and destruction in Gaza. Indeed, the massive civilian casualties and destruction inflicted on Gaza are best understood not as a result of human shields but of Israeli policy and military conduct, which has both blurred the distinction between civilian and military targets and inflicted deliberately disproportionate levels of destruction. Far from explaining the current devastation in Gaza, therefore, the “human shields” charge has become a way to shield Israel from legitimate scrutiny and accountability.
Wikipedia: Human shields in the Israeli–Palestinian conflict
Israeli use of human shields in Gaza was systematic, soldiers and former detainees tell the AP 05/24/2025
US knew Israeli officials discussed use of human shields in Gaza: Report 11/13/2025 Israel has repeatedly been accused of using Palestinians as human shields in violation of international law. The United States had evidence last year that Israeli officials discussed how their soldiers sent Palestinians into tunnels in Gaza that the Israelis believed were potentially lined with explosives, two former US officials have told the Reuters news agency. The information was shared with the White House and analysed by the intelligence community in the final weeks of former President Joe Biden’s administration, the officials said.
The “Neighbor Procedure”: Israel’s Use of Palestinian Human Shields 11/15/2012 In reality, while there’s scant evidence that Hamas and other Palestinian groups deliberately use civilians as human shields, the Israeli military has a long and well-documented history of using Palestinian and other civilians as human shields, a practice officially known as the “neighbor procedure.” To put Israel’s accusations into context, the IMEU offers the following fact sheet on Israel’s use of Palestinian human shields. Since at least the early 1980s, the Israeli army has systematically used Palestinian civilians as human shields under a practice known officially as the “neighbor procedure,” so-called because it often involves soldiers ordering the neighbors of Palestinian militants to approach their homes and encourage them to surrender. In May 2002, seven Israeli and Palestinian human rights organizations file a complaint with the Israeli Supreme Court against the Israeli army’s widespread use of Palestinian civilians as human shields. In response, the army tells the court that it will cease using Palestinian civilians in military operations, except for the “neighbor procedure,” which it claims does not qualify as using human shields.
What is a human shield and how has Hamas been accused of using them? 10/30/2023 Is there independent evidence to back up the claims? Anecdotal and other evidence does suggest that Hamas and other factions have used civilian objects including hospitals and schools. Guardian journalists in 2014 encountered armed men inside one hospital, and sightings of senior Hamas leaders inside the Shifa hospital have been documented. During the 2014 conflict the UN reported weapons were found inside two UN schools and there have been numerous reports of Palestinian armed factions in Gaza firing rockets and other weapons from close to protected civilian locations. It is also clear that Hamas has operated from residential buildings. Making the issue more complicated, however, is the nature of Gaza and conflict there. As the territory consists mostly of an extremely dense urban environment, it is perhaps not surprising that Hamas operates in civilian areas. International law also makes clear that even if an armed force is improperly using civilian objects to shield itself, its opponent is still required to protect civilians from disproportionate harm.
The Israeli army’s use of Palestinian civilians as human shields has been documented on a large scale 07/30/2024 Palestinian Territory - Video footage released by Al Jazeera TV shows the Israeli army using detained Palestinian civilians as human shields and compelling them to enter dangerous combat zones—evidence of a systematic tactic of the army. There are numerous documented instances of civilians being used as human shields by Israeli forces, which is considered a war crime.
Hamas’ use of human shields in Gaza Time Period: 2008-2014 Pro-Israel bias, often contradicting sources more impartial.
Israel/Gaza conflict: Questions and Answers 07/25/2014 The Israeli authorities claim that Hamas and Palestinian armed groups use Palestinian civilians in Gaza as “human shields”. Does Amnesty International have any evidence that this has occurred during the current hostilities? Amnesty International is monitoring and investigating such reports, but does not have evidence at this point that Palestinian civilians have been intentionally used by Hamas or Palestinian armed groups during the current hostilities to “shield” specific locations or military personnel or equipment from Israeli attacks. In previous conflicts Amnesty International has documented that Palestinian armed groups have stored munitions in and fired indiscriminate rockets from residential areas in the Gaza Strip in violation of international humanitarian law. Reports have also emerged during the current conflict of Hamas urging residents to ignore Israeli warnings to evacuate. However, these calls may have been motivated by a desire to minimize panic and displacement, in any case, such statements are not the same as directing specific civilians to remain in their homes as “human shields” for fighters, munitions, or military equipment. Under international humanitarian law even if “human shields” are being used Israel’s obligations to protect these civilians would still apply.
Whether there is "conclusive evidence" of Palestinians using civilians as human shields is a subject of intense debate, with heavily contested documentation from both Israeli authorities and international rights groups. There is evidence that Hamas and other Palestinian militant groups operate within civilian areas, but international observers often differ on whether this constitutes a deliberate "human shield" strategy as defined by international law, or if it is a result of operating in a densely populated area.
Evidence Cited by Israel and Allies
Military Infrastructure: Israel frequently provides evidence of weapons, tunnel entrances, and rocket launch sites located inside or near residential homes, schools, and hospitals in Gaza.
Operational Behavior: Reports have documented fighters launching attacks from civilian areas. In 2024, reports surfaced of Hamas using Israeli hostages as shields during the October 7, 2023, attacks.
Rhetoric: Israeli officials cite speeches by Hamas leadership encouraging residents to confront, or remain in place during, Israeli airstrikes as evidence of urging civilians to act as shields.
Independent Sightings: Some independent journalists and observers have reported encountering armed militants inside or near civilian facilities like hospitals in past conflicts.
Counter-Arguments and Independent Investigations
Lack of Proved Intent: Human Rights Watch (HRW) and Amnesty International have noted that while militants have operated near civilians, they have not found conclusive evidence that civilians were forced to remain by Hamas to protect specific military objectives in many past conflicts.
Definition of Human Shielding: International law requires the specific intent to use a civilian to render a target immune from attack. Some analysts argue that in the extremely high-density environment of Gaza, operating near civilians is unavoidable, rather than a deliberate strategy.
Contested Evidence: Many claims, such as those regarding the extensive command centers under Al-Shifa hospital, have been heavily scrutinized, with some media analyses finding the evidence presented by the IDF to be less than conclusive.
Documented Use of Human Shields by Israel
Independent investigations by Amnesty International, B’Tselem, and others have documented that the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) have used Palestinians as human shields, a practice officially known as the "neighbor procedure".
While the Israeli Supreme Court banned this practice in 2005, testimonies from soldiers and civilians suggest its continued, occasional use, sometimes described as the "mosquito protocol," where Palestinian civilians are sent into buildings or tunnels ahead of soldiers.
Conclusion on "Conclusive Evidence"
There is documented evidence of Palestinian militant activity in close proximity to civilians, but there is no international consensus that this constitutes a systematic,, deliberate use of human shields, or that such evidence is "conclusive" in all cases. Conversely, there is also documented evidence of the Israeli military using Palestinians as human shields. Complete article
Wikipedia: Use of human shields by Hamas Amnesty International investigated Israeli claims that Hamas used human shields during the 2008–2009 Gaza War and the 2014 Gaza War but found no evidence to support these claims. During the war, Amnesty International pointed to several cases of destruction of houses, schools and mosques, which Israel said were housing ammunition; Amnesty found no example of "secondary conflagration", which would be expected if weapons were present.[16] In their report on the 2008–2009 war, Amnesty stated they found no evidence of Hamas directing civilians to shield military assets or forcing them to stay near buildings used by fighters. They did find that Hamas launched rockets from civilian areas, which endangered civilians and violated the requirement to protect civilians from military action, but this does not qualify as shielding under international law.[2] In 2014, Amnesty reported they had no evidence that Hamas or other Palestinian armed groups intentionally used civilians as shields to protect specific locations or military assets from Israeli attacks. They suggested that Hamas's urging of residents to ignore Israeli evacuation warnings might have been intended to minimize panic and displacement, rather than to use civilians as human shields.[18]
CNN: The Israeli military has used Palestinians as human shields in Gaza, soldier and former detainees say 01/24/2026 Israel has long accused Hamas of using civilians in Gaza as human shields, embedding military infrastructure in civilian areas – allegations Hamas has denied. There is ample evidence for it: weapons located inside homes, tunnels dug beneath residential neighborhoods and rockets fired from those same neighborhoods in the densely packed territory. (This excerpt from CNN certainly seems to support Israel's accusations, but many other sources, and other parts of this article show that Israel uses a more extreme version of Human Shields.)
Human shields or shielding Israel from accountability? 05/10/2024 The answers to these questions are likely to come as a surprise to many. Despite the ubiquitousness of the allegation, the Israeli claims that Hamas systematically and intentionally uses Palestinian civilians as human shields does not hold up to scrutiny. Moreover, even if it were true, the assertion would still not be enough to justify or explain the magnitude of death and destruction in Gaza. Indeed, the massive civilian casualties and destruction inflicted on Gaza are best understood not as a result of human shields but of Israeli policy and military conduct, which has both blurred the distinction between civilian and military targets and inflicted deliberately disproportionate levels of destruction. Far from explaining the current devastation in Gaza, therefore, the “human shields” charge has become a way to shield Israel from legitimate scrutiny and accountability.
Wikipedia: Human shields in the Israeli–Palestinian conflict
Israeli use of human shields in Gaza was systematic, soldiers and former detainees tell the AP 05/24/2025
US knew Israeli officials discussed use of human shields in Gaza: Report 11/13/2025 Israel has repeatedly been accused of using Palestinians as human shields in violation of international law. The United States had evidence last year that Israeli officials discussed how their soldiers sent Palestinians into tunnels in Gaza that the Israelis believed were potentially lined with explosives, two former US officials have told the Reuters news agency. The information was shared with the White House and analysed by the intelligence community in the final weeks of former President Joe Biden’s administration, the officials said.
The “Neighbor Procedure”: Israel’s Use of Palestinian Human Shields 11/15/2012 In reality, while there’s scant evidence that Hamas and other Palestinian groups deliberately use civilians as human shields, the Israeli military has a long and well-documented history of using Palestinian and other civilians as human shields, a practice officially known as the “neighbor procedure.” To put Israel’s accusations into context, the IMEU offers the following fact sheet on Israel’s use of Palestinian human shields. Since at least the early 1980s, the Israeli army has systematically used Palestinian civilians as human shields under a practice known officially as the “neighbor procedure,” so-called because it often involves soldiers ordering the neighbors of Palestinian militants to approach their homes and encourage them to surrender. In May 2002, seven Israeli and Palestinian human rights organizations file a complaint with the Israeli Supreme Court against the Israeli army’s widespread use of Palestinian civilians as human shields. In response, the army tells the court that it will cease using Palestinian civilians in military operations, except for the “neighbor procedure,” which it claims does not qualify as using human shields.
What is a human shield and how has Hamas been accused of using them? 10/30/2023 Is there independent evidence to back up the claims? Anecdotal and other evidence does suggest that Hamas and other factions have used civilian objects including hospitals and schools. Guardian journalists in 2014 encountered armed men inside one hospital, and sightings of senior Hamas leaders inside the Shifa hospital have been documented. During the 2014 conflict the UN reported weapons were found inside two UN schools and there have been numerous reports of Palestinian armed factions in Gaza firing rockets and other weapons from close to protected civilian locations. It is also clear that Hamas has operated from residential buildings. Making the issue more complicated, however, is the nature of Gaza and conflict there. As the territory consists mostly of an extremely dense urban environment, it is perhaps not surprising that Hamas operates in civilian areas. International law also makes clear that even if an armed force is improperly using civilian objects to shield itself, its opponent is still required to protect civilians from disproportionate harm.
The Israeli army’s use of Palestinian civilians as human shields has been documented on a large scale 07/30/2024 Palestinian Territory - Video footage released by Al Jazeera TV shows the Israeli army using detained Palestinian civilians as human shields and compelling them to enter dangerous combat zones—evidence of a systematic tactic of the army. There are numerous documented instances of civilians being used as human shields by Israeli forces, which is considered a war crime.
Hamas’ use of human shields in Gaza Time Period: 2008-2014 Pro-Israel bias, often contradicting sources more impartial.
Israel/Gaza conflict: Questions and Answers 07/25/2014 The Israeli authorities claim that Hamas and Palestinian armed groups use Palestinian civilians in Gaza as “human shields”. Does Amnesty International have any evidence that this has occurred during the current hostilities? Amnesty International is monitoring and investigating such reports, but does not have evidence at this point that Palestinian civilians have been intentionally used by Hamas or Palestinian armed groups during the current hostilities to “shield” specific locations or military personnel or equipment from Israeli attacks. In previous conflicts Amnesty International has documented that Palestinian armed groups have stored munitions in and fired indiscriminate rockets from residential areas in the Gaza Strip in violation of international humanitarian law. Reports have also emerged during the current conflict of Hamas urging residents to ignore Israeli warnings to evacuate. However, these calls may have been motivated by a desire to minimize panic and displacement, in any case, such statements are not the same as directing specific civilians to remain in their homes as “human shields” for fighters, munitions, or military equipment. Under international humanitarian law even if “human shields” are being used Israel’s obligations to protect these civilians would still apply.
Did Amnesty International or other Human rights groups report Nayirah's testimony testimony about removing babies from incubators as credible when it first came out in 1990? 01/14/2026
When the Nayirah testimony about Iraqi soldiers removing babies from incubators came out in October 1990, Amnesty International and other human rights groups initially supported the story and reported it as credible, but later retracted their statements after post-war investigations found no reliable evidence.
Initial Reactions
Amnesty International: The organization initially corroborated the story. A December 1990 report from the group cited interviews with doctors and nurses who provided details of up to 300 babies allegedly dying this way, which lent significant credibility to the claims at the time and was used to build public support for the Gulf War.
Middle East Watch (a division of Human Rights Watch): This group was more skeptical from the beginning, publicly stating in December 1990 and January 1991 that they could not independently confirm the allegations, although they did not definitively dismiss them as false until after the war.
Post-War Investigations and Retractions
After the liberation of Kuwait in early 1991, journalists and human rights organizations were able to conduct independent investigations on the ground.
Amnesty International retracted its support of the story after an investigation in April 1991, stating it "found no reliable evidence that Iraqi forces had caused the deaths of babies by removing them or ordering their removal from incubators". An Amnesty spokesman said the story did not happen on the scale initially reported, "if, indeed, it happened at all".
Middle East Watch published its investigation results in 1992, confirming the story was false propaganda, likely manufactured from "germs of truth" outside the country.
A private investigation by Kroll Associates, hired by the Kuwaiti government, also found that Nayirah's account was wildly distorted; she had actually only seen one baby briefly outside an incubator and was never a hospital volunteer.
The initial acceptance of the story by a reputable body like Amnesty International was later criticized as an "ill-considered validation" that significantly distorted the public debate and influenced the U.S. Senate's vote to authorize military force against Iraq. Complete article
When the Nayirah testimony about Iraqi soldiers removing babies from incubators came out in October 1990, Amnesty International and other human rights groups initially supported the story and reported it as credible, but later retracted their statements after post-war investigations found no reliable evidence.
Initial Reactions
Amnesty International: The organization initially corroborated the story. A December 1990 report from the group cited interviews with doctors and nurses who provided details of up to 300 babies allegedly dying this way, which lent significant credibility to the claims at the time and was used to build public support for the Gulf War.
Middle East Watch (a division of Human Rights Watch): This group was more skeptical from the beginning, publicly stating in December 1990 and January 1991 that they could not independently confirm the allegations, although they did not definitively dismiss them as false until after the war.
Post-War Investigations and Retractions
After the liberation of Kuwait in early 1991, journalists and human rights organizations were able to conduct independent investigations on the ground.
Amnesty International retracted its support of the story after an investigation in April 1991, stating it "found no reliable evidence that Iraqi forces had caused the deaths of babies by removing them or ordering their removal from incubators". An Amnesty spokesman said the story did not happen on the scale initially reported, "if, indeed, it happened at all".
Middle East Watch published its investigation results in 1992, confirming the story was false propaganda, likely manufactured from "germs of truth" outside the country.
A private investigation by Kroll Associates, hired by the Kuwaiti government, also found that Nayirah's account was wildly distorted; she had actually only seen one baby briefly outside an incubator and was never a hospital volunteer.
The initial acceptance of the story by a reputable body like Amnesty International was later criticized as an "ill-considered validation" that significantly distorted the public debate and influenced the U.S. Senate's vote to authorize military force against Iraq. Complete article
Did Amnesty International or other Human rights groups report on Saddam Hussein's atrocities while the United States was still supporting him and Iraq was at War with Iran? 01/14/2026
Yes, human rights groups like Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch documented and reported on Saddam Hussein's atrocities and Iraq's poor human rights record throughout the 1980s, including while the U.S. was providing support and the Iran-Iraq War was ongoing.
These organizations have consistently campaigned on human rights in Iraq since the 1960s and produced regular reports based on information gathered from research, contacts within the country, and other sources.
Key aspects of their reporting during that time include:
Mass Killings and Disappearances: Amnesty International in 1985 drew attention to reports of hundreds of dead and missing persons, including the disappearance of 300 Kurdish children. An estimated 100,000 Kurds were killed or disappeared during the 1987-1988 Anfal campaigns.
Chemical Weapons Use: The use of chemical weapons against the Kurdish town of Halabja and against Iranian military personnel was documented.
Torture and Executions: Reports detailed a consistent pattern of gross human rights violations, including political imprisonment, torture (methods like electric shocks, beatings, rape, and burning), and summary and arbitrary executions.
Lack of Due Process: The reports highlighted the routine use of arbitrary arrest and detention, and the lack of an independent judiciary, with the government denying citizens the right to due process.
Amnesty International has noted that it repeatedly placed such information on the public record and regretted that "until the invasion of Kuwait, the international community did not see fit to apply serious pressure in an attempt to put an end to these abuses". Human Rights Watch was able to obtain and analyze tons of captured Iraqi government documents seized in 1991, which provided substantial evidence of genocidal intent and helped produce detailed accounts of the Anfal genocide. Complete article
Yes, human rights groups like Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch documented and reported on Saddam Hussein's atrocities and Iraq's poor human rights record throughout the 1980s, including while the U.S. was providing support and the Iran-Iraq War was ongoing.
These organizations have consistently campaigned on human rights in Iraq since the 1960s and produced regular reports based on information gathered from research, contacts within the country, and other sources.
Key aspects of their reporting during that time include:
Mass Killings and Disappearances: Amnesty International in 1985 drew attention to reports of hundreds of dead and missing persons, including the disappearance of 300 Kurdish children. An estimated 100,000 Kurds were killed or disappeared during the 1987-1988 Anfal campaigns.
Chemical Weapons Use: The use of chemical weapons against the Kurdish town of Halabja and against Iranian military personnel was documented.
Torture and Executions: Reports detailed a consistent pattern of gross human rights violations, including political imprisonment, torture (methods like electric shocks, beatings, rape, and burning), and summary and arbitrary executions.
Lack of Due Process: The reports highlighted the routine use of arbitrary arrest and detention, and the lack of an independent judiciary, with the government denying citizens the right to due process.
Amnesty International has noted that it repeatedly placed such information on the public record and regretted that "until the invasion of Kuwait, the international community did not see fit to apply serious pressure in an attempt to put an end to these abuses". Human Rights Watch was able to obtain and analyze tons of captured Iraqi government documents seized in 1991, which provided substantial evidence of genocidal intent and helped produce detailed accounts of the Anfal genocide. Complete article
US Ambassador April Glaspie meeting with Saddam Hussein July 25 1990 where she said they had no position on conflict with Kuwait and suggested a media appearance to improve his image 01/17/2026
On July 25, 1990, U.S. Ambassador April Glaspie met with Saddam Hussein, stating the U.S. had "no opinion on the Arab-Arab conflicts, like your border dispute with Kuwait," according to Iraqi transcripts. While intended as standard diplomatic rhetoric, this was interpreted by Saddam as a "green light" for invasion, contributing to the August 2, 1990, invasion of Kuwait.
Key Details of the Meeting: The meeting occurred eight days before the invasion. Glaspie expressed admiration for Iraq's efforts to rebuild and noted that the U.S. wanted to maintain friendship, though she claimed she also warned against using force.
The "No Position" Remark: The Iraqi transcript recorded Glaspie stating, "we have no opinion on the Arab-Arab conflicts, like your border dispute with Kuwait". This was meant to signify that the U.S. would not take a side in the intra-Arab border dispute, but it was interpreted by Saddam as indifference to potential military action.
Context of U.S. Policy: At the time, the Bush administration aimed to avoid confrontation and improve relations with Iraq. The State Department had previously indicated there were no special defense commitments to Kuwait.
Controversy and Denials: Following the invasion, Glaspie faced intense criticism for her "weak" approach, with critics suggesting she failed to take a hard line against Saddam's threats. She later disputed the Iraqi transcript, stating she warned Saddam against the use of force and that her remarks were taken out of context. Complete article
A Diplomat Just Made a Crucial ‘April Glaspie’ Mistake on Turkey and Syria 12/12/2018
The Danger of What Hasn't Been Said 04/10/2015
Insider : U.S. Ambassador to Iraq Muzzled by Washington : April Glaspie met with Saddam Hussein shortly before his army invaded Kuwait. Now she is a bureaucratic non-person, and--some fear--a scapegoat as the Administration’s prewar policy is debated. 02/05/1991
Wikipedia: April Glaspie In April 1991 Glaspie testified before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. She said that at the July 25 meeting she had "repeatedly warned Iraqi President Saddam Hussein against using force to settle his dispute with Kuwait." She also said that Saddam had lied to her by denying he would invade Kuwait. Asked to explain how Saddam could have interpreted her comments as implying U.S. approval for the invasion of Kuwait, she replied: "We foolishly did not realize he [Saddam] was stupid."
TRANSCRIPT SHOWS MUTED U.S. RESPONSE TO THREAT BY SADDAM IN LATE JULY 09/12/1990 One week before he ordered his troops into Kuwait, Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein warned the U.S. ambassador in Baghdad that America should not oppose his aims in the Middle East because "yours is a society that cannot accept 10,000 dead in one battle" and is vulnerable to terrorist attack, according to the Iraqi minutes of the July 25 conversation.
CONFRONTATION IN THE GULF; U.S. Gave Iraq Little Reason Not to Mount Kuwait Assault 09/23/1990
AFTER THE WAR: WOMAN IN THE NEWS; Envoy No Longer Silent: April Catherine Glaspie 03/21/1991
How Saddam’s View Of the US As A Threat Led To Kuwait Invasion 03/26/2020 Saddam’s meeting with Ambassador Glaspie then was not taken as the Bush Administration approving of an attack upon Kuwait. In fact, Iraqi intelligence warned that the U.S. would support Kuwait and at a meeting Saddam pointed out that he considered a confrontation with President Bush before the invasion. Many misinterpreted what happened in 1990. Saddam thought he was facing economic warfare master minded by President Bush who wanted to destroy Iraq’s oil industry by telling Kuwait to over produce, drive down prices, which would in turn make it impossible for Baghdad to pay back its war debts. Those that believed the U.S. encouraged Iraq or tricked it into going to war were also wrong. Saddam felt like he was standing up to America with his decision. Last but not least, Bush’s policy was to improve relations with Iraq and make it a force for stability in the region after the Shah was deposed in Iran. Nothing the president did changed Saddam’s perception that the United States was an enemy opposed to Iraq’s ideology and position in the region. Invading Kuwait was Saddam’s second great blunder after the Iran-Iraq War. He made both because he didn’t understand what he was facing or the consequences of his actions, and it cost him dearly.
Glaspie Says She Warned Hussein on Kuwait Issue 03/21/1991 “It is not a transcript. It is a fabrication. It is disinformation,” Glaspie said of the text of the conversation that was released by Iraq but never forcefully disputed by the State Department until her dramatic appearance before the committee.
US Ambassador April Glaspie meeting with Saddam Hussein July 25 1990 transcript Excerpted from Toxic Sludge Is Good For You, Chapter 10
How PR Sold the War in the Persian Gulf December 2005
KUWAIT'S "STOLEN" INCUBATORS: THE WIDESPREAD REPERCUSSIONS OF A MURKY INCIDENT 02/06/1992
On July 25, 1990, U.S. Ambassador April Glaspie met with Saddam Hussein, stating the U.S. had "no opinion on the Arab-Arab conflicts, like your border dispute with Kuwait," according to Iraqi transcripts. While intended as standard diplomatic rhetoric, this was interpreted by Saddam as a "green light" for invasion, contributing to the August 2, 1990, invasion of Kuwait.
Key Details of the Meeting: The meeting occurred eight days before the invasion. Glaspie expressed admiration for Iraq's efforts to rebuild and noted that the U.S. wanted to maintain friendship, though she claimed she also warned against using force.
The "No Position" Remark: The Iraqi transcript recorded Glaspie stating, "we have no opinion on the Arab-Arab conflicts, like your border dispute with Kuwait". This was meant to signify that the U.S. would not take a side in the intra-Arab border dispute, but it was interpreted by Saddam as indifference to potential military action.
Context of U.S. Policy: At the time, the Bush administration aimed to avoid confrontation and improve relations with Iraq. The State Department had previously indicated there were no special defense commitments to Kuwait.
Controversy and Denials: Following the invasion, Glaspie faced intense criticism for her "weak" approach, with critics suggesting she failed to take a hard line against Saddam's threats. She later disputed the Iraqi transcript, stating she warned Saddam against the use of force and that her remarks were taken out of context. Complete article
A Diplomat Just Made a Crucial ‘April Glaspie’ Mistake on Turkey and Syria 12/12/2018
The Danger of What Hasn't Been Said 04/10/2015
Insider : U.S. Ambassador to Iraq Muzzled by Washington : April Glaspie met with Saddam Hussein shortly before his army invaded Kuwait. Now she is a bureaucratic non-person, and--some fear--a scapegoat as the Administration’s prewar policy is debated. 02/05/1991
Wikipedia: April Glaspie In April 1991 Glaspie testified before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. She said that at the July 25 meeting she had "repeatedly warned Iraqi President Saddam Hussein against using force to settle his dispute with Kuwait." She also said that Saddam had lied to her by denying he would invade Kuwait. Asked to explain how Saddam could have interpreted her comments as implying U.S. approval for the invasion of Kuwait, she replied: "We foolishly did not realize he [Saddam] was stupid."
TRANSCRIPT SHOWS MUTED U.S. RESPONSE TO THREAT BY SADDAM IN LATE JULY 09/12/1990 One week before he ordered his troops into Kuwait, Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein warned the U.S. ambassador in Baghdad that America should not oppose his aims in the Middle East because "yours is a society that cannot accept 10,000 dead in one battle" and is vulnerable to terrorist attack, according to the Iraqi minutes of the July 25 conversation.
CONFRONTATION IN THE GULF; U.S. Gave Iraq Little Reason Not to Mount Kuwait Assault 09/23/1990
AFTER THE WAR: WOMAN IN THE NEWS; Envoy No Longer Silent: April Catherine Glaspie 03/21/1991
How Saddam’s View Of the US As A Threat Led To Kuwait Invasion 03/26/2020 Saddam’s meeting with Ambassador Glaspie then was not taken as the Bush Administration approving of an attack upon Kuwait. In fact, Iraqi intelligence warned that the U.S. would support Kuwait and at a meeting Saddam pointed out that he considered a confrontation with President Bush before the invasion. Many misinterpreted what happened in 1990. Saddam thought he was facing economic warfare master minded by President Bush who wanted to destroy Iraq’s oil industry by telling Kuwait to over produce, drive down prices, which would in turn make it impossible for Baghdad to pay back its war debts. Those that believed the U.S. encouraged Iraq or tricked it into going to war were also wrong. Saddam felt like he was standing up to America with his decision. Last but not least, Bush’s policy was to improve relations with Iraq and make it a force for stability in the region after the Shah was deposed in Iran. Nothing the president did changed Saddam’s perception that the United States was an enemy opposed to Iraq’s ideology and position in the region. Invading Kuwait was Saddam’s second great blunder after the Iran-Iraq War. He made both because he didn’t understand what he was facing or the consequences of his actions, and it cost him dearly.
Glaspie Says She Warned Hussein on Kuwait Issue 03/21/1991 “It is not a transcript. It is a fabrication. It is disinformation,” Glaspie said of the text of the conversation that was released by Iraq but never forcefully disputed by the State Department until her dramatic appearance before the committee.
US Ambassador April Glaspie meeting with Saddam Hussein July 25 1990 transcript Excerpted from Toxic Sludge Is Good For You, Chapter 10
How PR Sold the War in the Persian Gulf December 2005
KUWAIT'S "STOLEN" INCUBATORS: THE WIDESPREAD REPERCUSSIONS OF A MURKY INCIDENT 02/06/1992
Did Amnesty International or other Human rights groups endorse the choice of Maria Corina Machado for the Nobel Peace Prize? 01/14/2026
Maria Corina Machado was the recipient of the 2025 Nobel Peace Prize and was not just endorsed for the choice, but her win was celebrated by several human rights groups, including the Human Rights Foundation (HRF) and a senior director for Amnesty International.
Statements from Human Rights Groups
Several human rights organizations reacted positively to the news of Machado's Nobel Peace Prize.
Amnesty International: A senior director called the award an "important recognition" for Machado and Venezuelans facing "repression and persecution". They hoped it would be a turning point for political prisoners.
Human Rights Foundation (HRF): This group "celebrate[d]" the decision, calling Machado a "courageous voice against tyranny" for her dedication to "freedom, democracy, and human dignity" in Venezuela.
UN Human Rights Office (OHCHR): A spokesperson congratulated Machado, stating the award "reflects the clear aspirations of the people of Venezuela for free and fair elections, for civil and political rights and for the rule of law".
Human Rights Watch (HRW): This organization acknowledged the Nobel Committee's recognition of Machado's efforts in promoting democratic rights and advocating for a peaceful transition in Venezuela.
Opposition to the Award
However, the decision was also met with criticism from some groups and activists who raised concerns about Machado's past political positions and support for sanctions. For example, a US Muslim rights group, CAIR, condemned the award. Complete article
US Muslim rights group condemns Nobel Peace Prize award to Venezuela's Maria Corina Machado 10/10/2025 CAIR calls on opposition leader 'to renounce her support' for Israel's Likud Party, anti-Muslim fascism in Europe
An unpalatable Peace Prize 11/07/2025 Machado, who is close to President Trump, has called for military intervention in Venezuela and for sanctions to be imposed on her country. She has supported the United States in its bombings of Venezuelan boats in the Caribbean, actions that experts in international law have described as extrajudicial executions. Machado has also supported Trump’s deportation of Venezuelan migrants from the United States to El Salvador’s notorious CECOT prison, where there is extensive use of torture. And last but not least: Machado is against dialogue.
Nobel War Prize 10/20/2025 There are many worthy people and organizations who have carried out good deeds for humanity, but few of the winners have actually been peacemakers. This year’s winner of the Nobel Peace Prize, Maria Corina Machado, is no exception to this unfortunate trajectory, as she openly calls for war against her own people in Venezuela. She supports sanctions that have killed thousands of her countrymen and women and favors a U.S. military attack on her country, which is precisely and perversely why she received the once respected honor. The Nobel Peace Prize Committee honored Machado “for her tireless work promoting democratic rights for the people of Venezuela and for her struggle to achieve a just and peaceful transition from dictatorship to democracy.” These words may sound benign to those who are unaware that the people of Venezuela already have a democracy. They are punished because they continue to exercise their democratic rights by voting for a government that the U.S. and its allies want to destroy. Anyone who supports the Venezuelans’ sovereign rights is treated as an enemy of those war-loving nations, which are paradoxically referred to as “the free world.” ..... Maria Corina Machado is the very antithesis of what Alfred Nobel envisioned. Aside from scorning her undeserved honor, the people of the world should resolve to give no more attention to the Nobel peace prize and to its disgraced laureates who work on behalf of U.S. aggression.
When Maria Corina Machado Wins the Nobel Peace Prize, ‘Peace’ Has Lost Its Meaning 10/10/2025 Far from a symbol of peace, the article exposes Machado's history of supporting coups, sanctions, and calls for foreign military intervention in Venezuela. .... She helped lead the 2002 coup that briefly overthrew a democratically elected president, and signed the Carmona Decree that erased the Constitution and dissolved every public institution overnight.
She worked hand in hand with Washington to justify regime change, using her platform to demand foreign military intervention to “liberate” Venezuela through force.
She cheered on Donald Trump’s threats of invasion and his naval deployments in the Caribbean, a show of force that risks igniting regional war under the pretext of “combating narcotrafficking.” While Trump sent warships and froze assets, Machado stood ready to serve as his local proxy, promising to deliver Venezuela’s sovereignty on a silver platter.
She pushed for the U.S. sanctions that strangled the economy, knowing exactly who would pay the price: the poor, the sick, the working class.
She helped construct the so-called “interim government” a Washington backed puppet show run by a self-appointed “president” who looted Venezuela’s resources abroad while children at home went hungry.
She vows to reopen Venezuela’s embassy in Jerusalem, aligning herself openly with the same apartheid state that bombs hospitals and calls it self-defense.
Now she wants to hand over the country’s oil, water, and infrastructure to private corporations. This is the same recipe that made Latin America the laboratory of neoliberal misery in the 1990s.
Maria Corina Machado was the recipient of the 2025 Nobel Peace Prize and was not just endorsed for the choice, but her win was celebrated by several human rights groups, including the Human Rights Foundation (HRF) and a senior director for Amnesty International.
Statements from Human Rights Groups
Several human rights organizations reacted positively to the news of Machado's Nobel Peace Prize.
Amnesty International: A senior director called the award an "important recognition" for Machado and Venezuelans facing "repression and persecution". They hoped it would be a turning point for political prisoners.
Human Rights Foundation (HRF): This group "celebrate[d]" the decision, calling Machado a "courageous voice against tyranny" for her dedication to "freedom, democracy, and human dignity" in Venezuela.
UN Human Rights Office (OHCHR): A spokesperson congratulated Machado, stating the award "reflects the clear aspirations of the people of Venezuela for free and fair elections, for civil and political rights and for the rule of law".
Human Rights Watch (HRW): This organization acknowledged the Nobel Committee's recognition of Machado's efforts in promoting democratic rights and advocating for a peaceful transition in Venezuela.
Opposition to the Award
However, the decision was also met with criticism from some groups and activists who raised concerns about Machado's past political positions and support for sanctions. For example, a US Muslim rights group, CAIR, condemned the award. Complete article
US Muslim rights group condemns Nobel Peace Prize award to Venezuela's Maria Corina Machado 10/10/2025 CAIR calls on opposition leader 'to renounce her support' for Israel's Likud Party, anti-Muslim fascism in Europe
An unpalatable Peace Prize 11/07/2025 Machado, who is close to President Trump, has called for military intervention in Venezuela and for sanctions to be imposed on her country. She has supported the United States in its bombings of Venezuelan boats in the Caribbean, actions that experts in international law have described as extrajudicial executions. Machado has also supported Trump’s deportation of Venezuelan migrants from the United States to El Salvador’s notorious CECOT prison, where there is extensive use of torture. And last but not least: Machado is against dialogue.
Nobel War Prize 10/20/2025 There are many worthy people and organizations who have carried out good deeds for humanity, but few of the winners have actually been peacemakers. This year’s winner of the Nobel Peace Prize, Maria Corina Machado, is no exception to this unfortunate trajectory, as she openly calls for war against her own people in Venezuela. She supports sanctions that have killed thousands of her countrymen and women and favors a U.S. military attack on her country, which is precisely and perversely why she received the once respected honor. The Nobel Peace Prize Committee honored Machado “for her tireless work promoting democratic rights for the people of Venezuela and for her struggle to achieve a just and peaceful transition from dictatorship to democracy.” These words may sound benign to those who are unaware that the people of Venezuela already have a democracy. They are punished because they continue to exercise their democratic rights by voting for a government that the U.S. and its allies want to destroy. Anyone who supports the Venezuelans’ sovereign rights is treated as an enemy of those war-loving nations, which are paradoxically referred to as “the free world.” ..... Maria Corina Machado is the very antithesis of what Alfred Nobel envisioned. Aside from scorning her undeserved honor, the people of the world should resolve to give no more attention to the Nobel peace prize and to its disgraced laureates who work on behalf of U.S. aggression.
When Maria Corina Machado Wins the Nobel Peace Prize, ‘Peace’ Has Lost Its Meaning 10/10/2025 Far from a symbol of peace, the article exposes Machado's history of supporting coups, sanctions, and calls for foreign military intervention in Venezuela. .... She helped lead the 2002 coup that briefly overthrew a democratically elected president, and signed the Carmona Decree that erased the Constitution and dissolved every public institution overnight.
She worked hand in hand with Washington to justify regime change, using her platform to demand foreign military intervention to “liberate” Venezuela through force.
She cheered on Donald Trump’s threats of invasion and his naval deployments in the Caribbean, a show of force that risks igniting regional war under the pretext of “combating narcotrafficking.” While Trump sent warships and froze assets, Machado stood ready to serve as his local proxy, promising to deliver Venezuela’s sovereignty on a silver platter.
She pushed for the U.S. sanctions that strangled the economy, knowing exactly who would pay the price: the poor, the sick, the working class.
She helped construct the so-called “interim government” a Washington backed puppet show run by a self-appointed “president” who looted Venezuela’s resources abroad while children at home went hungry.
She vows to reopen Venezuela’s embassy in Jerusalem, aligning herself openly with the same apartheid state that bombs hospitals and calls it self-defense.
Now she wants to hand over the country’s oil, water, and infrastructure to private corporations. This is the same recipe that made Latin America the laboratory of neoliberal misery in the 1990s.
Has Maria Corina Machado called for sanctions or military attacks against her own people? 01/14/2026
Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado has called for international sanctions against the government of Nicolás Maduro and has expressed support for various forms of foreign pressure, including potential U.S. military action.
Reports from various sources indicate the following:
Sanctions: Machado has been an "unequivocal" and "loudest" supporter of U.S. sanctions, arguing they are a necessary measure to increase the cost for the Maduro regime to stay in power. She has acknowledged the risk the sanctions pose to the impoverished population but maintains the ultimate goal is to "save lives" by removing the Maduro government.
Military Action: Several sources state that Machado has explicitly called for, or appears to be open to, U.S. military intervention to oust Maduro. She has reportedly defended U.S. attacks on Venezuelan boats in international waters and other U.S. military pressure as a "necessary measure" for a democratic transition. In one interview, she stated she would "welcome more and more pressure so that Maduro understands that he has to go".
Opposition Views: Machado's stance has generated controversy, even within the Venezuelan opposition. Some other opposition figures and parties did not support her call for military intervention and international sanctions.
Humanitarian Concerns: Critics point out that the sanctions have had a severe humanitarian impact, contributing to the suffering of the Venezuelan people by cutting off access to medicine, food, and energy. Complete article
Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado has called for international sanctions against the government of Nicolás Maduro and has expressed support for various forms of foreign pressure, including potential U.S. military action.
Reports from various sources indicate the following:
Sanctions: Machado has been an "unequivocal" and "loudest" supporter of U.S. sanctions, arguing they are a necessary measure to increase the cost for the Maduro regime to stay in power. She has acknowledged the risk the sanctions pose to the impoverished population but maintains the ultimate goal is to "save lives" by removing the Maduro government.
Military Action: Several sources state that Machado has explicitly called for, or appears to be open to, U.S. military intervention to oust Maduro. She has reportedly defended U.S. attacks on Venezuelan boats in international waters and other U.S. military pressure as a "necessary measure" for a democratic transition. In one interview, she stated she would "welcome more and more pressure so that Maduro understands that he has to go".
Opposition Views: Machado's stance has generated controversy, even within the Venezuelan opposition. Some other opposition figures and parties did not support her call for military intervention and international sanctions.
Humanitarian Concerns: Critics point out that the sanctions have had a severe humanitarian impact, contributing to the suffering of the Venezuelan people by cutting off access to medicine, food, and energy. Complete article
Do the majority of Venezuelan citizens support awarding Maria Corina Machado the Nobel Peace Prize? 12/14/2025
Public opinion data indicates that a majority of Venezuelan citizens do not support the awarding of the Nobel Peace Prize to María Corina Machado. While she has significant support among the Venezuelan diaspora and specific opposition factions, internal polls show broad disapproval.
Key Findings from Venezuelan Public Opinion
Low Approval Ratings: A survey by Venezuelan firm Hinterlaces in October 2025 found that 91% of Venezuelans hold an unfavorable opinion of María Corina Machado.
Strong Rejection: A December 2025 national poll by DataViva reported that 89% of Venezuelans rate their support for Machado as low or very low, with 61% expressing "strong rejection".
Perception of the Award: The same survey found that 80% of respondents dismissed the Nobel Peace Prize awarded to Machado as a "farce".
Mixed Reactions: Reporting from news agencies, such as the Associated Press, notes that Machado's actions, including her travel abroad to receive the prize, have elicited mixed feelings within the country, with some viewing her alignment with specific foreign powers critically.
Support Base: While overall support is low, rallies in support of her Nobel win and democratic struggle have been reported in cities worldwide with large Venezuelan diaspora communities, such as Madrid, Lima, and Buenos Aires.
Leadership Preference: Despite the low support for the Nobel Prize award itself, a separate poll by AtlasIntel for Bloomberg found that over half of Venezuelans (51.6%) said Machado should lead the country following Nicolás Maduro's capture, indicating a complex view of her political role versus the specific award. This poll highlights that she is considered the country's most popular politician by some metrics in a post-Maduro scenario, even if the Nobel award is viewed skeptically. Complete article
(Video) Drop Site: 🇻🇪 “But Maria Corina Machado is a leader with an out of this world support, and she's got the support from almost every Venezuelan,” the opposition leader’s advisor tells CNN. A survey by Venezuelan firm Hinterlaces in October 2025 found that 91% of Venezuelans hold an unfavorable opinion of María Corina Machado, making her one of the most unpopular political figures in the country. 01/05/2026 A December 2025 national poll by another Venezuelan firm DataViva found 89% of Venezuelans rate their support for María Corina Machado as low or very low, including 61% expressing “strong rejection,” while just 11% report any level of support. The same survey found 80% dismiss the Nobel Peace Prize awarded to Machado as a farce. 90% also were found to oppose any foreign military intervention in Venezuela. // Jim Sciutto: CNN Exclusive: Contradicting Trump’s claim opposition leader #MariaCorinaMachado “doesn’t have the support” to lead Venezuela, her advisor @dsmolansky told me: “I don't have any doubt that she's going to be, with president-elect Edmundo Gonzalez, the leaders of the rebuilding of Venezuela. Obviously, the U.S. is going to be our main allies, and we will have plenty of other allies in Latin America and Europe and beyond. But Maria Corina Machado is a leader with an out of this world support, and she's got the support from almost every Venezuelan.”
The claim that Maria Corina Machado has "got the support from almost every Venezuelan,” is such a bad lie it's almost laughable. Even Donald Trump admitted this wasn't true and if you consider the fact that she supports santions that are devestating the majority of Venezuelians and military action against Venezuela it's easy to understand why the polls saying she's widely disliked are far more credible.
There's also a poll that several sources including Google AI cite claiming she was popular in Venezuela because "93% of the opposition party support her" is equally misleading, since the "Opposition Party" only has the support of a small fraction of Venezuelans, although it has more support from wealthy Venezuelians that have fled to other locations like Miami, since she supports previous regimes that have rigged the economy overwhelmingly for the rich at the expense of the poor.
Public opinion data indicates that a majority of Venezuelan citizens do not support the awarding of the Nobel Peace Prize to María Corina Machado. While she has significant support among the Venezuelan diaspora and specific opposition factions, internal polls show broad disapproval.
Key Findings from Venezuelan Public Opinion
Low Approval Ratings: A survey by Venezuelan firm Hinterlaces in October 2025 found that 91% of Venezuelans hold an unfavorable opinion of María Corina Machado.
Strong Rejection: A December 2025 national poll by DataViva reported that 89% of Venezuelans rate their support for Machado as low or very low, with 61% expressing "strong rejection".
Perception of the Award: The same survey found that 80% of respondents dismissed the Nobel Peace Prize awarded to Machado as a "farce".
Mixed Reactions: Reporting from news agencies, such as the Associated Press, notes that Machado's actions, including her travel abroad to receive the prize, have elicited mixed feelings within the country, with some viewing her alignment with specific foreign powers critically.
Support Base: While overall support is low, rallies in support of her Nobel win and democratic struggle have been reported in cities worldwide with large Venezuelan diaspora communities, such as Madrid, Lima, and Buenos Aires.
Leadership Preference: Despite the low support for the Nobel Prize award itself, a separate poll by AtlasIntel for Bloomberg found that over half of Venezuelans (51.6%) said Machado should lead the country following Nicolás Maduro's capture, indicating a complex view of her political role versus the specific award. This poll highlights that she is considered the country's most popular politician by some metrics in a post-Maduro scenario, even if the Nobel award is viewed skeptically. Complete article
(Video) Drop Site: 🇻🇪 “But Maria Corina Machado is a leader with an out of this world support, and she's got the support from almost every Venezuelan,” the opposition leader’s advisor tells CNN. A survey by Venezuelan firm Hinterlaces in October 2025 found that 91% of Venezuelans hold an unfavorable opinion of María Corina Machado, making her one of the most unpopular political figures in the country. 01/05/2026 A December 2025 national poll by another Venezuelan firm DataViva found 89% of Venezuelans rate their support for María Corina Machado as low or very low, including 61% expressing “strong rejection,” while just 11% report any level of support. The same survey found 80% dismiss the Nobel Peace Prize awarded to Machado as a farce. 90% also were found to oppose any foreign military intervention in Venezuela. // Jim Sciutto: CNN Exclusive: Contradicting Trump’s claim opposition leader #MariaCorinaMachado “doesn’t have the support” to lead Venezuela, her advisor @dsmolansky told me: “I don't have any doubt that she's going to be, with president-elect Edmundo Gonzalez, the leaders of the rebuilding of Venezuela. Obviously, the U.S. is going to be our main allies, and we will have plenty of other allies in Latin America and Europe and beyond. But Maria Corina Machado is a leader with an out of this world support, and she's got the support from almost every Venezuelan.”
The claim that Maria Corina Machado has "got the support from almost every Venezuelan,” is such a bad lie it's almost laughable. Even Donald Trump admitted this wasn't true and if you consider the fact that she supports santions that are devestating the majority of Venezuelians and military action against Venezuela it's easy to understand why the polls saying she's widely disliked are far more credible.
There's also a poll that several sources including Google AI cite claiming she was popular in Venezuela because "93% of the opposition party support her" is equally misleading, since the "Opposition Party" only has the support of a small fraction of Venezuelans, although it has more support from wealthy Venezuelians that have fled to other locations like Miami, since she supports previous regimes that have rigged the economy overwhelmingly for the rich at the expense of the poor.
Is Maria Corina Machado from a wealthy family that previously profited from exploiting poor people in Venezuela? 01/17/2026
Maria Corina Machado comes from a wealthy, influential family, the Machado Zuloagas, who held significant assets in Venezuela, including the steel company Sivensa. Critics argue her family belongs to an elite that historically monopolized wealth, while supporters highlight her background as an industrial engineer and opponent of the government.
Key Details:
Family Background: Her father, Henrique Machado Zuloaga, was a prominent steel industry businessman.
Wealth and Assets: The family was associated with the Machado Zuloaga steel company Sivensa, which was among the largest in the country before its subsidiaries were expropriated by Hugo Chávez in 2010.
Political Context: Machado has been a leading opposition figure against the Socialist governments of Hugo Chávez and Nicolás Maduro for two decades.
Different Perspectives: Supporters see her as a defender of democracy and private enterprise, while critics in the Venezuelan government describe her as part of an elite that exploited the nation's wealth. Complete article
From her decades of support from the United States to her repeated calls for violence against other Venezuelans, there's a lot more to Maria Corina Machado than meets the eye. CODEPINK's Latin America team breaks down the truth about Machado. 01/16/2026
Wikipedia: María Corina Machado Machado was born in Caracas, Venezuela, on 7 October 1967.[7] The eldest of four daughters,[8] her mother Corina Parisca Pérez was a psychologist while her father Henrique Machado Zuloaga was a steel-industry businessman.[9][10] She grew up in a conservative and Catholic family.[11] Machado's great-great-grandfather was Eduardo Blanco, who wrote Venezuela Heroica in 1881.
Opposition Candidate Maria Corina Machado Pledges “Popular Capitalism” 12/26/2011 Maria Corina Machado, possibly the most right-wing conservative voice within the Venezuelan opposition, is the anti-Chavez minority’s only female candidate. Lacking a political party, per se, Machado maintains close ties to the United States and has depended for years on her Washington-based financiers and advisors. Campaigning on a platform of what she calls, ‘Popular Capitalism’, – the same term used by Chilean Dictator Augusto Pinochet and former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher – Machado is widely expected to lose the opposition’s pre-presidential primaries since even those who oppose Chavez’s socialism understand the lack of popular support for speeches promising “more capitalism”. ...... Machado, wrote the Cato Institute’s Hidalgo, “is a breath of fresh air from the usual Venezuelan political discourse that stresses the government’s central role in redistributing the country’s oil riches”. Maria Corina Machado comes from one of Venezuela’s wealthiest families, the Machado Zuloagas, who form part of the nation’s elite class that coveted most of the country’s oil wealth throughout the twentieth century.
Venezuelan fascist Machado wins Nobel ‘peace’ prize 10/13/2025 Hailing from one of the richest families in Venezuela, Machado has long spearheaded fascist violence and imperialist intervention against the Bolivarian revolutionary process that for 25 years has been fighting to control Venezuela’s oil wealth and channel it into poverty-busting social programmes. Machado is the daughter of steel magnate Henrique Machado Zuloaga, the former CEO of the Sivensa steel company whose subsidiaries were nationalised by late Socialist party (PSUV) President Hugo Chavez in 2010. Aligning herself with the Latin American far-right such as Argentina’s Javier Milei and Brazil’s Jair Bolsonaro, Machado has a class interest in sabotaging any project for social justice and the redistribution of wealth in the continent.
Venezuela Lawmaker Mocked by Chavez Seeks to Oust His Successor 02/22/2023 Steel heir María Corina Machado wants to lead the opposition after Guaidó’s flop. .... María Corina Machado, a 55-year-old former lawmaker whose father’s steel company was seized by the late Hugo Chávez, has ridden a surge in popularity to lead a pack of candidates ahead of the Oct. 22 primary vote that will decide who gets to take on President Nicolás Maduro in next year’s elections. To get on the ballot, she needs to convince followers of a fractured coalition dominated by leftist parties that a right-winger who wants to privatize the oil industry is the best person to end the autocratic movement known as Chavismo and revive an economy battered by one of history’s worst recessions.
The Woman Who Took on a Dictator—and Won a Nobel Peace Prize 10/11/2025
Maria Corina Machado comes from a wealthy, influential family, the Machado Zuloagas, who held significant assets in Venezuela, including the steel company Sivensa. Critics argue her family belongs to an elite that historically monopolized wealth, while supporters highlight her background as an industrial engineer and opponent of the government.
Key Details:
Family Background: Her father, Henrique Machado Zuloaga, was a prominent steel industry businessman.
Wealth and Assets: The family was associated with the Machado Zuloaga steel company Sivensa, which was among the largest in the country before its subsidiaries were expropriated by Hugo Chávez in 2010.
Political Context: Machado has been a leading opposition figure against the Socialist governments of Hugo Chávez and Nicolás Maduro for two decades.
Different Perspectives: Supporters see her as a defender of democracy and private enterprise, while critics in the Venezuelan government describe her as part of an elite that exploited the nation's wealth. Complete article
From her decades of support from the United States to her repeated calls for violence against other Venezuelans, there's a lot more to Maria Corina Machado than meets the eye. CODEPINK's Latin America team breaks down the truth about Machado. 01/16/2026
Wikipedia: María Corina Machado Machado was born in Caracas, Venezuela, on 7 October 1967.[7] The eldest of four daughters,[8] her mother Corina Parisca Pérez was a psychologist while her father Henrique Machado Zuloaga was a steel-industry businessman.[9][10] She grew up in a conservative and Catholic family.[11] Machado's great-great-grandfather was Eduardo Blanco, who wrote Venezuela Heroica in 1881.
Opposition Candidate Maria Corina Machado Pledges “Popular Capitalism” 12/26/2011 Maria Corina Machado, possibly the most right-wing conservative voice within the Venezuelan opposition, is the anti-Chavez minority’s only female candidate. Lacking a political party, per se, Machado maintains close ties to the United States and has depended for years on her Washington-based financiers and advisors. Campaigning on a platform of what she calls, ‘Popular Capitalism’, – the same term used by Chilean Dictator Augusto Pinochet and former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher – Machado is widely expected to lose the opposition’s pre-presidential primaries since even those who oppose Chavez’s socialism understand the lack of popular support for speeches promising “more capitalism”. ...... Machado, wrote the Cato Institute’s Hidalgo, “is a breath of fresh air from the usual Venezuelan political discourse that stresses the government’s central role in redistributing the country’s oil riches”. Maria Corina Machado comes from one of Venezuela’s wealthiest families, the Machado Zuloagas, who form part of the nation’s elite class that coveted most of the country’s oil wealth throughout the twentieth century.
Venezuelan fascist Machado wins Nobel ‘peace’ prize 10/13/2025 Hailing from one of the richest families in Venezuela, Machado has long spearheaded fascist violence and imperialist intervention against the Bolivarian revolutionary process that for 25 years has been fighting to control Venezuela’s oil wealth and channel it into poverty-busting social programmes. Machado is the daughter of steel magnate Henrique Machado Zuloaga, the former CEO of the Sivensa steel company whose subsidiaries were nationalised by late Socialist party (PSUV) President Hugo Chavez in 2010. Aligning herself with the Latin American far-right such as Argentina’s Javier Milei and Brazil’s Jair Bolsonaro, Machado has a class interest in sabotaging any project for social justice and the redistribution of wealth in the continent.
Venezuela Lawmaker Mocked by Chavez Seeks to Oust His Successor 02/22/2023 Steel heir María Corina Machado wants to lead the opposition after Guaidó’s flop. .... María Corina Machado, a 55-year-old former lawmaker whose father’s steel company was seized by the late Hugo Chávez, has ridden a surge in popularity to lead a pack of candidates ahead of the Oct. 22 primary vote that will decide who gets to take on President Nicolás Maduro in next year’s elections. To get on the ballot, she needs to convince followers of a fractured coalition dominated by leftist parties that a right-winger who wants to privatize the oil industry is the best person to end the autocratic movement known as Chavismo and revive an economy battered by one of history’s worst recessions.
The Woman Who Took on a Dictator—and Won a Nobel Peace Prize 10/11/2025
Is there any credible evidence showing that Human Rights Groups might be biased in favor of Iran, Venezuela, Palestine or other people opposed by the United States and Israel? 12/15/2025
There is credible evidence in the form of analyses and accusations, particularly from pro-Israel watchdog groups, former employees, and critics, suggesting that some major human rights organizations like Human Rights Watch (HRW) and Amnesty International may exhibit a disproportionate focus and bias against Israel, though there is less public information regarding specific, equivalent biases in favor of countries like Iran and Venezuela.
Allegations Concerning Palestine and Israel
Disproportionate Focus: Critics, including HRW founder Robert Bernstein, have argued that HRW has a disproportionate focus on condemning Israel compared to authoritarian regimes with significantly worse human rights records in the Middle East. The UN Human Rights Council also has a permanent "Agenda Item 7" specifically for the human rights situation in Palestine and other occupied Arab territories, a unique focus not applied to any other country.
Methodology and Omission of Context: Reports by HRW and Amnesty International have been accused of using flawed methodology, relying on data from Hamas-run sources, omitting crucial context such as the affiliation of Palestinian minors to terror organizations, and downplaying or ignoring violence by Palestinian militant groups.
Institutional and Staff Bias: Some former employees have alleged an institutional "anti-Israel" bias. For example, a former senior editor at HRW accused the organization of politicizing its work on the conflict and abandoning principles of fairness. The organization's Middle East staff have also been noted for having activist backgrounds.
Funding Concerns: Concerns have been raised over the organizations' fundraising methods, with one instance involving HRW holding events in Saudi Arabia and allegedly discussing their "battles" with Israel's supporters, which critics argued compromised their integrity.
"Apartheid" and "Genocide" Claims: Both HRW and Amnesty International have published reports defining Israel as an apartheid state and accusing it of genocide in Gaza, which some experts and pro-Israel organizations denounce as using flawed legal analysis and being inherently anti-Israel propaganda that, if implemented, would lead to the elimination of Israel as a Jewish state. Amnesty International even suspended its Israel branch after it criticized the organization's genocide report.
Allegations Concerning Iran and Venezuela
Neglect of Abuses: While the focus has largely been on Israel, some critics have claimed that HRW historically neglected more egregious and systemic abuses in closed societies like Iran and others, instead using resources for campaigns against Israel.
Specific Incitement Issues: In 2012, there was internal debate within HRW regarding whether Iran's alleged calls for the annihilation of Israel constituted a human rights violation, with critics suggesting the organization was downplaying the severity of such statements.
These organizations have consistently and strongly rejected such accusations, arguing that they apply universal human rights standards to all countries equally and that the criticisms often come from campaigns by the Israeli government and its supporters designed to deflect attention from their findings.
For further information on specific criticisms, consider reviewing analyses from organizations like NGO Monitor which often publish data-driven reports on the activities of human rights NGOs. Complete article
Wikipedia: Criticism of Human Rights Watch HRW has been accused of bias against Israel[33][34][35] and having an anti-Israeli agenda.[36][37] ..... On 7 September 2010, it was announced that George Soros planned to donate $100 million to Human Rights Watch.[64]
5 Things You Should Know About Human Rights Watch’s Report on Israel 04/28/2021
Why Amnesty International Suspended Its Israel Branch 01/07/2025 by Elliott Abrams “AI Israel has sought to publicly discredit Amnesty’s human rights research and positions. Its efforts to publicly undermine the findings and recommendations of Amnesty’s 2022 report on Israel’s Apartheid against Palestinians and, more recently, Amnesty’s 2024 report on Israel’s genocide against Palestinians in Gaza, have been deeply prejudicial to Amnesty’s human rights mission, threatening our credibility, integrity and operational coherence." In English, this means that no one is permitted to contradict those biased reports emerging from AI’s headquarters in London. Israelis, in fact Israelis who are part of Amnesty’s network, who live there and might be thought to have greater insight than some nameless staff researcher in London (with God knows what background and biases) should simply shut up—or as we have seen, they are shut down. AI is saying to Israelis that they must accept AI’s version of reality and its biases against Israel, or accept being kicked out of Amnesty. What Amnesty and Human Rights Watch have very much in common, beyond huge size, lots of money, and a deep-seated hostility to Israel, is immunity.
The Double Standard in the Human-Rights World 03/27/2025 Organizations that explicitly valued impartiality and independence have become stridently critical of Israel. By Michael Powell
The UN Human Rights Council is broken 07/26/2023 The most obvious example of bias is the HRC’s disproportionate focus on Israel. Alone among the world’s countries, Israel is subject to a separate item of the HRC agenda: Agenda Item 7, titled “Human rights situation in Palestine and other occupied Arab territories.” Every other human rights situation is examined under Agenda Item 4, titled “Human rights situations that require the Council’s attention.”
Human Rights Watch (HRW) 03/23/2025 Human Rights Watch is a powerful NGO, with a massive budget, close links to Western governments, and significant influence in international institutions. Its publications reflect the absence of professional standards, research methodologies, and military and legal expertise, as well as a deep-seated ideological bias against Israel. ...... On October 7, 2023, in the aftermath of the brutal Hamas attack, HRW Program Director Sari Bashi tweeted, “There’s no honor in unlawful attacks on civilians. No matter how just your resistance to apartheid and oppression is.” In August 2023, HRW published a report titled “West Bank: Spike in Israeli Killings of Palestinian Children,” urging the UN Secretary-General to “list Israel’s armed forces in his annual report on grave violations against children in armed conflict for 2023 as responsible for the violation of killing and maiming Palestinian children.” HRW based its claims on four selected cases of Palestinian minors killed during operations, blatantly omitting their affiliations to terror organizations, including Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ), and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP). (Read NGO Monitor’s report. “HRW Erases the Evidence of Palestinian Minors Involved in Terror.”) In May 2023, following the death of senior PIJ member Khader Adnan after a 86-day-long hunger strike and refusal to receive medical treatment, HRW Israel and Palestine director Omar Shakir tweeted, “Make no mistake: Israel killed Khader Adnan…He never enjoyed a minute of freedom but dies w his head raised high. His resilience wont [sic] be forgotten.”
Far Beyond the Curve: HRWs Bias and Lack of Credibility in 2012 01/30/2013 In November and December, in response to increased violence related to Gaza, the Palestinian statehood bid in the UN General Assembly, and other developments, HRW’s lack of a credible methodology and anti-Israel bias were further evidenced. Disproportionate condemnations of Israeli actions related to Hamas infrastructure erased vital contextual information. And, although HRW issued a statement on Palestinian rocket attacks from Gaza targeting Israeli civilians, this belated publication added no information to the conventional wisdom, and there was no public relations follow-up.
Amnesty International’s deep bias exposed in report on alleged Israeli ‘genocide’ 12/11/2024 The lack of evidence of genocidal intent on Israel’s part is nothing short of an embarrassment for the human rights organization. A report from Amnesty International released last Thursday attempts to show that the Jewish state is guilty of the crime of genocide. Yet in the end, it only exposes the deep biases of its authors, who work hard to turn anodyne statements by Israeli leaders into evidence of the deep and abiding racism that can fuel a genocide.
Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International Have a Problem With Israel 06/17/2016 In 2009, HRW’s founder and longtime chairman, Robert Bernstein, published a New York Times op ed stating HRW simply disregarded fundamental facts in service of its obsessive animus toward Israel. Entitled “Rights Watchdog, Lost in the Mideast,” the piece condemned HRW for distorting facts to fit its anti-Israel focus. “Leaders of Human Rights Watch know that Hamas and Hezbollah choose to wage war from densely populated areas, deliberately transforming neighborhoods into battlefields,” Bernstein wrote. “They know that more and better arms are flowing into both Gaza and Lebanon and are poised to strike again. And they know that this militancy continues to deprive Palestinians of any chance for the peaceful and productive life they deserve. Yet Israel, the repeated victim of aggression, faces the brunt of Human Rights Watch’s criticism.”
Legal experts expose biased research, reliance on terror organizations in Amnesty International report 02/02/2022 "The big challenge would be to find any claims by Amnesty that are defensible from a legal point of view,” one legal expert said. ...... Amnesty’s report almost completely ignores the history of extreme violence directed at Israeli civilians by Palestinian terrorist organizations and ignores Palestinian incitement. What makes this report different than those published by Human Rights Watch and B’Tselem last year is that Amnesty now makes the claim Israel is guilty of apartheid throughout the entire country, and not just in Judea, Samaria and Gaza. It ignores the reality in much of Judea and Samaria where Israelis and Palestinians drive on the same roads, shop in the same stores and eat in the same cafes. The report further ignores the fact that Israel’s Arab citizens sit in the Knesset, are ministers in Israel’s current government and sit as judges on the country’s Supreme Court. Amnesty’s definition of Israel as an apartheid state has been denounced by experts as violating the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s (IHRA) working definition of anti-Semitism. Amnesty’s recommendations to solve the alleged apartheid issue would result in the elimination of Israel since the organization demands a Palestinian “Right of Return.”
NEW: Refuting UNRWA Facts Versus Claims 12/01/2025 UNRWA’s Claim 1: Allegations are not Evidence: UNRWA has not received evidence that 1,400 UNRWA employees have links to Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad. Analysis: In April 2025, the Israeli government revealed that more than 1,400 UNRWA Gaza employees — approximately 12% of its workforce — were members of Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad. The finding was based on verified Israeli intelligence obtained during military operations in Gaza, some of which was declassified and made publicly available online. The released documents included Hamas’s own personnel records: internal recruitment databases, military training rosters, and administrative files. These were cross-referenced with UNRWA’s official staff lists that the agency had previously provided to Israel. UNRWA has completely dismissed this intelligence, asserting that it has not received from Israel or any other UN Member State any “information” or “evidence” supporting the allegation. But whether Israel handed the evidence directly to UNRWA or released it publicly is irrelevant. The evidence exists in the public record, and UNRWA has a duty to act upon it.
" Amnesty International biased NGO watchdog says Amnesty released more documents on Israel than Sudan in 2006" 05/20/2007 Amnesty International has been accused of bias and a disproportionate focus on Israel by a Jerusalem-based NGO watchdog on Sunday. The criticism came ahead of an expected release of an Amnesty annual report on human rights. "For many around the world, Amnesty International is considered to be a highly reliable and objective source of information on human rights," Gerald Steinberg, Executive Director of NGO Monitor told Ynetnews. "However, as NGO Monitor has shown, their clear adoption of one sided political bias, and skewed global views mean Amnesty’s reports and publications need to subject to the same type of independent questioning and analysis as any political or governmental body."
Archive of Evidence of Bias Against Israel by HRW, Amnesty, UNRWA & the UN May 2025
There is credible evidence in the form of analyses and accusations, particularly from pro-Israel watchdog groups, former employees, and critics, suggesting that some major human rights organizations like Human Rights Watch (HRW) and Amnesty International may exhibit a disproportionate focus and bias against Israel, though there is less public information regarding specific, equivalent biases in favor of countries like Iran and Venezuela.
Allegations Concerning Palestine and Israel
Disproportionate Focus: Critics, including HRW founder Robert Bernstein, have argued that HRW has a disproportionate focus on condemning Israel compared to authoritarian regimes with significantly worse human rights records in the Middle East. The UN Human Rights Council also has a permanent "Agenda Item 7" specifically for the human rights situation in Palestine and other occupied Arab territories, a unique focus not applied to any other country.
Methodology and Omission of Context: Reports by HRW and Amnesty International have been accused of using flawed methodology, relying on data from Hamas-run sources, omitting crucial context such as the affiliation of Palestinian minors to terror organizations, and downplaying or ignoring violence by Palestinian militant groups.
Institutional and Staff Bias: Some former employees have alleged an institutional "anti-Israel" bias. For example, a former senior editor at HRW accused the organization of politicizing its work on the conflict and abandoning principles of fairness. The organization's Middle East staff have also been noted for having activist backgrounds.
Funding Concerns: Concerns have been raised over the organizations' fundraising methods, with one instance involving HRW holding events in Saudi Arabia and allegedly discussing their "battles" with Israel's supporters, which critics argued compromised their integrity.
"Apartheid" and "Genocide" Claims: Both HRW and Amnesty International have published reports defining Israel as an apartheid state and accusing it of genocide in Gaza, which some experts and pro-Israel organizations denounce as using flawed legal analysis and being inherently anti-Israel propaganda that, if implemented, would lead to the elimination of Israel as a Jewish state. Amnesty International even suspended its Israel branch after it criticized the organization's genocide report.
Allegations Concerning Iran and Venezuela
Neglect of Abuses: While the focus has largely been on Israel, some critics have claimed that HRW historically neglected more egregious and systemic abuses in closed societies like Iran and others, instead using resources for campaigns against Israel.
Specific Incitement Issues: In 2012, there was internal debate within HRW regarding whether Iran's alleged calls for the annihilation of Israel constituted a human rights violation, with critics suggesting the organization was downplaying the severity of such statements.
These organizations have consistently and strongly rejected such accusations, arguing that they apply universal human rights standards to all countries equally and that the criticisms often come from campaigns by the Israeli government and its supporters designed to deflect attention from their findings.
For further information on specific criticisms, consider reviewing analyses from organizations like NGO Monitor which often publish data-driven reports on the activities of human rights NGOs. Complete article
Wikipedia: Criticism of Human Rights Watch HRW has been accused of bias against Israel[33][34][35] and having an anti-Israeli agenda.[36][37] ..... On 7 September 2010, it was announced that George Soros planned to donate $100 million to Human Rights Watch.[64]
5 Things You Should Know About Human Rights Watch’s Report on Israel 04/28/2021
Why Amnesty International Suspended Its Israel Branch 01/07/2025 by Elliott Abrams “AI Israel has sought to publicly discredit Amnesty’s human rights research and positions. Its efforts to publicly undermine the findings and recommendations of Amnesty’s 2022 report on Israel’s Apartheid against Palestinians and, more recently, Amnesty’s 2024 report on Israel’s genocide against Palestinians in Gaza, have been deeply prejudicial to Amnesty’s human rights mission, threatening our credibility, integrity and operational coherence." In English, this means that no one is permitted to contradict those biased reports emerging from AI’s headquarters in London. Israelis, in fact Israelis who are part of Amnesty’s network, who live there and might be thought to have greater insight than some nameless staff researcher in London (with God knows what background and biases) should simply shut up—or as we have seen, they are shut down. AI is saying to Israelis that they must accept AI’s version of reality and its biases against Israel, or accept being kicked out of Amnesty. What Amnesty and Human Rights Watch have very much in common, beyond huge size, lots of money, and a deep-seated hostility to Israel, is immunity.
The Double Standard in the Human-Rights World 03/27/2025 Organizations that explicitly valued impartiality and independence have become stridently critical of Israel. By Michael Powell
The UN Human Rights Council is broken 07/26/2023 The most obvious example of bias is the HRC’s disproportionate focus on Israel. Alone among the world’s countries, Israel is subject to a separate item of the HRC agenda: Agenda Item 7, titled “Human rights situation in Palestine and other occupied Arab territories.” Every other human rights situation is examined under Agenda Item 4, titled “Human rights situations that require the Council’s attention.”
Human Rights Watch (HRW) 03/23/2025 Human Rights Watch is a powerful NGO, with a massive budget, close links to Western governments, and significant influence in international institutions. Its publications reflect the absence of professional standards, research methodologies, and military and legal expertise, as well as a deep-seated ideological bias against Israel. ...... On October 7, 2023, in the aftermath of the brutal Hamas attack, HRW Program Director Sari Bashi tweeted, “There’s no honor in unlawful attacks on civilians. No matter how just your resistance to apartheid and oppression is.” In August 2023, HRW published a report titled “West Bank: Spike in Israeli Killings of Palestinian Children,” urging the UN Secretary-General to “list Israel’s armed forces in his annual report on grave violations against children in armed conflict for 2023 as responsible for the violation of killing and maiming Palestinian children.” HRW based its claims on four selected cases of Palestinian minors killed during operations, blatantly omitting their affiliations to terror organizations, including Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ), and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP). (Read NGO Monitor’s report. “HRW Erases the Evidence of Palestinian Minors Involved in Terror.”) In May 2023, following the death of senior PIJ member Khader Adnan after a 86-day-long hunger strike and refusal to receive medical treatment, HRW Israel and Palestine director Omar Shakir tweeted, “Make no mistake: Israel killed Khader Adnan…He never enjoyed a minute of freedom but dies w his head raised high. His resilience wont [sic] be forgotten.”
Far Beyond the Curve: HRWs Bias and Lack of Credibility in 2012 01/30/2013 In November and December, in response to increased violence related to Gaza, the Palestinian statehood bid in the UN General Assembly, and other developments, HRW’s lack of a credible methodology and anti-Israel bias were further evidenced. Disproportionate condemnations of Israeli actions related to Hamas infrastructure erased vital contextual information. And, although HRW issued a statement on Palestinian rocket attacks from Gaza targeting Israeli civilians, this belated publication added no information to the conventional wisdom, and there was no public relations follow-up.
Amnesty International’s deep bias exposed in report on alleged Israeli ‘genocide’ 12/11/2024 The lack of evidence of genocidal intent on Israel’s part is nothing short of an embarrassment for the human rights organization. A report from Amnesty International released last Thursday attempts to show that the Jewish state is guilty of the crime of genocide. Yet in the end, it only exposes the deep biases of its authors, who work hard to turn anodyne statements by Israeli leaders into evidence of the deep and abiding racism that can fuel a genocide.
Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International Have a Problem With Israel 06/17/2016 In 2009, HRW’s founder and longtime chairman, Robert Bernstein, published a New York Times op ed stating HRW simply disregarded fundamental facts in service of its obsessive animus toward Israel. Entitled “Rights Watchdog, Lost in the Mideast,” the piece condemned HRW for distorting facts to fit its anti-Israel focus. “Leaders of Human Rights Watch know that Hamas and Hezbollah choose to wage war from densely populated areas, deliberately transforming neighborhoods into battlefields,” Bernstein wrote. “They know that more and better arms are flowing into both Gaza and Lebanon and are poised to strike again. And they know that this militancy continues to deprive Palestinians of any chance for the peaceful and productive life they deserve. Yet Israel, the repeated victim of aggression, faces the brunt of Human Rights Watch’s criticism.”
Legal experts expose biased research, reliance on terror organizations in Amnesty International report 02/02/2022 "The big challenge would be to find any claims by Amnesty that are defensible from a legal point of view,” one legal expert said. ...... Amnesty’s report almost completely ignores the history of extreme violence directed at Israeli civilians by Palestinian terrorist organizations and ignores Palestinian incitement. What makes this report different than those published by Human Rights Watch and B’Tselem last year is that Amnesty now makes the claim Israel is guilty of apartheid throughout the entire country, and not just in Judea, Samaria and Gaza. It ignores the reality in much of Judea and Samaria where Israelis and Palestinians drive on the same roads, shop in the same stores and eat in the same cafes. The report further ignores the fact that Israel’s Arab citizens sit in the Knesset, are ministers in Israel’s current government and sit as judges on the country’s Supreme Court. Amnesty’s definition of Israel as an apartheid state has been denounced by experts as violating the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s (IHRA) working definition of anti-Semitism. Amnesty’s recommendations to solve the alleged apartheid issue would result in the elimination of Israel since the organization demands a Palestinian “Right of Return.”
NEW: Refuting UNRWA Facts Versus Claims 12/01/2025 UNRWA’s Claim 1: Allegations are not Evidence: UNRWA has not received evidence that 1,400 UNRWA employees have links to Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad. Analysis: In April 2025, the Israeli government revealed that more than 1,400 UNRWA Gaza employees — approximately 12% of its workforce — were members of Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad. The finding was based on verified Israeli intelligence obtained during military operations in Gaza, some of which was declassified and made publicly available online. The released documents included Hamas’s own personnel records: internal recruitment databases, military training rosters, and administrative files. These were cross-referenced with UNRWA’s official staff lists that the agency had previously provided to Israel. UNRWA has completely dismissed this intelligence, asserting that it has not received from Israel or any other UN Member State any “information” or “evidence” supporting the allegation. But whether Israel handed the evidence directly to UNRWA or released it publicly is irrelevant. The evidence exists in the public record, and UNRWA has a duty to act upon it.
" Amnesty International biased NGO watchdog says Amnesty released more documents on Israel than Sudan in 2006" 05/20/2007 Amnesty International has been accused of bias and a disproportionate focus on Israel by a Jerusalem-based NGO watchdog on Sunday. The criticism came ahead of an expected release of an Amnesty annual report on human rights. "For many around the world, Amnesty International is considered to be a highly reliable and objective source of information on human rights," Gerald Steinberg, Executive Director of NGO Monitor told Ynetnews. "However, as NGO Monitor has shown, their clear adoption of one sided political bias, and skewed global views mean Amnesty’s reports and publications need to subject to the same type of independent questioning and analysis as any political or governmental body."
Archive of Evidence of Bias Against Israel by HRW, Amnesty, UNRWA & the UN May 2025
What if any Human Rights organizations are funded by Israel, the USA or their allies? 12/16/2025
Numerous humanitarian and development organizations receive funding from the US and its allies, often focusing on aid delivery,, civil society support, or specific regional projects, including in Israel and the Palestinian territories. Key, often government-backed, entities include the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), USAID, and various NGOs like Mercy Corps.
U.S./Ally Funded Organizations: USAID frequently funds NGOs operating in the region, with $36.7 million earmarked for projects in the West Bank and Gaza since 2021.
Israeli-Backed Initiatives: The Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) is backed by both the U.S. and Israel to distribute aid.
NGOs Receiving Foreign Aid: Organizations such as Magen David Adom (Red Shield) and the Foundation for the Welfare of Holocaust Victims in Israel receive significant philanthropic funding from US donors.
Targeted Organizations: In 2025, the U.S. State Department sanctioned specific NGOs—Al Haq, Al Mezan Center for Human Rights, and the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights (PCHR)—for their efforts to involve the International Criminal Court (ICC) in investigating Israeli nationals.
Controversy and Oversight: Some U.S.-funded NGOs have faced scrutiny regarding their focus, with Republican committees investigating USAID funding to certain Israeli and American NGOs.
Many international aid organizations, while often critical of Israeli policies, also operate with funding that may pass through or be supported by Western allies, including Oxfam, Save the Children, and the Norwegian Refugee Council. Complete article
US-funded NGOs Praising Terror, Harming US Companies, and Supporting the ICC 01/21/2025 According to usaspending.gov – an official website tracking Federal spending – USAID has earmarked $36.7 million for Mercy Corps projects in the West Bank and Gaza since 2021, beyond the $9 million project in 2022.
Humanitarian Aid in Gaza: What’s Really Happening 08/28/2025 How is aid being delivered in Gaza? Humanitarian aid in Gaza is currently delivered through two main channels: traditional international efforts, primarily led by the UN, and the newly established Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), which is backed by the U.S. and secured by Israel. GHF operates “Secure Distribution Sites” in southern and central Gaza with logistical support from Israel and oversight by international partners. These sites are designed to bypass Hamas entirely—unlike UN operations, which often have relied on or coordinated with Hamas-affiliated entities. Aid at GHF sites is delivered directly to civilians, without Hamas involvement, under tight security. However, as of June 2025, GHF can feed only about half of Gaza’s population, which is why maintaining the UN’s parallel mechanism—despite vulnerability to Hamas interference—remains essential.
Sanctioning Foreign NGOs Directly Engaged in ICC’s Illegitimate Targeting of Israel 09/04/2026 Marco Rubio, Secretary of State Today, I am designating three foreign NGOs—Al Haq, Al Mezan Center for Human Rights (Al Mezan), and the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights (PCHR)—pursuant to Executive Order 14203, “Imposing Sanctions on the International Criminal Court.” These entities have directly engaged in efforts by the International Criminal Court (ICC) to investigate, arrest, detain, or prosecute Israeli nationals, without Israel’s consent. (Imagine if they were targeting someone like Charles Manson or Gary Ridgeway without Charles Manson or Gary Ridgeways consent.)
More than 250 humanitarian and human rights organisations call to stop arms transfers to Israel and Palestinian armed groups 04/12/2024
The Biden-Harris Administration’s Funding of Anti-Netanyahu NonGovernmental Organizations 07/17/2025
US giving to Israeli nonprofits – how much Jews and Christians donate and where the money goes 04/19/2023 Billions donated a year. Israeli nonprofits amassed US$35.3 billion in total income in 2015, roughly $45 billion in 2023 dollars, from all sources. That total included revenue like university tuition and concert ticket sales, as well as $4.4 billion – roughly $5.6 billion in 2023 dollars – in donations from all sources, foreign and domestic. Donations from outside Israel accounted for $2.8 billion of those gifts, about two-thirds of this kind of funding. We analyzed Guidestar’s database of nonprofit tax records to identify U.S. organizations sending money to Israel. Israeli nonprofits, such as Magen David Adom, or Red Shield – Israel’s equivalent to the Red Cross and Red Crescent – and the Foundation for the Welfare of Holocaust Victims, rely on foreign donors for more than half of their philanthropic funding.
Al Jazeera English: Why the US and Israel are pushing to privatize aid to Gaza | The Take 05/27/2025
Wikipedia: Israel lobby in the United States The American foreign-policy scholars John Mearsheimer and Stephen Walt (of the University of Chicago and Harvard University, respectively), focusing almost exclusively on Jewish groups, define the core of the lobby to include AIPAC, the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, the Anti-Defamation League and Christians United for Israel.[35] Other key organizations which they state work to benefit Israel, in many cases by influencing American foreign policy, include the American Jewish Congress, the Zionist Organization of America, the Israel Policy Forum, the American Jewish Committee, the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism, Americans for a Safe Israel, American Friends of Likud, Mercaz-USA, and Hadassah.[36] Fifty-one of the largest and most important come together in the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, whose self-described mission includes "forging diverse groups into a unified force for Israel's well-being" and working to "strengthen and foster the special US-Israel relationship."[37]
Numerous humanitarian and development organizations receive funding from the US and its allies, often focusing on aid delivery,, civil society support, or specific regional projects, including in Israel and the Palestinian territories. Key, often government-backed, entities include the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), USAID, and various NGOs like Mercy Corps.
U.S./Ally Funded Organizations: USAID frequently funds NGOs operating in the region, with $36.7 million earmarked for projects in the West Bank and Gaza since 2021.
Israeli-Backed Initiatives: The Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) is backed by both the U.S. and Israel to distribute aid.
NGOs Receiving Foreign Aid: Organizations such as Magen David Adom (Red Shield) and the Foundation for the Welfare of Holocaust Victims in Israel receive significant philanthropic funding from US donors.
Targeted Organizations: In 2025, the U.S. State Department sanctioned specific NGOs—Al Haq, Al Mezan Center for Human Rights, and the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights (PCHR)—for their efforts to involve the International Criminal Court (ICC) in investigating Israeli nationals.
Controversy and Oversight: Some U.S.-funded NGOs have faced scrutiny regarding their focus, with Republican committees investigating USAID funding to certain Israeli and American NGOs.
Many international aid organizations, while often critical of Israeli policies, also operate with funding that may pass through or be supported by Western allies, including Oxfam, Save the Children, and the Norwegian Refugee Council. Complete article
US-funded NGOs Praising Terror, Harming US Companies, and Supporting the ICC 01/21/2025 According to usaspending.gov – an official website tracking Federal spending – USAID has earmarked $36.7 million for Mercy Corps projects in the West Bank and Gaza since 2021, beyond the $9 million project in 2022.
Humanitarian Aid in Gaza: What’s Really Happening 08/28/2025 How is aid being delivered in Gaza? Humanitarian aid in Gaza is currently delivered through two main channels: traditional international efforts, primarily led by the UN, and the newly established Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), which is backed by the U.S. and secured by Israel. GHF operates “Secure Distribution Sites” in southern and central Gaza with logistical support from Israel and oversight by international partners. These sites are designed to bypass Hamas entirely—unlike UN operations, which often have relied on or coordinated with Hamas-affiliated entities. Aid at GHF sites is delivered directly to civilians, without Hamas involvement, under tight security. However, as of June 2025, GHF can feed only about half of Gaza’s population, which is why maintaining the UN’s parallel mechanism—despite vulnerability to Hamas interference—remains essential.
Sanctioning Foreign NGOs Directly Engaged in ICC’s Illegitimate Targeting of Israel 09/04/2026 Marco Rubio, Secretary of State Today, I am designating three foreign NGOs—Al Haq, Al Mezan Center for Human Rights (Al Mezan), and the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights (PCHR)—pursuant to Executive Order 14203, “Imposing Sanctions on the International Criminal Court.” These entities have directly engaged in efforts by the International Criminal Court (ICC) to investigate, arrest, detain, or prosecute Israeli nationals, without Israel’s consent. (Imagine if they were targeting someone like Charles Manson or Gary Ridgeway without Charles Manson or Gary Ridgeways consent.)
More than 250 humanitarian and human rights organisations call to stop arms transfers to Israel and Palestinian armed groups 04/12/2024
The Biden-Harris Administration’s Funding of Anti-Netanyahu NonGovernmental Organizations 07/17/2025
US giving to Israeli nonprofits – how much Jews and Christians donate and where the money goes 04/19/2023 Billions donated a year. Israeli nonprofits amassed US$35.3 billion in total income in 2015, roughly $45 billion in 2023 dollars, from all sources. That total included revenue like university tuition and concert ticket sales, as well as $4.4 billion – roughly $5.6 billion in 2023 dollars – in donations from all sources, foreign and domestic. Donations from outside Israel accounted for $2.8 billion of those gifts, about two-thirds of this kind of funding. We analyzed Guidestar’s database of nonprofit tax records to identify U.S. organizations sending money to Israel. Israeli nonprofits, such as Magen David Adom, or Red Shield – Israel’s equivalent to the Red Cross and Red Crescent – and the Foundation for the Welfare of Holocaust Victims, rely on foreign donors for more than half of their philanthropic funding.
Al Jazeera English: Why the US and Israel are pushing to privatize aid to Gaza | The Take 05/27/2025
Wikipedia: Israel lobby in the United States The American foreign-policy scholars John Mearsheimer and Stephen Walt (of the University of Chicago and Harvard University, respectively), focusing almost exclusively on Jewish groups, define the core of the lobby to include AIPAC, the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, the Anti-Defamation League and Christians United for Israel.[35] Other key organizations which they state work to benefit Israel, in many cases by influencing American foreign policy, include the American Jewish Congress, the Zionist Organization of America, the Israel Policy Forum, the American Jewish Committee, the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism, Americans for a Safe Israel, American Friends of Likud, Mercaz-USA, and Hadassah.[36] Fifty-one of the largest and most important come together in the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, whose self-described mission includes "forging diverse groups into a unified force for Israel's well-being" and working to "strengthen and foster the special US-Israel relationship."[37]
Human Rights reports on Venezuela before Chavez took power and after, including when Maduro was in power. 12/18/2025
Human rights reports on Venezuela indicate a significant deterioration over the past three decades, shifting from a democracy with serious but localized police abuses in the 1990s to a system characterized by systematic, state-sponsored repression and crimes against humanity under Nicolás Maduro. Reports from the UN, OAS, and NGOs highlight a "sliding" effect, where power concentration during the Chavez era created the infrastructure for the intense, systematic crackdown observed during the Maduro administration.
Pre-Chavez (Before 1999)
Reports from the 1990s, particularly around 1998–1999, portrayed a democratic state with a poor human rights record in specific areas, largely related to police behavior rather than a top-down, centralized policy of repression.
Extrajudicial Killings: PROVEA documented over 100 extrajudicial killings annually in the late 1990s, with most attributed to state and municipal police forces acting with impunity.
Police Brutality: Humiliating treatment and beatings of suspects by law enforcement and military were common.
The "Caracazo" (1989): A major event often cited in reports where security forces killed over 250 people (with some estimates higher) during protests against economic reforms.
Impunity: A weak judicial system resulted in few convictions for police or military abuses.
Hugo Chávez (1999–2013)
Human Rights Watch (HRW) and other organizations reported a gradual erosion of democratic checks and balances, leading to the concentration of power in the executive branch.
Political Discrimination: Defining feature of this era, including the use of the "Tascón List" to discriminate against citizens who signed a petition against Chávez, affecting their employment and access to public services.
Judicial Takeover: Following the 2002 coup attempt, the government packed the Supreme Court with loyalists in 2004, effectively neutralizing it as a check on executive power.
Media Harassment: Regular attacks on independent media outlets through threats, fines, and non-renewal of licenses, encouraging self-censorship.
Expulsion of NGOs: In 2008, the government expelled the HRW Americas Director after the publication of a report on human rights violations.
Nicolás Maduro (2013–Present)
Under Maduro, reports detail a massive escalation from political persecution to systemic, systematic repression, including crimes against humanity.
Crimes Against Humanity: The UN Independent International Fact-Finding Mission (FFM) found reasonable grounds to believe that Venezuelan authorities have committed crimes against humanity since 2014, including extrajudicial executions, torture, and arbitrary detentions.
"Operation Tun Tun": The regime implemented "Operation Knock Knock," involving raids without warrants by paramilitary "colectivos" and intelligence services (SEBIN/DGCIM) against perceived opponents.
Torture and Detention: Detainees report severe torture methods including asphyxiation, electric shocks, sexual violence, and sleep deprivation.
2024 Election Repression: Post-July 2024 election reports show a new milestone in repression, with over 1,900 political prisoners added to the existing total, including dozens of adolescents.
Judicial and Electoral Control: The judiciary has been used to ban opposition candidates, intervene in opposition parties, and validate electoral results disputed by international bodies.
Humanitarian Crisis: The country's economic collapse, often exacerbated by policy, has caused 7.9 million migrants/refugees to flee, with many facing trafficking risks.
Complete article
Wikipedia: Human rights in Venezuela According to the Human Rights Watch report of 2017, under the leadership of President Hugo Chávez and now President Nicolás Maduro, the accumulation of power in the executive branch and erosion of human rights guarantees have enabled the government to intimidate, persecute, and even criminally prosecute its critics.[4] The report added that other persistent concerns include poor prison conditions, impunity for human rights violations, and continuous harassment by government officials of human rights defenders and independent media outlets.[4] The report continues that in 2016, the Bolivarian National Intelligence Service (SEBIN) detained dozens of people on allegations of planning, promoting, or participating in violent anti-government actions, including some that were, in fact, peaceful protests. Many say they have been tortured or otherwise abused in custody, or that they were unable to see their families or lawyers for hours, occasionally days, after an arrest. In several cases, prosecutors failed to present any credible evidence linking the accused to crimes.
Venezuela 1999 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices There were no reports of targeted political killings; however, the security forces continued to commit extrajudicial killings, primarily of criminal suspects. The Venezuelan Program of Action and Education in Human Rights (PROVEA), a highly respected nongovernmental human rights organization, documented 101 extrajudicial killings from October 1998 through September 1999, compared with 104 from October 1997 to September 1998. The killings involved summary executions of criminal suspects, indiscriminate or excessive use of force, and death resulting from mistreatment while in custody. According to PROVEA, the state police forces were responsible for 44 of the killings; the Metropolitan Police, 11; the PTJ, 5; the national guard, 5; the municipal police forces, 13; the armed forces, 15; the DISIP, 2; and other security forces, 6. These figures reflect a range of killings in very different situations committed by organizations with varying levels of control and responsibilities. The majority of the killings were attributed to various state and municipal police forces that report to local officials and usually have little training or supervision. The perpetrators of extrajudicial killings act with near impunity, as the Government rarely prosecutes such cases.
Venezuela: Background and U.S. Relations 12/06/2022
Venezuela: Section 1. Respect for the Integrity of the Person April 2022 Media and NGOs reported that beatings and humiliating treatment of suspects during arrests were common and involved various law enforcement agencies and the military controlled by the Maduro regime. Cases of torture and other cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment or punishment of prisoners were also reported during the year. Regime-aligned authorities reportedly subjected detainees to asphyxiation, electric shock, broken bones, being hung by their limbs, and being forced to spend hours on their knees. Detainees were also subjected to cold temperatures, sensory deprivation, and sleep deprivation; remained handcuffed for extended periods of time; and received death threats to themselves and their relatives. Detainees reported regime-aligned security forces moved them from detention centers to houses and other clandestine locations where abuse took place. Cruel treatment frequently involved Maduro regime authorities denying prisoners medical care and holding them for long periods in solitary confinement. The latter practice was most prevalent with political prisoners. NGOs detailed reports from detainees who were victims of sexual and gender-based violence by security units.
Amnesty International: Venezuela: 2024 Between 28 July and 1 August, immediately after the presidential election, at least 24 people died as a result of the government’s repression of protests against the appointment of Nicolás Maduro. Most of these killings could amount to extrajudicial executions. Two of the victims were children and one police officer was reportedly killed. All but one of the deaths resulted from gunshot wounds. Human rights organizations pointed at the Bolivarian National Guard, Bolivarian National Police, army and pro-government civilian armed groups known as “colectivos” as the perpetrators of these killings.
2024 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices: Venezuela The human rights situation in Venezuela significantly worsened. Throughout the year, and particularly after the July 28 presidential election, Nicolás Maduro and his representatives engaged in serious human rights abuses, reaching “a new milestone in the degradation of the rule of law” after the election, according to the UN Independent International Fact-Finding Mission on the country in September. Significant human rights issues included credible reports of: arbitrary or unlawful killings; disappearances; torture or cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment or punishment; arbitrary arrest or detention; transnational repression against individuals in another country; unlawful recruitment or use of children by Maduro-supported groups in armed conflict; serious restrictions on freedom of expression and media freedom, including violence or threats of violence against journalists, unjustified arrests or prosecutions of journalists, and censorship; trafficking in persons, including forced labor; prohibiting independent trade unions or significant or systematic restrictions on workers’ freedom of association; violence or threats against labor activists or union members; and significant presence of any of the worst forms of child labor.
Venezuela’s National Guard linked to killings, torture and repression, UN probe finds 12/11/2025 Venezuela’s Bolivarian National Guard (GNB) has been implicated in a decade-long pattern of killings, arbitrary detentions, torture and sexual violence targeting protesters and opponents of President Nicolás Maduro, according to a new report from UN-appointed investigators on Thursday.
A Decade Under Chávez 09/18/2008 Political Intolerance and Lost Opportunities for Advancing Human Rights in Venezuela.
IACHR publishes report on human rights violations following the elections in Venezuela 01/07/2025 Washington, DC—The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) has released its new report, Venezuela: Serious Human Rights Violations Following the Elections. The report analyzes the three stages of the Venezuelan regime’s repressive strategy to suppress the participation of the opposition in politics; prevent the possibility of free, fair, competitive, transparent elections; and instill fear among the population to maintain its hold on power.
Venezuela: Rights Suffer Under Chávez 09/18/2008 Political Discrimination and Weakened Institutions Define Presidency ..... The Chávez government has pursued an aggressively adversarial approach to local rights advocates and civil society organizations. During the Chávez presidency, rights advocates have faced prosecutorial harassment, unsubstantiated allegations aimed at discrediting their work, and efforts to exclude them from international forums and restrict their access to international funding. The report provides detailed recommendations to the Venezuelan government to reverse the damage done by its policies and to strengthen the country’s human rights protections. These include seeking to restore the credibility of the Supreme Court through a ratification process for all justices who were appointed after the 2004 court-packing law and establishing a new autonomous agency to administer broadcasting frequencies. “Chávez has actively sought to project himself as a champion of democracy, not only in Venezuela, but throughout the region,” the report observes. However, “Venezuela will not achieve real and sustained progress toward strengthening its democracy – nor serve as a useful model for other countries in the region – so long as its government continues to flout the human rights principles enshrined in its own constitution.”
VENEZUELA 2012 HUMAN RIGHTS REPORT
Venezuela: Country Reports on Human Rights Practices - 2001 03/04/2002
Venezuela: Events of 2024 Following the announcement of election results, thousands of protesters took to the streets in largely peaceful protests to demand a fair counting of the votes. People, including in low-income areas traditionally supportive of Chavismo—the political movement created by the late president, Hugo Chávez—protested in large numbers. Authorities responded with violence and widespread abuses, including killings, arbitrary detention and prosecution, and harassment of critics. Human Rights Watch received credible reports of 23 killings of protesters and bystanders and identified evidence linking security forces and pro-government armed groups known as “colectivos” with several of these killings. The local pro bono group Foro Penal, reported over 1,900 “political prisoners” who have been arrested since July 29, including 42 adolescents, aged 14 to 17, who remained behind bars by the end of November. These arrests contribute to a total of 17,882 politically motivated arrests since 2014, according to Foro Penal.
Venezuela: Political Crisis and U.S. Policy 09/30/2025 UN agencies estimated there were some 7.9 million Venezuelan refugees and migrants globally in December 2024. As of May 2025, some 6.9 million of those resided in Latin American and Caribbean countries. Venezuelan refugees and migrants reportedly face obstacles accessing job opportunities and health care services; they may be vulnerable to human trafficking and other abuses. U.S. Policy The U.S. government ceased recognizing Maduro as Venezuela's legitimate president in January 2019 and recognizes the democratically elected, opposition-controlled 2015 National Assembly as "the only legitimate branch of the Government of Venezuela"; most of its members are in exile. From January 2019 through its dissolution in December 2022, the 2015 National Assembly backed an interim government led by its former speaker, Juan Guaidó. The Guaidó government received U.S. and international recognition but never exerted power in Venezuela. The U.S. government recognizes Edmundo González as the "rightful president" of Venezuela.
VENEZUELA: Serious human rights violations in connection with the elections 12/27/2024
Amnesty International: Venezuela: Human Rights under Threat May 2004
McCain Institute: Venezuela’s Systematic Human Rights Violations: A Puzzle for the International Community 10/30/2020
Human Rights Watch: Venezuela: Events of 2019 In early January 2019, Juan Guaidó, the National Assembly president, asked Venezuelans to mobilize in support of restoring constitutional order in the country. On January 23, hundreds of thousands poured into the streets. During the protest, Guaidó claimed that he was taking power as interim president of Venezuela and said that he would call for free and fair elections. More than 50 countries have since expressed support for Guaidó. The country remained at a political impasse at time of writing. No independent government institutions remain today in Venezuela to act as a check on executive power. A series of measures by the Maduro and Chávez administrations stacked the courts with judges who make no pretense of independence. The government has been repressing dissent through often-violent crackdowns on street protests, jailing opponents, and prosecuting civilians in military courts. It has also stripped power from the opposition-led legislature. In September, the UN Human Rights Council adopted a resolution creating the first international investigative mechanism into atrocities committed in Venezuela. Severe shortages of medicines, medical supplies, and food leave many Venezuelans unable to feed their families adequately or access essential healthcare. The massive exodus of Venezuelans fleeing repression and shortages is the largest migration crisis in recent Latin American history. Other persistent concerns include brutal policing practices, poor prison conditions, impunity for human rights violations, and harassment by government officials of human rights defenders and independent media outlets.
Venezuela Beyond Elections – Cracking Authoritarianism Through Human Rights 10/16/2024
Human rights reports on Venezuela indicate a significant deterioration over the past three decades, shifting from a democracy with serious but localized police abuses in the 1990s to a system characterized by systematic, state-sponsored repression and crimes against humanity under Nicolás Maduro. Reports from the UN, OAS, and NGOs highlight a "sliding" effect, where power concentration during the Chavez era created the infrastructure for the intense, systematic crackdown observed during the Maduro administration.
Pre-Chavez (Before 1999)
Reports from the 1990s, particularly around 1998–1999, portrayed a democratic state with a poor human rights record in specific areas, largely related to police behavior rather than a top-down, centralized policy of repression.
Extrajudicial Killings: PROVEA documented over 100 extrajudicial killings annually in the late 1990s, with most attributed to state and municipal police forces acting with impunity.
Police Brutality: Humiliating treatment and beatings of suspects by law enforcement and military were common.
The "Caracazo" (1989): A major event often cited in reports where security forces killed over 250 people (with some estimates higher) during protests against economic reforms.
Impunity: A weak judicial system resulted in few convictions for police or military abuses.
Hugo Chávez (1999–2013)
Human Rights Watch (HRW) and other organizations reported a gradual erosion of democratic checks and balances, leading to the concentration of power in the executive branch.
Political Discrimination: Defining feature of this era, including the use of the "Tascón List" to discriminate against citizens who signed a petition against Chávez, affecting their employment and access to public services.
Judicial Takeover: Following the 2002 coup attempt, the government packed the Supreme Court with loyalists in 2004, effectively neutralizing it as a check on executive power.
Media Harassment: Regular attacks on independent media outlets through threats, fines, and non-renewal of licenses, encouraging self-censorship.
Expulsion of NGOs: In 2008, the government expelled the HRW Americas Director after the publication of a report on human rights violations.
Nicolás Maduro (2013–Present)
Under Maduro, reports detail a massive escalation from political persecution to systemic, systematic repression, including crimes against humanity.
Crimes Against Humanity: The UN Independent International Fact-Finding Mission (FFM) found reasonable grounds to believe that Venezuelan authorities have committed crimes against humanity since 2014, including extrajudicial executions, torture, and arbitrary detentions.
"Operation Tun Tun": The regime implemented "Operation Knock Knock," involving raids without warrants by paramilitary "colectivos" and intelligence services (SEBIN/DGCIM) against perceived opponents.
Torture and Detention: Detainees report severe torture methods including asphyxiation, electric shocks, sexual violence, and sleep deprivation.
2024 Election Repression: Post-July 2024 election reports show a new milestone in repression, with over 1,900 political prisoners added to the existing total, including dozens of adolescents.
Judicial and Electoral Control: The judiciary has been used to ban opposition candidates, intervene in opposition parties, and validate electoral results disputed by international bodies.
Humanitarian Crisis: The country's economic collapse, often exacerbated by policy, has caused 7.9 million migrants/refugees to flee, with many facing trafficking risks.
Complete article
Wikipedia: Human rights in Venezuela According to the Human Rights Watch report of 2017, under the leadership of President Hugo Chávez and now President Nicolás Maduro, the accumulation of power in the executive branch and erosion of human rights guarantees have enabled the government to intimidate, persecute, and even criminally prosecute its critics.[4] The report added that other persistent concerns include poor prison conditions, impunity for human rights violations, and continuous harassment by government officials of human rights defenders and independent media outlets.[4] The report continues that in 2016, the Bolivarian National Intelligence Service (SEBIN) detained dozens of people on allegations of planning, promoting, or participating in violent anti-government actions, including some that were, in fact, peaceful protests. Many say they have been tortured or otherwise abused in custody, or that they were unable to see their families or lawyers for hours, occasionally days, after an arrest. In several cases, prosecutors failed to present any credible evidence linking the accused to crimes.
Venezuela 1999 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices There were no reports of targeted political killings; however, the security forces continued to commit extrajudicial killings, primarily of criminal suspects. The Venezuelan Program of Action and Education in Human Rights (PROVEA), a highly respected nongovernmental human rights organization, documented 101 extrajudicial killings from October 1998 through September 1999, compared with 104 from October 1997 to September 1998. The killings involved summary executions of criminal suspects, indiscriminate or excessive use of force, and death resulting from mistreatment while in custody. According to PROVEA, the state police forces were responsible for 44 of the killings; the Metropolitan Police, 11; the PTJ, 5; the national guard, 5; the municipal police forces, 13; the armed forces, 15; the DISIP, 2; and other security forces, 6. These figures reflect a range of killings in very different situations committed by organizations with varying levels of control and responsibilities. The majority of the killings were attributed to various state and municipal police forces that report to local officials and usually have little training or supervision. The perpetrators of extrajudicial killings act with near impunity, as the Government rarely prosecutes such cases.
Venezuela: Background and U.S. Relations 12/06/2022
Venezuela: Section 1. Respect for the Integrity of the Person April 2022 Media and NGOs reported that beatings and humiliating treatment of suspects during arrests were common and involved various law enforcement agencies and the military controlled by the Maduro regime. Cases of torture and other cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment or punishment of prisoners were also reported during the year. Regime-aligned authorities reportedly subjected detainees to asphyxiation, electric shock, broken bones, being hung by their limbs, and being forced to spend hours on their knees. Detainees were also subjected to cold temperatures, sensory deprivation, and sleep deprivation; remained handcuffed for extended periods of time; and received death threats to themselves and their relatives. Detainees reported regime-aligned security forces moved them from detention centers to houses and other clandestine locations where abuse took place. Cruel treatment frequently involved Maduro regime authorities denying prisoners medical care and holding them for long periods in solitary confinement. The latter practice was most prevalent with political prisoners. NGOs detailed reports from detainees who were victims of sexual and gender-based violence by security units.
Amnesty International: Venezuela: 2024 Between 28 July and 1 August, immediately after the presidential election, at least 24 people died as a result of the government’s repression of protests against the appointment of Nicolás Maduro. Most of these killings could amount to extrajudicial executions. Two of the victims were children and one police officer was reportedly killed. All but one of the deaths resulted from gunshot wounds. Human rights organizations pointed at the Bolivarian National Guard, Bolivarian National Police, army and pro-government civilian armed groups known as “colectivos” as the perpetrators of these killings.
2024 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices: Venezuela The human rights situation in Venezuela significantly worsened. Throughout the year, and particularly after the July 28 presidential election, Nicolás Maduro and his representatives engaged in serious human rights abuses, reaching “a new milestone in the degradation of the rule of law” after the election, according to the UN Independent International Fact-Finding Mission on the country in September. Significant human rights issues included credible reports of: arbitrary or unlawful killings; disappearances; torture or cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment or punishment; arbitrary arrest or detention; transnational repression against individuals in another country; unlawful recruitment or use of children by Maduro-supported groups in armed conflict; serious restrictions on freedom of expression and media freedom, including violence or threats of violence against journalists, unjustified arrests or prosecutions of journalists, and censorship; trafficking in persons, including forced labor; prohibiting independent trade unions or significant or systematic restrictions on workers’ freedom of association; violence or threats against labor activists or union members; and significant presence of any of the worst forms of child labor.
Venezuela’s National Guard linked to killings, torture and repression, UN probe finds 12/11/2025 Venezuela’s Bolivarian National Guard (GNB) has been implicated in a decade-long pattern of killings, arbitrary detentions, torture and sexual violence targeting protesters and opponents of President Nicolás Maduro, according to a new report from UN-appointed investigators on Thursday.
A Decade Under Chávez 09/18/2008 Political Intolerance and Lost Opportunities for Advancing Human Rights in Venezuela.
IACHR publishes report on human rights violations following the elections in Venezuela 01/07/2025 Washington, DC—The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) has released its new report, Venezuela: Serious Human Rights Violations Following the Elections. The report analyzes the three stages of the Venezuelan regime’s repressive strategy to suppress the participation of the opposition in politics; prevent the possibility of free, fair, competitive, transparent elections; and instill fear among the population to maintain its hold on power.
Venezuela: Rights Suffer Under Chávez 09/18/2008 Political Discrimination and Weakened Institutions Define Presidency ..... The Chávez government has pursued an aggressively adversarial approach to local rights advocates and civil society organizations. During the Chávez presidency, rights advocates have faced prosecutorial harassment, unsubstantiated allegations aimed at discrediting their work, and efforts to exclude them from international forums and restrict their access to international funding. The report provides detailed recommendations to the Venezuelan government to reverse the damage done by its policies and to strengthen the country’s human rights protections. These include seeking to restore the credibility of the Supreme Court through a ratification process for all justices who were appointed after the 2004 court-packing law and establishing a new autonomous agency to administer broadcasting frequencies. “Chávez has actively sought to project himself as a champion of democracy, not only in Venezuela, but throughout the region,” the report observes. However, “Venezuela will not achieve real and sustained progress toward strengthening its democracy – nor serve as a useful model for other countries in the region – so long as its government continues to flout the human rights principles enshrined in its own constitution.”
VENEZUELA 2012 HUMAN RIGHTS REPORT
Venezuela: Country Reports on Human Rights Practices - 2001 03/04/2002
Venezuela: Events of 2024 Following the announcement of election results, thousands of protesters took to the streets in largely peaceful protests to demand a fair counting of the votes. People, including in low-income areas traditionally supportive of Chavismo—the political movement created by the late president, Hugo Chávez—protested in large numbers. Authorities responded with violence and widespread abuses, including killings, arbitrary detention and prosecution, and harassment of critics. Human Rights Watch received credible reports of 23 killings of protesters and bystanders and identified evidence linking security forces and pro-government armed groups known as “colectivos” with several of these killings. The local pro bono group Foro Penal, reported over 1,900 “political prisoners” who have been arrested since July 29, including 42 adolescents, aged 14 to 17, who remained behind bars by the end of November. These arrests contribute to a total of 17,882 politically motivated arrests since 2014, according to Foro Penal.
Venezuela: Political Crisis and U.S. Policy 09/30/2025 UN agencies estimated there were some 7.9 million Venezuelan refugees and migrants globally in December 2024. As of May 2025, some 6.9 million of those resided in Latin American and Caribbean countries. Venezuelan refugees and migrants reportedly face obstacles accessing job opportunities and health care services; they may be vulnerable to human trafficking and other abuses. U.S. Policy The U.S. government ceased recognizing Maduro as Venezuela's legitimate president in January 2019 and recognizes the democratically elected, opposition-controlled 2015 National Assembly as "the only legitimate branch of the Government of Venezuela"; most of its members are in exile. From January 2019 through its dissolution in December 2022, the 2015 National Assembly backed an interim government led by its former speaker, Juan Guaidó. The Guaidó government received U.S. and international recognition but never exerted power in Venezuela. The U.S. government recognizes Edmundo González as the "rightful president" of Venezuela.
VENEZUELA: Serious human rights violations in connection with the elections 12/27/2024
Amnesty International: Venezuela: Human Rights under Threat May 2004
McCain Institute: Venezuela’s Systematic Human Rights Violations: A Puzzle for the International Community 10/30/2020
Human Rights Watch: Venezuela: Events of 2019 In early January 2019, Juan Guaidó, the National Assembly president, asked Venezuelans to mobilize in support of restoring constitutional order in the country. On January 23, hundreds of thousands poured into the streets. During the protest, Guaidó claimed that he was taking power as interim president of Venezuela and said that he would call for free and fair elections. More than 50 countries have since expressed support for Guaidó. The country remained at a political impasse at time of writing. No independent government institutions remain today in Venezuela to act as a check on executive power. A series of measures by the Maduro and Chávez administrations stacked the courts with judges who make no pretense of independence. The government has been repressing dissent through often-violent crackdowns on street protests, jailing opponents, and prosecuting civilians in military courts. It has also stripped power from the opposition-led legislature. In September, the UN Human Rights Council adopted a resolution creating the first international investigative mechanism into atrocities committed in Venezuela. Severe shortages of medicines, medical supplies, and food leave many Venezuelans unable to feed their families adequately or access essential healthcare. The massive exodus of Venezuelans fleeing repression and shortages is the largest migration crisis in recent Latin American history. Other persistent concerns include brutal policing practices, poor prison conditions, impunity for human rights violations, and harassment by government officials of human rights defenders and independent media outlets.
Venezuela Beyond Elections – Cracking Authoritarianism Through Human Rights 10/16/2024
Violence Against Minors in Police Detention June-July 1990
Amnesty International, Torture in the Eighties; 01/01/1984
“More than a human can bear”: Israel's systematic use of sexual, reproductive and other forms of gender-based violence since 7 October 2023 03/13/2025
Center of the Storm: A Case Study of Human Rights Abuses in Hebron District 04/01/2001
Human Rights Report Israel arrests and abuse of children 12/17/2025
Human rights organizations and UN bodies have consistently reported on the widespread and systematic abuse, arbitrary arrests, and degrading treatment of Palestinian children in Israeli military detention. Reports indicate that hundreds of children are detained annually, often for offenses like stone-throwing, which can carry severe penalties under Israeli military law.
Key Findings from Human Rights Reports:
Prevalence of Abuse: Reports from organizations like Save the Children and Defense for Children International-Palestine (DCIP) indicate that most detained Palestinian children experience physical and emotional abuse.
Methods of Abuse:
Physical Violence: A 2023 Save the Children report found that 86% of surveyed former child detainees were beaten in detention, and 42% were injured during arrest, including with gunshot wounds or broken bones.
Strip Searches and Sexual Violence: 69% of children reported being strip-searched, with some accounts of sexual violence and abuse during the process or interrogation.
Solitary Confinement: 60% of children experienced solitary confinement, a practice considered a prohibited tactic of repression, for varying lengths of time.
Verbal Abuse and Intimidation: 58% of children reported verbal abuse, humiliation, or intimidation.
Detention Conditions and Procedures:
Night Arrests: 59% of arrests occur at night, often involving soldiers removing children from their homes.
Lack of Legal Protections: Children are often denied access to a lawyer or family member during interrogation (97% in one study), are not informed of the reason for their arrest (86%), and are often coerced into signing confessions in Hebrew, a language many do not understand.
Denial of Basic Needs: Detainees have reported being denied adequate food, water, and access to a toilet, and suffering from a lack of healthcare, leading to the spread of diseases like scabies in overcrowded facilities.
Systemic Issues: Israel is the only country that systematically prosecutes minors in military courts, a practice human rights organizations argue violates international law, including the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child which Israel has ratified.
Human rights bodies, including UN special rapporteurs, have repeatedly called on Israeli authorities to implement practical changes to end these practices. Complete article
Report of the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territories occupied since 1967, Francesca Albanese 10/20/2023
Israel prosecutes between 500 and 700 Palestinian children in military courts each year. 2025 Israel has the dubious distinction of being the only country in the world that automatically and systematically prosecutes children in military courts that lack fundamental fair trial rights and protections. Israel prosecutes between 500 and 700 Palestinian children in military courts each year. Since 2000, Israeli military authorities have detained, interrogated, prosecuted, and imprisoned approximately 13,000 Palestinian children, according to estimates by DCIP. Ill-treatment in the Israeli military detention system remains “widespread, systematic, and institutionalized throughout the process,” according to the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) report Children in Israeli Military Detention Observations and Recommendations. An average of 263 Palestinian children aged 12-17 years old were detained by Israeli authorities at any one time between January 2016 and September 2020, based on data released by the Israel Prison Service (IPS). During this period, an average of 51 young Palestinian children (12-15) were detained.
Israel breaking international laws by imprisoning Palestinian minors 02/28/2025
Palestinian children incarcerated at higher rate, abuses routine 07/18/2017 The universal and absolute prohibition against torture enshrined in international law means that no child shall be subjected to torture or other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment.
Palestinian Children Abused in Israeli Detention: NGO 07/11/2025 Palestinian minors arrested by Israeli forces face immense emotional and physical abuse, according to the rights group Save the Children, which has revealed the tragedy minors go through as detainees in a new report.
Stripped, beaten and blindfolded: new research reveals ongoing violence and abuse of Palestinian children detained by Israeli military 07/10/2025 Ramallah, 10 July – Palestinian children in the Israel military detention system face physical and emotional abuse, with four out of five (86%) of them being beaten, and 69% strip-searched, according to new research by Save the Children. Nearly half (42%) are injured at the point of arrest, including gunshot wounds and broken bones. Some report violence of a sexual nature and some are transferred to court or between detention centres in small cages, the child rights organisation said. The new research comes as the UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territories occupied since 1967 presents evidence today to the Human Rights Council on Palestinian children in detention. It is estimated that there are between 500 and 1000 children held in Israeli military detention each year.
Stripped, beaten and blindfolded: new research reveals ongoing violence and abuse of Palestinian children detained by Israeli military 07/10/2025
Physical abuse, infectious disease spreading as conditions for Palestinian children in Israeli military detention deteriorate 07/22/2024 Since the beginning of the war Israeli forces have detained more than 9,400 Palestinians from the West Bank in addition to thousands other from Gaza whose exact numbers are not confirmed. We know from our latest research before the war that most children in the military detention system face appalling emotional and physical abuse, including 86% of them reporting being beaten by Israeli authorities in detention, and 69% reporting having experienced sexual violence and abuse. A 2022 research by Save the Children found that children in Israeli prisons are routinely denied their right to contact with their families at every stage of the detention process. Save the Children research in 2020, 2022 and 2023 found alarming levels of abuse and ill-treatment of Palestinian children held in the Israeli military detention system, echoing findings from UNICEF and Palestinian organisations.
“They placed me inside a closed box with no windows”: Palestinian children subjected to torture and ill-treatment by Israeli forces 09/26/2024 “The treatment in Megiddo Prison is very bad. The prison guards treat us like animals in cages, provide us with insufficient food of poor quality and insult us,” said Wesam. “In my section and throughout other sections, many diseases have spread, mostly scabies; a skin disease that causes intense itching. Because of this disease, all those infected were placed in one room and given ointment in small amounts that were not enough. When we asked for more ointment, they would beat and insult us,” he added. The Commission of Detainees and Ex-Detainees Affairs reported that Palestinian children in this section are suffering from a widespread outbreak of scabies, primarily caused by a lack of access to sanitation and clean clothing. As a result, infections are worsening daily, and the children are being deprived of necessary medications and treatment.
Physical abuse, infectious disease spreading as conditions for Palestinian children in Israeli military detention deteriorate 07/22/2024 RAMALLAH, 22 July 2024 - Palestinian children in Israeli-run prisons have told Save the Children of facing increasing starvation, abuse including sexual violence, with conditions deteriorating markedly since the start of the war last October including a rise in infectious diseases like scabies. Israel is the only country in the world that systematically prosecutes children in military courts. On Friday 19 July, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) delivered an Advisory Opinion declaring the State of Israel's continued presence in the occupied Palestinian territory unlawful, directly challenging the legal status of Israeli policies and practices related to military detention.
Israel: Security Forces Abuse Palestinian Children 07/19/2015 Human Rights Watch interviewed four boys, ages 11, 12, and 15, from different neighborhoods of East Jerusalem, and a 14-year-old girl and 15-year-old boy from elsewhere in the West Bank, whom Israeli forces arrested or detained in separate incidents for allegedly throwing rocks from March to December 2014. They and their parents gave accounts of abuses during arrest and interrogation that caused the children pain, fear, and ongoing anxiety. Human Rights Watch has seen photos and marks on the body of one of the children, consistent with the accounts he and his parents had given; the children’s accounts were also consistent with each other.
Palestinian minors arrested by Israel ‘suffer abuse’ 10/25/2017 Israeli authorities, however, have managed to escape accountability because of their caution to make sure the practices remain technically within legal provisions, the groups said. For example, taking advantage of loopholes in Israeli law that allow using violence during interrogation, officers can physically and emotionally harm minors, which more often than not – 83 percent, according to the joint study – results in the minors signing confessions. Eighty percent of these confessions were in Hebrew, a language the minors did not understand, according to the groups. Israel’s policy, the report states, allows authorities to “continue this maltreatment of Palestinian minors while shrouding in a cloak of legality a systematic and well-documented abuse of the fundamental human rights of hundreds of minors … for decades”. International organisations, including UNICEF, have also in the past highlighted the ill-treatment of Palestinian minors in Israeli military detention, which they termed as being “widespread, systematic and institutionalised”.
Palestinian children abused in Israeli detention: NGO 07/10/2023 Some of the abuses are sexual in nature, in addition to being beaten, handcuffed and blindfolded, a report says. ...... Former detainee accounts Osama Arabi, a former detainee who is now 44 years old, said he was strip-searched when he was arrested as a minor. “I did not understand what they were searching for. They didn’t say. It was humiliating; it made me very angry,” Osama, who was arrested as a 14-year-old, told Al Jazeera. Save the Children said these practices are a serious and longstanding human rights concern and called for the government of Israel to end the detention of Palestinian children under military law and their prosecution in military courts. Khalil, who was arrested when he was 13, said he did not receive essential healthcare. Save the Children quoted him as saying: “I had an injury in my leg. I had a cast and had to crawl to be able to move. I felt my body being torn apart. I had no canes to help me walk, I kept asking soldiers for help during the transfer, but no one helped me.” Country director Lee said: “Our research shows – once again – that they [Palestinian children] are subject to serious and widespread abuse at the hands of those who are meant to be looking after them.”
Childhood in captivity: Palestinian children arbitrarily detained in Israeli prisons 07/26/2023
Palestine: Israeli Police Abusing Detained Children 04/11/2016 (Jerusalem) – Israeli security forces are abusing Palestinian children detained in the West Bank. The number of Palestinian children arrested by Israeli forces has more than doubled since October 2015.
UN Commission finds war crimes and crimes against humanity in Israeli attacks on Gaza health facilities and treatment of detainees, hostages 10/10/2024
The Treatment of Detained Palestinian Children by the Israeli Authorities November 2001
2023 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices: Israel, West Bank and Gaza Late 2023 if not 2024
Palestinian children in Israeli military detention report increasingly violent conditions 02/29/2024
Human rights organizations and UN bodies have consistently reported on the widespread and systematic abuse, arbitrary arrests, and degrading treatment of Palestinian children in Israeli military detention. Reports indicate that hundreds of children are detained annually, often for offenses like stone-throwing, which can carry severe penalties under Israeli military law.
Key Findings from Human Rights Reports:
Prevalence of Abuse: Reports from organizations like Save the Children and Defense for Children International-Palestine (DCIP) indicate that most detained Palestinian children experience physical and emotional abuse.
Methods of Abuse:
Physical Violence: A 2023 Save the Children report found that 86% of surveyed former child detainees were beaten in detention, and 42% were injured during arrest, including with gunshot wounds or broken bones.
Strip Searches and Sexual Violence: 69% of children reported being strip-searched, with some accounts of sexual violence and abuse during the process or interrogation.
Solitary Confinement: 60% of children experienced solitary confinement, a practice considered a prohibited tactic of repression, for varying lengths of time.
Verbal Abuse and Intimidation: 58% of children reported verbal abuse, humiliation, or intimidation.
Detention Conditions and Procedures:
Night Arrests: 59% of arrests occur at night, often involving soldiers removing children from their homes.
Lack of Legal Protections: Children are often denied access to a lawyer or family member during interrogation (97% in one study), are not informed of the reason for their arrest (86%), and are often coerced into signing confessions in Hebrew, a language many do not understand.
Denial of Basic Needs: Detainees have reported being denied adequate food, water, and access to a toilet, and suffering from a lack of healthcare, leading to the spread of diseases like scabies in overcrowded facilities.
Systemic Issues: Israel is the only country that systematically prosecutes minors in military courts, a practice human rights organizations argue violates international law, including the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child which Israel has ratified.
Human rights bodies, including UN special rapporteurs, have repeatedly called on Israeli authorities to implement practical changes to end these practices. Complete article
Report of the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territories occupied since 1967, Francesca Albanese 10/20/2023
Israel prosecutes between 500 and 700 Palestinian children in military courts each year. 2025 Israel has the dubious distinction of being the only country in the world that automatically and systematically prosecutes children in military courts that lack fundamental fair trial rights and protections. Israel prosecutes between 500 and 700 Palestinian children in military courts each year. Since 2000, Israeli military authorities have detained, interrogated, prosecuted, and imprisoned approximately 13,000 Palestinian children, according to estimates by DCIP. Ill-treatment in the Israeli military detention system remains “widespread, systematic, and institutionalized throughout the process,” according to the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) report Children in Israeli Military Detention Observations and Recommendations. An average of 263 Palestinian children aged 12-17 years old were detained by Israeli authorities at any one time between January 2016 and September 2020, based on data released by the Israel Prison Service (IPS). During this period, an average of 51 young Palestinian children (12-15) were detained.
Israel breaking international laws by imprisoning Palestinian minors 02/28/2025
Palestinian children incarcerated at higher rate, abuses routine 07/18/2017 The universal and absolute prohibition against torture enshrined in international law means that no child shall be subjected to torture or other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment.
Palestinian Children Abused in Israeli Detention: NGO 07/11/2025 Palestinian minors arrested by Israeli forces face immense emotional and physical abuse, according to the rights group Save the Children, which has revealed the tragedy minors go through as detainees in a new report.
Stripped, beaten and blindfolded: new research reveals ongoing violence and abuse of Palestinian children detained by Israeli military 07/10/2025 Ramallah, 10 July – Palestinian children in the Israel military detention system face physical and emotional abuse, with four out of five (86%) of them being beaten, and 69% strip-searched, according to new research by Save the Children. Nearly half (42%) are injured at the point of arrest, including gunshot wounds and broken bones. Some report violence of a sexual nature and some are transferred to court or between detention centres in small cages, the child rights organisation said. The new research comes as the UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territories occupied since 1967 presents evidence today to the Human Rights Council on Palestinian children in detention. It is estimated that there are between 500 and 1000 children held in Israeli military detention each year.
Stripped, beaten and blindfolded: new research reveals ongoing violence and abuse of Palestinian children detained by Israeli military 07/10/2025
Physical abuse, infectious disease spreading as conditions for Palestinian children in Israeli military detention deteriorate 07/22/2024 Since the beginning of the war Israeli forces have detained more than 9,400 Palestinians from the West Bank in addition to thousands other from Gaza whose exact numbers are not confirmed. We know from our latest research before the war that most children in the military detention system face appalling emotional and physical abuse, including 86% of them reporting being beaten by Israeli authorities in detention, and 69% reporting having experienced sexual violence and abuse. A 2022 research by Save the Children found that children in Israeli prisons are routinely denied their right to contact with their families at every stage of the detention process. Save the Children research in 2020, 2022 and 2023 found alarming levels of abuse and ill-treatment of Palestinian children held in the Israeli military detention system, echoing findings from UNICEF and Palestinian organisations.
“They placed me inside a closed box with no windows”: Palestinian children subjected to torture and ill-treatment by Israeli forces 09/26/2024 “The treatment in Megiddo Prison is very bad. The prison guards treat us like animals in cages, provide us with insufficient food of poor quality and insult us,” said Wesam. “In my section and throughout other sections, many diseases have spread, mostly scabies; a skin disease that causes intense itching. Because of this disease, all those infected were placed in one room and given ointment in small amounts that were not enough. When we asked for more ointment, they would beat and insult us,” he added. The Commission of Detainees and Ex-Detainees Affairs reported that Palestinian children in this section are suffering from a widespread outbreak of scabies, primarily caused by a lack of access to sanitation and clean clothing. As a result, infections are worsening daily, and the children are being deprived of necessary medications and treatment.
Physical abuse, infectious disease spreading as conditions for Palestinian children in Israeli military detention deteriorate 07/22/2024 RAMALLAH, 22 July 2024 - Palestinian children in Israeli-run prisons have told Save the Children of facing increasing starvation, abuse including sexual violence, with conditions deteriorating markedly since the start of the war last October including a rise in infectious diseases like scabies. Israel is the only country in the world that systematically prosecutes children in military courts. On Friday 19 July, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) delivered an Advisory Opinion declaring the State of Israel's continued presence in the occupied Palestinian territory unlawful, directly challenging the legal status of Israeli policies and practices related to military detention.
Israel: Security Forces Abuse Palestinian Children 07/19/2015 Human Rights Watch interviewed four boys, ages 11, 12, and 15, from different neighborhoods of East Jerusalem, and a 14-year-old girl and 15-year-old boy from elsewhere in the West Bank, whom Israeli forces arrested or detained in separate incidents for allegedly throwing rocks from March to December 2014. They and their parents gave accounts of abuses during arrest and interrogation that caused the children pain, fear, and ongoing anxiety. Human Rights Watch has seen photos and marks on the body of one of the children, consistent with the accounts he and his parents had given; the children’s accounts were also consistent with each other.
Palestinian minors arrested by Israel ‘suffer abuse’ 10/25/2017 Israeli authorities, however, have managed to escape accountability because of their caution to make sure the practices remain technically within legal provisions, the groups said. For example, taking advantage of loopholes in Israeli law that allow using violence during interrogation, officers can physically and emotionally harm minors, which more often than not – 83 percent, according to the joint study – results in the minors signing confessions. Eighty percent of these confessions were in Hebrew, a language the minors did not understand, according to the groups. Israel’s policy, the report states, allows authorities to “continue this maltreatment of Palestinian minors while shrouding in a cloak of legality a systematic and well-documented abuse of the fundamental human rights of hundreds of minors … for decades”. International organisations, including UNICEF, have also in the past highlighted the ill-treatment of Palestinian minors in Israeli military detention, which they termed as being “widespread, systematic and institutionalised”.
Palestinian children abused in Israeli detention: NGO 07/10/2023 Some of the abuses are sexual in nature, in addition to being beaten, handcuffed and blindfolded, a report says. ...... Former detainee accounts Osama Arabi, a former detainee who is now 44 years old, said he was strip-searched when he was arrested as a minor. “I did not understand what they were searching for. They didn’t say. It was humiliating; it made me very angry,” Osama, who was arrested as a 14-year-old, told Al Jazeera. Save the Children said these practices are a serious and longstanding human rights concern and called for the government of Israel to end the detention of Palestinian children under military law and their prosecution in military courts. Khalil, who was arrested when he was 13, said he did not receive essential healthcare. Save the Children quoted him as saying: “I had an injury in my leg. I had a cast and had to crawl to be able to move. I felt my body being torn apart. I had no canes to help me walk, I kept asking soldiers for help during the transfer, but no one helped me.” Country director Lee said: “Our research shows – once again – that they [Palestinian children] are subject to serious and widespread abuse at the hands of those who are meant to be looking after them.”
Childhood in captivity: Palestinian children arbitrarily detained in Israeli prisons 07/26/2023
Palestine: Israeli Police Abusing Detained Children 04/11/2016 (Jerusalem) – Israeli security forces are abusing Palestinian children detained in the West Bank. The number of Palestinian children arrested by Israeli forces has more than doubled since October 2015.
UN Commission finds war crimes and crimes against humanity in Israeli attacks on Gaza health facilities and treatment of detainees, hostages 10/10/2024
The Treatment of Detained Palestinian Children by the Israeli Authorities November 2001
2023 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices: Israel, West Bank and Gaza Late 2023 if not 2024
Palestinian children in Israeli military detention report increasingly violent conditions 02/29/2024
Did Jonathan Greenblatt call for people critical of Israel to be banned or censored on Social Media? 01/08/2026
Jonathan Greenblatt, CEO of the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), has repeatedly called for social media companies to remove what he defines as "anti-Israel" and "antisemitic" content, though the ADL states these calls have not included an outright ban of entire platforms.
Specific actions and statements by Greenblatt and the ADL include:
Calling for Removal of Anti-Zionist Content Greenblatt has stated that social media companies should "knock the anti-Zionists off the platform once and for all". He views anti-Zionism as an ideology rooted in rage and comparable to white supremacy.
Advocating for Content Moderation The ADL consistently argues that social media platforms are "falling far too short when it comes to moderating antisemitic and anti-Israel content". They have encouraged platforms like X (formerly Twitter) to suspend accounts using phrases like "from the river to the sea" or calling for the "decolonization" of Israel, which the ADL classifies as calls for extreme violence.
Supporting Legislation Greenblatt has backed legislation like the proposed STOP HATE Act, a bipartisan bill intended to hold tech platforms accountable for hosting terrorist and extremist content, which critics argue could censor legitimate criticism of Israel.
Defining "Antisemitism" Broadly The ADL has expanded its methodology to include language expressing "opposition to Zionism" within its categorization of antisemitic incidents.
Concerns about Youth/TikTok In a leaked audio recording, Greenblatt expressed concern about declining support for Israel among young people, stating, "We have a TikTok problem, a Gen-Z problem". This comment has been cited by those who believe the push to ban or regulate TikTok is linked to a desire to suppress pro-Palestinian viewpoints.
While Greenblatt has not typically called for an outright ban of entire social media platforms, he has been a prominent voice in pushing for stricter moderation and removal of specific users and content he deems hateful or harmful to Israel and the Jewish community. Complete article
ADL-Backed Bipartisan Bill Threatens to Censor Israel Criticism on Social Media 07/25/2025 The bill’s lead sponsors described it as part of an effort to prevent antisemitic hate. But their comments during a press conference on the measure suggest it will also target critics of Israel.
TikTok Exposed Youth to Genocide in Gaza — Is That Why Electeds Want It Banned? 04/11/2024 Vocal proponents of a TikTok ban are among the top recipients of donations from the pro-Israeli lobby group AIPAC. ...... In claiming that TikTok is fueling “anti-Israel” and “pro-Hamas” content, elected officials are aligned with major Zionist organizations. Last fall, Jonathan Greenblatt, president of the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), was recorded saying, “we really have a TikTok problem, a Gen-Z problem,” and groups like the Jewish Federations of North America and the Republican Jewish Coalition have applauded the TikTok ban.
XX 01/0/2026 So blinkered is Greenblatt’s view, though, that it is only criticism of brutal Israeli acts, not the acts themselves, that could promote a violent response from observers abroad. The logical conclusion of Greenblatt’s claim is that anything but silence on or support for Israel’s actions is not only antisemitic, but also produces the conditions for violence against Jewish people in the United States. Through Greenblatt, the ADL has backed the McCarthyite repression of campus protests and pro-Palestinian campus speech, praising overreaching crackdowns by university administrators and the government. Meanwhile, the Trump administration is continuing its campaign to cage and deport students and graduates who express criticism of the Israeli regime. Though Greenblatt marginally backtracked and called for more “transparency,” the ADL’s first reaction to Mahmoud Khalil’s kidnapping by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents for his constitutionally protected speech was one of support: “We appreciate the Trump Administration’s broad, bold set of efforts to counter campus antisemitism.”
Anti-Defamation League staff decry ‘dishonest’ campaign against Israel critics 01/04/2024 Sophie Ellman-Golan, spokesperson for Jews for Racial and Economic Justice, believes that the ADL is responding to the rise of a progressive Jewish left that cuts into space the group has historically occupied. .... “Jonathan was encouraged by Elon’s tweet saying that clear calls for extreme violence against the Jewish state, such as those calling for ‘decolonization’ of Israel or saying ‘from the river to the sea’ are a violation of the platform’s terms of service and will result in suspension,” the ADL spokesperson said. “This is the right approach – and Elon has laid down a gauntlet that other social media companies should follow.”
The mainstream media is finally asking some tough questions about the Anti-Defamation League 08/13/2025 “Anti-Zionism as an ideology is rooted in rage,” Greenblatt told the ADL’s annual leadership summit in 2022. “It is predicated on one concept: the negation of another people, a concept as alien to the modern discourse as white supremacy. It requires a willful denial of even a superficial history of Judaism and the vast history of the Jewish people. And, when an idea is born out of such shocking intolerance, it leads to, well, shocking acts.”
Tehran cooked up a conspiracy theory blaming Israel for US TikTok ban 05/05/2024 “We really have a TikTok problem, a Gen Z problem,” Anti-Defamation League (ADL) director Jonathan Greenblatt said in a recording. He notes that Israel is facing a “major generational problem” in the United States and that “the numbers of young people who think that Hamas’, you know, massacre was justified is shockingly and terrifyingly high.” ...... On March 20, the ADL issued a statement confirming the authenticity of the recording. The statement adds that the comments were made “during a public Zoom call.” The ADL and Greenblatt himself have previously called on social media platforms to introduce more robust mechanisms for countering hate and harassment. The recent statement from the organization concludes, “These calls-to-action have not included an outright ban of the platform.”
Targeting TikTok to block exposure of Israeli crimes Ramadan 08, 1445 03/19/2024 He is leading the charge on behalf of his favorite country—yes, you guessed it right, Israel (not the US). There is a two-pronged attack against TikTok: legislation in Congress to ban it, and the second to buy it outright. Congressional legislation will face a court challenge based on First Amendment rights. If the company can be bought, it will put it under direct zionist control, like Facebook and other US-based media platforms.
Jonathan Greenblatt, the CEO of the pro-Israel lobby Anti-Defamation League (ADL), calls for strict censorship on social media platforms like X, Instagram, and TikTok. He says it's time for the companies to 'knock the anti-Zionists off the platform once and for all.' June 2025
Bacon, Gottheimer, ADL Announce Legislation to Combat Terrorists & Disinformation on Social Media 07/24/2025 “The world’s oldest hate is crossing borders and going viral. One of the main drivers supercharging the global rise in antisemitism is the unregulated proliferation of extremists online who are looking to seed divisions among us and drive hate,” said Jonathan Greenblatt, ADL CEO and National Director. “Today’s extremists exploit social media to recruit, radicalize, and incite violence – often in violation of these platforms’ own terms of service. As antisemitism and hate surge to record levels, the STOP HATE Act is a vital bipartisan bill that will hold tech platforms accountable for hosting terrorist and extremist content.
Jonathan Greenblatt, CEO of the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), has repeatedly called for social media companies to remove what he defines as "anti-Israel" and "antisemitic" content, though the ADL states these calls have not included an outright ban of entire platforms.
Specific actions and statements by Greenblatt and the ADL include:
Calling for Removal of Anti-Zionist Content Greenblatt has stated that social media companies should "knock the anti-Zionists off the platform once and for all". He views anti-Zionism as an ideology rooted in rage and comparable to white supremacy.
Advocating for Content Moderation The ADL consistently argues that social media platforms are "falling far too short when it comes to moderating antisemitic and anti-Israel content". They have encouraged platforms like X (formerly Twitter) to suspend accounts using phrases like "from the river to the sea" or calling for the "decolonization" of Israel, which the ADL classifies as calls for extreme violence.
Supporting Legislation Greenblatt has backed legislation like the proposed STOP HATE Act, a bipartisan bill intended to hold tech platforms accountable for hosting terrorist and extremist content, which critics argue could censor legitimate criticism of Israel.
Defining "Antisemitism" Broadly The ADL has expanded its methodology to include language expressing "opposition to Zionism" within its categorization of antisemitic incidents.
Concerns about Youth/TikTok In a leaked audio recording, Greenblatt expressed concern about declining support for Israel among young people, stating, "We have a TikTok problem, a Gen-Z problem". This comment has been cited by those who believe the push to ban or regulate TikTok is linked to a desire to suppress pro-Palestinian viewpoints.
While Greenblatt has not typically called for an outright ban of entire social media platforms, he has been a prominent voice in pushing for stricter moderation and removal of specific users and content he deems hateful or harmful to Israel and the Jewish community. Complete article
ADL-Backed Bipartisan Bill Threatens to Censor Israel Criticism on Social Media 07/25/2025 The bill’s lead sponsors described it as part of an effort to prevent antisemitic hate. But their comments during a press conference on the measure suggest it will also target critics of Israel.
TikTok Exposed Youth to Genocide in Gaza — Is That Why Electeds Want It Banned? 04/11/2024 Vocal proponents of a TikTok ban are among the top recipients of donations from the pro-Israeli lobby group AIPAC. ...... In claiming that TikTok is fueling “anti-Israel” and “pro-Hamas” content, elected officials are aligned with major Zionist organizations. Last fall, Jonathan Greenblatt, president of the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), was recorded saying, “we really have a TikTok problem, a Gen-Z problem,” and groups like the Jewish Federations of North America and the Republican Jewish Coalition have applauded the TikTok ban.
XX 01/0/2026 So blinkered is Greenblatt’s view, though, that it is only criticism of brutal Israeli acts, not the acts themselves, that could promote a violent response from observers abroad. The logical conclusion of Greenblatt’s claim is that anything but silence on or support for Israel’s actions is not only antisemitic, but also produces the conditions for violence against Jewish people in the United States. Through Greenblatt, the ADL has backed the McCarthyite repression of campus protests and pro-Palestinian campus speech, praising overreaching crackdowns by university administrators and the government. Meanwhile, the Trump administration is continuing its campaign to cage and deport students and graduates who express criticism of the Israeli regime. Though Greenblatt marginally backtracked and called for more “transparency,” the ADL’s first reaction to Mahmoud Khalil’s kidnapping by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents for his constitutionally protected speech was one of support: “We appreciate the Trump Administration’s broad, bold set of efforts to counter campus antisemitism.”
Anti-Defamation League staff decry ‘dishonest’ campaign against Israel critics 01/04/2024 Sophie Ellman-Golan, spokesperson for Jews for Racial and Economic Justice, believes that the ADL is responding to the rise of a progressive Jewish left that cuts into space the group has historically occupied. .... “Jonathan was encouraged by Elon’s tweet saying that clear calls for extreme violence against the Jewish state, such as those calling for ‘decolonization’ of Israel or saying ‘from the river to the sea’ are a violation of the platform’s terms of service and will result in suspension,” the ADL spokesperson said. “This is the right approach – and Elon has laid down a gauntlet that other social media companies should follow.”
The mainstream media is finally asking some tough questions about the Anti-Defamation League 08/13/2025 “Anti-Zionism as an ideology is rooted in rage,” Greenblatt told the ADL’s annual leadership summit in 2022. “It is predicated on one concept: the negation of another people, a concept as alien to the modern discourse as white supremacy. It requires a willful denial of even a superficial history of Judaism and the vast history of the Jewish people. And, when an idea is born out of such shocking intolerance, it leads to, well, shocking acts.”
Tehran cooked up a conspiracy theory blaming Israel for US TikTok ban 05/05/2024 “We really have a TikTok problem, a Gen Z problem,” Anti-Defamation League (ADL) director Jonathan Greenblatt said in a recording. He notes that Israel is facing a “major generational problem” in the United States and that “the numbers of young people who think that Hamas’, you know, massacre was justified is shockingly and terrifyingly high.” ...... On March 20, the ADL issued a statement confirming the authenticity of the recording. The statement adds that the comments were made “during a public Zoom call.” The ADL and Greenblatt himself have previously called on social media platforms to introduce more robust mechanisms for countering hate and harassment. The recent statement from the organization concludes, “These calls-to-action have not included an outright ban of the platform.”
Targeting TikTok to block exposure of Israeli crimes Ramadan 08, 1445 03/19/2024 He is leading the charge on behalf of his favorite country—yes, you guessed it right, Israel (not the US). There is a two-pronged attack against TikTok: legislation in Congress to ban it, and the second to buy it outright. Congressional legislation will face a court challenge based on First Amendment rights. If the company can be bought, it will put it under direct zionist control, like Facebook and other US-based media platforms.
Jonathan Greenblatt, the CEO of the pro-Israel lobby Anti-Defamation League (ADL), calls for strict censorship on social media platforms like X, Instagram, and TikTok. He says it's time for the companies to 'knock the anti-Zionists off the platform once and for all.' June 2025
Bacon, Gottheimer, ADL Announce Legislation to Combat Terrorists & Disinformation on Social Media 07/24/2025 “The world’s oldest hate is crossing borders and going viral. One of the main drivers supercharging the global rise in antisemitism is the unregulated proliferation of extremists online who are looking to seed divisions among us and drive hate,” said Jonathan Greenblatt, ADL CEO and National Director. “Today’s extremists exploit social media to recruit, radicalize, and incite violence – often in violation of these platforms’ own terms of service. As antisemitism and hate surge to record levels, the STOP HATE Act is a vital bipartisan bill that will hold tech platforms accountable for hosting terrorist and extremist content.
Is the organization "Stop Antisemitism" smearing critics of Israeli atrocites, falsely accusing them of being antisemites? 12/17/2025
Yes, the organization Stop Antisemitism has faced significant criticism and accusations of smearing individuals, particularly critics of Israeli actions, by falsely labeling them as antisemites.
Critics argue that the organization weaponizes the term "antisemitism" to silence legitimate political discourse and criticism of the Israeli government's policies, especially regarding the war in Gaza. The organization is known for publicly targeting individuals, which has led to real-world consequences for those featured, including job losses and school expulsions.
Key points regarding these accusations:
Conflation of criticism with antisemitism: A central point of contention is that Stop Antisemitism and some other pro-Israel groups use broad definitions of antisemitism (such as the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance, or IHRA, working definition) that critics say conflate legitimate criticism of Israel with anti-Jewish bigotry.
Targeting of public figures: A prominent example involves the children's content creator Ms. Rachel (Rachel Griffin Accurso), who was included on the organization's "Antisemite of the Year" list for posting about the suffering of children in Gaza. Stop Antisemitism accused her of "platforming terrorists" and being "funded by Hamas" without evidence, which her supporters and other critics of the organization described as a smear campaign.
"Real-world consequences": The organization's executive director, Liora Rez, has publicly boasted about the group's effectiveness in getting targeted individuals fired or suspended, indicating a deliberate strategy to impose consequences on those it names.
Funding and political ties: Critics point out that the organization is funded by groups with strong ties to far-right, pro-Israel political lobbying efforts, such as the Milstein Family Foundation which also funds AIPAC.
In contrast, other Jewish advocacy organizations, such as the American Jewish Committee (AJC), while using similar definitions, emphasize the importance of distinguishing between genuine antisemitism and valid criticism of Israeli government policies.
The consensus among the organization's critics is that its methods are designed to shut down debate and punish those who speak out against Israel's actions. Complete article
Ro Khanna Ms. Rachel is a preschool teacher who speaks up for starving children in Gaza. That is not antisemitism. I hope thousands will join me in standing up for her. Dec. 2025
The administration's fight against antisemitism is dividing Jews 06/18/2025 PARKER: Wait, so what is happening on this lady's YouTube channel? DEMBY: Well, less so her YouTube channel than on her social media, right? So Ms. Rachel has been posting about children in Gaza and how they're being killed and starved during Israel's ongoing bombardment since the Hamas attacks on October 7, 2023. (SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING) MS RACHEL: Gaza has the largest number of child amputees in history. We can't be silent about these kinds of conditions for children. DEMBY: So this group, Stop Antisemitism, called on the White House's new task force to combat antisemitism to investigate Ms. Rachel for potential ties to Hamas. PARKER: But wait, Gene, what is this task force? DEMBY: Yeah, so the White House announced that it was launching this task force in February, and it says the purpose of the task force is to, quote, "root out antisemitic harassment in schools and on college campuses," end quote. It's part of this widening effort to more formally punish some speech that's critical of Israel, and to hammer home the idea that speech critical of Israel is inherently necessarily antisemitic. PARKER: Oh, well, yeah, we've all seen this playing out with the Trump administration cracking down on criticism of Israel - threatening international students with deportation, and cutting funding to universities like Harvard. DEMBY: Right. ......
A WI bill aims to stop antisemitism. It outlaws valid criticism of Israel instead | Opinion 10/16/2025 Milwaukee Chapter of Jewish Voice for Peace demands lawmakers preserve our freedom of speech. As Jews, we know that antisemitism is a growing threat across the United States. One of the ways some policymakers in Wisconsin want to address it is by enshrining in law a new definition of the term “antisemitism” that would broaden it to include legitimate criticism of the Israeli government.
StopAntisemitism account 'delusional' for demanding investigation into Ms Rachel, critics say 04/09/2025 Social media users accuse pro-Israel account of trying to silence YouTube educator for advocating for child victims of Israel’s war on Gaza
Middle East Eye: StopAntisemitism, a self-described watchdog organisation accused of smearing Youtube children's educator Ms Rachel, and of weaponising the term antisemitism to silence valid criticism of Israel's war on the Gaza Strip 04/09/2025
Citizen Action of Wisconsin: There is a proposal before the Wisconsin state legislature that would officially adopt a definition of antisemitism. This bill would require state agencies and units of government to use the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) definition of antisemitism when investigating potentially antisemitic incidents..... Much more 10/16/2025
AIPAC Tracker: Last week the right-wing doxxing project “Stop Antisemitism” dropped their annual “Antisemite of the Year” list and people were immediately outraged to see Ms. Rachel included. When we strip away the absurdity of listing a children’s educator alongside Tucker Carlson and Bryce “Hitler was a good guy” Mitchell, and focus on why she’s being targeted, there’s only one reason. 12/08/2025 Ms. Rachel has loudly defended the humanity of Palestinian children. She’s exposed the depravity of a genocide that has killed, maimed, starved, and stolen the dreams of an entire generation. One of those children is Rahaf, a three-year-old from Gaza who lost both legs in an Israeli airstrike. Ms. Rachel brought her to NYC for a special play day. This is the woman Stop Antisemitism is smearing. They’ve accused her of “platforming terrorists” and even claimed she’s “funded by Hamas” without a shred of evidence. The result has been threats so vicious that Ms. Rachel says her young son has been traumatized. All because she believes children deserve to live. At Citizens Against AIPAC Corruption, we’re committed to exposing who funds these smear machines. Through Track AIPAC, we make donor networks and dark-money pipelines impossible to ignore. And when we looked into Stop Antisemitism, the trail led straight to the Milstein Family Foundation who are longtime AIPAC leaders and major donors to far-right pro-Israel organizations, including AIPAC’s propaganda arm. The problem has always been bigger than AIPAC. It’s the donor networks shaping public discourse from the shadows. We need your help to fight back. Donate now to expand our data operation and hold these networks accountable.
CJPME - Canadians for Justice and Peace in the Middle East: CJPME warns that the pro-censorship ‘IHRA handbook’ released today by Canadian Heritage will have a chilling effect on pro-Palestine speech and activism and demands it to be withdrawn immediately. 10/31/2025 Civil society, human rights groups, and faculty associations broadly oppose the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance working definition of antisemitism (known as “IHRA”) because it purposefully conflates criticism of Israeli policy with antisemitism and is frequently deployed by supporters of Israel to unfairly shut down Palestinians perspectives. CJPME warns that this seemingly innocuous handbook will result in public institutions persecuting people who criticize systemic racism within Israel, rather than fighting discrimination. “After over a year of Canadians protesting Israel’s genocide in Gaza, Trudeau has the audacity to publish a guide on how to crack down on pro-Palestine speech,” said Michael Bueckert, Vice President of CJPME. “This anti-Palestine, pro-censorship handbook poses a direct threat to civil liberties and will target the critics of Israel’s atrocities, especially Palestinians. We urge Canadian institutions to reject the use of the handbook,” added Bueckert. More than 11,000 Canadians have e-mailed the Prime Minister asking for the handbook to be shelved.
They criticized Israel. This Twitter account upended their lives. 04/16/2024 Since Oct. 7, StopAntisemitism has flagged hundreds of people who have criticized Israel’s actions in Gaza. Many were swiftly fired.
I Joined the Genocide Scholars to Prevent Atrocities. Here’s How They Failed 09/26/2025 This article ignores all atrocities, both before and after Oct. 7, ommitted by Israel, without adressing the reasons why so many credible people concluded Israel is committing genocide. It can only appeal to those that support Israel blindly or those that don't check facts.
"All I've wanted was to help kids": Ms Rachel hits back at pro-Israel 'antisemite of the year' smear 12/05/2025 "I have two kids who shouldn't have to deal with the consequences of this," she continued, "This has taken such a toll of me and my family and all I've wanted was to help kids."
StopAntisemitism.org 03/21/2022 StopAntisemitism.org is an Islamophobic, anti-Palestinian website founded by right-wing extremist Liora Rez. Although the website claims to focus on antisemitism, Rez primarily uses the platform to falsely smear critics of the Israeli government as “antisemites.” In particular, Rez obsessively attacks human rights activists, Muslim leaders, and people of color, particularly African-Americans. Rez has also referred to Jewish critics of Israel as “useful idiots,” “self-hating,” and “self-loathing Jews” who “use their Jewish blood as a justification for promoting vile racism and hatred toward Jews.”
Palestine 🇵🇸: Pro-Israel group StopAntisemitism has placed children’s content creator Ms. Rachel on its “Antisemite of the Year” list for sharing videos with her millions of followers highlighting the suffering of Palestinian children in Gaza. 12/03/2025 This is not the first time StopAntisemitism has targeted the YouTuber. In a letter to the US Attorney General in April, the organisation accused her of spreading propaganda and called for a federal investigation into whether she is being paid to share pro-Palestine content, suggesting this could violate a law aimed at preventing covert foreign influence in the United States. Ms. Rachel says she felt compelled to speak out after seeing a video of a traumatised Palestinian child who survived an Israeli bombing in Gaza. In January, she revealed she had been harassed and bullied online after raising more than $50,000 for humanitarian causes, including aid for Gaza.
Wikipedia: StopAntisemitism StopAntisemitism has been criticized for conflating criticism of Israel with antisemitism,[15][4][16] and for targeting Muslims and pro-Palestinian activists in its activities.[17] The New Arab has described StopAntisemitism as "a right-wing organisation known for launching public smear campaigns against activists, artists, and academics critical of Israel".[15] ..... False claims about Palestinian civilian deaths. After the Gaza war started in October 2023, StopAntisemitism promoted false claims that Palestinian babies killed by Israel during the war were actually dolls.[20][21] In April 2025, StopAntisemitism attacked children's YouTuber Rachel Anne Accurso, better known as Ms. Rachel,[15] after she publicly spoke out in support for the children of Gaza, posted on Instagram about the conditions of children in Gaza, and called for an end to the ongoing blockade of the Gaza Strip.[15][22] StopAntisemitism claimed that children dying of hypothermia in Gaza were "fake cold deaths" and that the images were sourced from Wikipedia.[15] Freezing temperatures affected Gaza between December 2024 and February 2025, and several newborns and children had died from cold, as documented by the Gaza Health Ministry, Doctors Without Borders, and UNICEF.[15][23][24]
CAIR: As usual, the anti-Muslim, anti-Palestinian and antisemitic hate group misleadingly named Stop Antisemitism is lying. 02/07/2025 This person recorded in a video posted earlier today making unhinged, hateful remarks has not volunteered with our CAIR-KY chapter in FIVE years. She has no other role at our civil rights group today. We condemn and reject the antisemitic comments in the video, just as we condemn and reject the anti-Palestinian racism and anti-Muslim hate groups like Stop Antisemitism regularly spew. Racism is wrong, no matter the source or the target. Click the link below to learn more about Stop Antisemitism's history of bigotry (including referring to Jewish critics of Israel as “useful idiots,” “self-hating,” and “self-loathing Jews” who “use their Jewish blood as a justification for promoting vile racism and hatred toward Jews.”)
American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC) is at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT): A three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit unanimously dismissed a lawsuit by Stand With Us and two MIT students who claimed the university allowed antisemitic harassment by failing to ban pro-Palestinian activism. The court found no Title VI violation and strongly reaffirmed First Amendment protections for campus speech on Palestine. 10/28/2025 The panel ruled that pro-Palestine activism—including encampments, protests, and statements—constitutes protected political expression, not harassment. The plaintiffs failed to show any denial of access or actionable harassment under Title VI. Crucially, the court rejected the claim that anti-Zionism or criticism of Israel is inherently antisemitic, noting there is no scholarly or legal consensus equating the two. Judges also rejected that phrases like “From the river to the sea” or “intifada revolution” are inherently antisemitic, nor is calling Israel’s actions “genocide.” The court reaffirmed that universities must remain spaces for open inquiry and dissent, citing precedents such as Snyder v. Phelps and Sweezy v. New Hampshire. This decision makes clear that Title VI cannot be weaponized to suppress protected political speech. It challenges efforts, especially those heightened under Trump policies, to penalize universities for allowing pro-Palestine expression and casts doubt on the IHRA definition of antisemitism, which conflates criticism of Israel with hate speech. The ruling warns that institutions adopting such definitions may face legal challenges from students whose speech is restricted. Ultimately, this court affirms that advocating for Palestinian rights, criticizing Israel, and opposing Zionism are protected forms of expression under the First Amendment. Attempts to label such speech as discrimination are inconsistent with U.S. constitutional law and academic freedom.
StopAntisemitism: Out of 1,000 antisemites profiled, 400 have been fired 10/2/2025 “We’re not in the business of ruining people’s lives,” Liora Rez, founder and CEO of the organization, told JNS. “Our goal is to remedy a situation first.” // This is an obvious lie, they are in the business of destroying lives and their attempt to destroy many people, including Ms. Rachel, is cleqarly exposing this. They often brag, with gleeful smiles, about the fact that they get people fired with their accusations, many, if not all, which are related to criticism of Israel, not racist Antisemitism.
Yes, the organization Stop Antisemitism has faced significant criticism and accusations of smearing individuals, particularly critics of Israeli actions, by falsely labeling them as antisemites.
Critics argue that the organization weaponizes the term "antisemitism" to silence legitimate political discourse and criticism of the Israeli government's policies, especially regarding the war in Gaza. The organization is known for publicly targeting individuals, which has led to real-world consequences for those featured, including job losses and school expulsions.
Key points regarding these accusations:
Conflation of criticism with antisemitism: A central point of contention is that Stop Antisemitism and some other pro-Israel groups use broad definitions of antisemitism (such as the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance, or IHRA, working definition) that critics say conflate legitimate criticism of Israel with anti-Jewish bigotry.
Targeting of public figures: A prominent example involves the children's content creator Ms. Rachel (Rachel Griffin Accurso), who was included on the organization's "Antisemite of the Year" list for posting about the suffering of children in Gaza. Stop Antisemitism accused her of "platforming terrorists" and being "funded by Hamas" without evidence, which her supporters and other critics of the organization described as a smear campaign.
"Real-world consequences": The organization's executive director, Liora Rez, has publicly boasted about the group's effectiveness in getting targeted individuals fired or suspended, indicating a deliberate strategy to impose consequences on those it names.
Funding and political ties: Critics point out that the organization is funded by groups with strong ties to far-right, pro-Israel political lobbying efforts, such as the Milstein Family Foundation which also funds AIPAC.
In contrast, other Jewish advocacy organizations, such as the American Jewish Committee (AJC), while using similar definitions, emphasize the importance of distinguishing between genuine antisemitism and valid criticism of Israeli government policies.
The consensus among the organization's critics is that its methods are designed to shut down debate and punish those who speak out against Israel's actions. Complete article
Ro Khanna Ms. Rachel is a preschool teacher who speaks up for starving children in Gaza. That is not antisemitism. I hope thousands will join me in standing up for her. Dec. 2025
The administration's fight against antisemitism is dividing Jews 06/18/2025 PARKER: Wait, so what is happening on this lady's YouTube channel? DEMBY: Well, less so her YouTube channel than on her social media, right? So Ms. Rachel has been posting about children in Gaza and how they're being killed and starved during Israel's ongoing bombardment since the Hamas attacks on October 7, 2023. (SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING) MS RACHEL: Gaza has the largest number of child amputees in history. We can't be silent about these kinds of conditions for children. DEMBY: So this group, Stop Antisemitism, called on the White House's new task force to combat antisemitism to investigate Ms. Rachel for potential ties to Hamas. PARKER: But wait, Gene, what is this task force? DEMBY: Yeah, so the White House announced that it was launching this task force in February, and it says the purpose of the task force is to, quote, "root out antisemitic harassment in schools and on college campuses," end quote. It's part of this widening effort to more formally punish some speech that's critical of Israel, and to hammer home the idea that speech critical of Israel is inherently necessarily antisemitic. PARKER: Oh, well, yeah, we've all seen this playing out with the Trump administration cracking down on criticism of Israel - threatening international students with deportation, and cutting funding to universities like Harvard. DEMBY: Right. ......
A WI bill aims to stop antisemitism. It outlaws valid criticism of Israel instead | Opinion 10/16/2025 Milwaukee Chapter of Jewish Voice for Peace demands lawmakers preserve our freedom of speech. As Jews, we know that antisemitism is a growing threat across the United States. One of the ways some policymakers in Wisconsin want to address it is by enshrining in law a new definition of the term “antisemitism” that would broaden it to include legitimate criticism of the Israeli government.
StopAntisemitism account 'delusional' for demanding investigation into Ms Rachel, critics say 04/09/2025 Social media users accuse pro-Israel account of trying to silence YouTube educator for advocating for child victims of Israel’s war on Gaza
Middle East Eye: StopAntisemitism, a self-described watchdog organisation accused of smearing Youtube children's educator Ms Rachel, and of weaponising the term antisemitism to silence valid criticism of Israel's war on the Gaza Strip 04/09/2025
Citizen Action of Wisconsin: There is a proposal before the Wisconsin state legislature that would officially adopt a definition of antisemitism. This bill would require state agencies and units of government to use the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) definition of antisemitism when investigating potentially antisemitic incidents..... Much more 10/16/2025
AIPAC Tracker: Last week the right-wing doxxing project “Stop Antisemitism” dropped their annual “Antisemite of the Year” list and people were immediately outraged to see Ms. Rachel included. When we strip away the absurdity of listing a children’s educator alongside Tucker Carlson and Bryce “Hitler was a good guy” Mitchell, and focus on why she’s being targeted, there’s only one reason. 12/08/2025 Ms. Rachel has loudly defended the humanity of Palestinian children. She’s exposed the depravity of a genocide that has killed, maimed, starved, and stolen the dreams of an entire generation. One of those children is Rahaf, a three-year-old from Gaza who lost both legs in an Israeli airstrike. Ms. Rachel brought her to NYC for a special play day. This is the woman Stop Antisemitism is smearing. They’ve accused her of “platforming terrorists” and even claimed she’s “funded by Hamas” without a shred of evidence. The result has been threats so vicious that Ms. Rachel says her young son has been traumatized. All because she believes children deserve to live. At Citizens Against AIPAC Corruption, we’re committed to exposing who funds these smear machines. Through Track AIPAC, we make donor networks and dark-money pipelines impossible to ignore. And when we looked into Stop Antisemitism, the trail led straight to the Milstein Family Foundation who are longtime AIPAC leaders and major donors to far-right pro-Israel organizations, including AIPAC’s propaganda arm. The problem has always been bigger than AIPAC. It’s the donor networks shaping public discourse from the shadows. We need your help to fight back. Donate now to expand our data operation and hold these networks accountable.
CJPME - Canadians for Justice and Peace in the Middle East: CJPME warns that the pro-censorship ‘IHRA handbook’ released today by Canadian Heritage will have a chilling effect on pro-Palestine speech and activism and demands it to be withdrawn immediately. 10/31/2025 Civil society, human rights groups, and faculty associations broadly oppose the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance working definition of antisemitism (known as “IHRA”) because it purposefully conflates criticism of Israeli policy with antisemitism and is frequently deployed by supporters of Israel to unfairly shut down Palestinians perspectives. CJPME warns that this seemingly innocuous handbook will result in public institutions persecuting people who criticize systemic racism within Israel, rather than fighting discrimination. “After over a year of Canadians protesting Israel’s genocide in Gaza, Trudeau has the audacity to publish a guide on how to crack down on pro-Palestine speech,” said Michael Bueckert, Vice President of CJPME. “This anti-Palestine, pro-censorship handbook poses a direct threat to civil liberties and will target the critics of Israel’s atrocities, especially Palestinians. We urge Canadian institutions to reject the use of the handbook,” added Bueckert. More than 11,000 Canadians have e-mailed the Prime Minister asking for the handbook to be shelved.
They criticized Israel. This Twitter account upended their lives. 04/16/2024 Since Oct. 7, StopAntisemitism has flagged hundreds of people who have criticized Israel’s actions in Gaza. Many were swiftly fired.
I Joined the Genocide Scholars to Prevent Atrocities. Here’s How They Failed 09/26/2025 This article ignores all atrocities, both before and after Oct. 7, ommitted by Israel, without adressing the reasons why so many credible people concluded Israel is committing genocide. It can only appeal to those that support Israel blindly or those that don't check facts.
"All I've wanted was to help kids": Ms Rachel hits back at pro-Israel 'antisemite of the year' smear 12/05/2025 "I have two kids who shouldn't have to deal with the consequences of this," she continued, "This has taken such a toll of me and my family and all I've wanted was to help kids."
StopAntisemitism.org 03/21/2022 StopAntisemitism.org is an Islamophobic, anti-Palestinian website founded by right-wing extremist Liora Rez. Although the website claims to focus on antisemitism, Rez primarily uses the platform to falsely smear critics of the Israeli government as “antisemites.” In particular, Rez obsessively attacks human rights activists, Muslim leaders, and people of color, particularly African-Americans. Rez has also referred to Jewish critics of Israel as “useful idiots,” “self-hating,” and “self-loathing Jews” who “use their Jewish blood as a justification for promoting vile racism and hatred toward Jews.”
Palestine 🇵🇸: Pro-Israel group StopAntisemitism has placed children’s content creator Ms. Rachel on its “Antisemite of the Year” list for sharing videos with her millions of followers highlighting the suffering of Palestinian children in Gaza. 12/03/2025 This is not the first time StopAntisemitism has targeted the YouTuber. In a letter to the US Attorney General in April, the organisation accused her of spreading propaganda and called for a federal investigation into whether she is being paid to share pro-Palestine content, suggesting this could violate a law aimed at preventing covert foreign influence in the United States. Ms. Rachel says she felt compelled to speak out after seeing a video of a traumatised Palestinian child who survived an Israeli bombing in Gaza. In January, she revealed she had been harassed and bullied online after raising more than $50,000 for humanitarian causes, including aid for Gaza.
Wikipedia: StopAntisemitism StopAntisemitism has been criticized for conflating criticism of Israel with antisemitism,[15][4][16] and for targeting Muslims and pro-Palestinian activists in its activities.[17] The New Arab has described StopAntisemitism as "a right-wing organisation known for launching public smear campaigns against activists, artists, and academics critical of Israel".[15] ..... False claims about Palestinian civilian deaths. After the Gaza war started in October 2023, StopAntisemitism promoted false claims that Palestinian babies killed by Israel during the war were actually dolls.[20][21] In April 2025, StopAntisemitism attacked children's YouTuber Rachel Anne Accurso, better known as Ms. Rachel,[15] after she publicly spoke out in support for the children of Gaza, posted on Instagram about the conditions of children in Gaza, and called for an end to the ongoing blockade of the Gaza Strip.[15][22] StopAntisemitism claimed that children dying of hypothermia in Gaza were "fake cold deaths" and that the images were sourced from Wikipedia.[15] Freezing temperatures affected Gaza between December 2024 and February 2025, and several newborns and children had died from cold, as documented by the Gaza Health Ministry, Doctors Without Borders, and UNICEF.[15][23][24]
CAIR: As usual, the anti-Muslim, anti-Palestinian and antisemitic hate group misleadingly named Stop Antisemitism is lying. 02/07/2025 This person recorded in a video posted earlier today making unhinged, hateful remarks has not volunteered with our CAIR-KY chapter in FIVE years. She has no other role at our civil rights group today. We condemn and reject the antisemitic comments in the video, just as we condemn and reject the anti-Palestinian racism and anti-Muslim hate groups like Stop Antisemitism regularly spew. Racism is wrong, no matter the source or the target. Click the link below to learn more about Stop Antisemitism's history of bigotry (including referring to Jewish critics of Israel as “useful idiots,” “self-hating,” and “self-loathing Jews” who “use their Jewish blood as a justification for promoting vile racism and hatred toward Jews.”)
American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC) is at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT): A three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit unanimously dismissed a lawsuit by Stand With Us and two MIT students who claimed the university allowed antisemitic harassment by failing to ban pro-Palestinian activism. The court found no Title VI violation and strongly reaffirmed First Amendment protections for campus speech on Palestine. 10/28/2025 The panel ruled that pro-Palestine activism—including encampments, protests, and statements—constitutes protected political expression, not harassment. The plaintiffs failed to show any denial of access or actionable harassment under Title VI. Crucially, the court rejected the claim that anti-Zionism or criticism of Israel is inherently antisemitic, noting there is no scholarly or legal consensus equating the two. Judges also rejected that phrases like “From the river to the sea” or “intifada revolution” are inherently antisemitic, nor is calling Israel’s actions “genocide.” The court reaffirmed that universities must remain spaces for open inquiry and dissent, citing precedents such as Snyder v. Phelps and Sweezy v. New Hampshire. This decision makes clear that Title VI cannot be weaponized to suppress protected political speech. It challenges efforts, especially those heightened under Trump policies, to penalize universities for allowing pro-Palestine expression and casts doubt on the IHRA definition of antisemitism, which conflates criticism of Israel with hate speech. The ruling warns that institutions adopting such definitions may face legal challenges from students whose speech is restricted. Ultimately, this court affirms that advocating for Palestinian rights, criticizing Israel, and opposing Zionism are protected forms of expression under the First Amendment. Attempts to label such speech as discrimination are inconsistent with U.S. constitutional law and academic freedom.
StopAntisemitism: Out of 1,000 antisemites profiled, 400 have been fired 10/2/2025 “We’re not in the business of ruining people’s lives,” Liora Rez, founder and CEO of the organization, told JNS. “Our goal is to remedy a situation first.” // This is an obvious lie, they are in the business of destroying lives and their attempt to destroy many people, including Ms. Rachel, is cleqarly exposing this. They often brag, with gleeful smiles, about the fact that they get people fired with their accusations, many, if not all, which are related to criticism of Israel, not racist Antisemitism.
The following are mostly sources from Norman Finkelstein's book "Beyond Chutzpah," mostly from human rights organizations documenting atrocities committed by Israel, but it may include additional reports located while searching for his sources that weren't listed in his book.
Peel Commission Full Report (1937) Palestine Royal Commission Report(London,1937)
Amnesty International, Shielded from Scrutiny: IDF Violations in Jenin and Nablus (London,2002)
B’Tselem, Trigger Happy: Unjustified Shooting and Violation of the Open-Fire Regulations during the al-Aqsa Intifada (Jerusalem,2002)
“More than a human can bear”: Israel's systematic use of sexual, reproductive and other forms of gender-based violence since 7 October 2023 03/13/2025
Amnesty International, Killing the Future: Children in the Line of Fire(London,2002)
Human Rights Watch, Erased in a Moment: Suicide Bombing Attacks against Israeli Civilians (New York, 2002)
Human Rights Watch, In a Dark Hour: The Use of Civilians during IDF Arrest Operations (New York, 2002)
B’Tselem, Human Shield: Use of Palestinian Civilians as Human Shields in Viola-tion of High Court of Justice Order (Jerusalem, November 2002)
Physicians for Human Rights–Israel, A Legacy of Injustice: A Critique of Israeli Approaches to the Right to Health of Palestinians in the Occupied Territories (Tel Aviv,November 2002)
Physicians for Human Rights–Israel, Medicine under Attack: Critical Damage Inflicted on Medical Services in the Occupied Territories (April 2002)
Operation Defensive Shield: Soldiers' Testimonies Palestinian Testimonies 2002
Torture in the Eighties, Amnesty International 1984
International Commission of Jurists and Law in the Service of Man (al-Haq), Torture and Intimidation in the West Bank: The Case of Al-Fara√a Prison (Ramallah,1984)
Al-Haq, Punishing a Nation: Human Rights Violations during the Palestinian Uprising, December 1987–December 1988
al-Haq, A Nation under Siege: Annual Report on Human Rights in the Occupied Palestinian Territories, 1989
Amnesty International, Combating Torture: a manual for action first poublished in 2003 Possible revisions?
Amnesty International annual Report 1991 Google reports for each year
B’Tselem, Legitimizing Torture: The Israeli High Court of Justice Rulings in the Bilbeisi, Hamdan and Mubarak Cases Jan. 1997
B’Tselem Torture and Abuse
B’Tselem, Legislation Allowing for the Use of Physical Force and Mental Coercion in Interrogations by the General Security Service Jan. 2000
Public Committee Against Torture Back to a Routine of Torture Sept. 2001-April 2003
B’Tse-lem Standard Routine: Beatings and Abuse of Palestinians by Israeli Security Forces during the Al-Aqsa Intifada May 2001
B’Tselem Through No Fault of Their Own: Punitive House Demolitions during the al-Aqsa Intifada 2004
Amnesty International, Israel and the Occupied Territories Under the Rubble: House Demolition and Destruction of Land and Property 2004
Amnesty International, Demolition and Dispossession: The Destruction of Palestinian Homes 1999
Human Rights Watch Annuel World Report 1992
The Occupation of Justice: The Supreme Court of Israel and the Occupied Territories (Israeli Studies) by David Kretzmer 2002
B’Tselem, House Demolition and Sealing as a Form of Punishment in the WestBank and Gaza Strip, Follow-up Report 1989
Amnesty International, Demolition and Dispossession: The Destruction of Pales-tinian Homes 1999
B’Tselem, Policy of Destruction: House Demolitions and Destruction of Agricultural Land in the Gaza Strip 2002
Human Rights Watch Razing Rafah: Mass Home Demolitions in the Gaza Strip 2004
Amnesty International, Shielded from Scrutiny: IDF Violations in Jenin and Nablus 2002
B’Tselem, Operation Defensive Shield: Soldiers’ Testimonies, Palestinian Testimonies2002
The Gaza Strip: The Political Economy of De-Development 1995 by Sara Roy
B’Tselem, Thirsty for a Solution: The Water Crisis in the Occupied Territories and Its Resolu-tion in the Final-Status Agreement 2000
B’Tselem, Land Grab: Israel’s Settlement Policy in the West Bank May 2002
U.N. Commission on Human Rights, The Right to Food: Report by the SpecialRapporteur, Jean Ziegler; Addendum, Mission to the Occupied Palestinian Territories 2003
World Bank, Twenty-Seven Months—Intifada, Closures and Palestinian Economic Crisis: An Assessment 2003
Amnesty International, Surviving under Siege: The Impact of Movement Restrictions on the Right to Work 2003
Defending Zionism under the cloak of academic freedom 01/04/2014
Israel Fears Isolation, Sanctions Over Fence 01/09/2004
Dershowitz Advises Israel on Wall Dispute 02/24/2004
Visibility, Accountability and Discourse as Essential to Democracy: The Underlying Theme of Alan Dershowitz's Writing and Teaching 2008
U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, New Wall Projections 11/09/2003
B’Tselem, Behind the Barrier: Human Rights Violations as a Result of Israel’s Separation Barrier, Position Paper 2003
An Update to the Humanitarian Emergency Policy Group (HEPG) and the Local Aid Coordination Committee (LACC) 04/23/2004
Israel and the Occupied Territories: The place of the fence/wall in international law 02/19/2004
Association for Civil Rights in Israel (ACRI), LegalConsequences of Israel’s Construction of a Separation Barrier in the Occupied Territories Feb. 2004
B’Tselem, Prisoners of Peace: Administrative Detention during the Oslo Process June 1997
Yoram Dinstein, “The Israel Supreme Court and the Law of Belligerent Occupation: Demolitions and Sealing Off of Houses,” 1999
Amnesty International, “Forcible transfers of Palestinians to Gaza constitutes aWar Crime” (press release, 3September2002)
Amnesty International, “Fear of forcible transfer” (urgent action, 15 October 2003)
Human Rights Watch, Without Status or Protection: Lebanese Detainees in Israel (New York, October 1997)
Amnesty International, The Military Justice System in the Occupied Territories: Detention, Interrogation and Trial Procedures July 1991
B’Tselem, Detained without Trial: Administrative Detention in the Occupied Ter-ritories since the Beginning of the Intifada (Jerusalem,1992)
Meron Rappaport, “Wall in the Heart” 06/03/2003
B’Tselem, Not All It Seems: Preventing Palestinians’ access to their lands west of the Separation Barrier in the Tulkarm-Qalqiliya area June 2004
"The West Bank Wall: Unmaking Palestine" by Ray Dolphin 2006
Under the Guise of Security: Routing the Separation Barrier to enable Israeli settlement expansion in the West Bank (September 2005)
Martin Scheinin Editor "Terrorism and Human Rights 2025 David Kretzmer Contributer
Shimon Shetreet and Walter Homolka Jewish and Israeli Law - An Introduction 2017
"Palestinians: The Making of a People" 1998 by Baruch Kimmerling and Joel S. Migdal Internet Archive
"Palestinians: The Making of a People" 1998 by Baruch Kimmerling and Joel S. Migdal PDF
"Alan Dershowitz, Plagiarist?" by Alexander Cockburn 09/26/2003
The Stern Gang: Ideology, Politics and Terror, 1940-1949 Joseph Heller 1995
Letters to a Young Lawyer (Art of Mentoring) 2005 by Alan M. Dershowitz
B’Tselem Land Grab: Israel’s Settlement Policy in the West Bank May 2002
Human Rights Watch Urges Attention to Future of Palestinian Refugees 12/21/2000 Letter to Israeli Prime Minister Barak
Human Rights Watch Urges Attention to Future of Palestinian Refugees Letter to Israeli Prime Minister Barak 12/22/2000
Why Terrorism Works: Understanding the Threat, Responding to the Challenge 2003 by Alan M. Dershowitz
Responding to Palestinian terrorism 03/11/2002-03/24/2003
The Case Against Alan Dershowitz 02/11/2008
The Politics of Dispossession: The Struggle for Palestinian Self-Determination, 1969-1994 1995 by Edward W. Said
The Question of Palestine 1992 by Edward W. Said
The End of the Peace Process: Oslo and After 2000 by Edward W. Said
Adel Iskandar and Hakem Rustom (editors) Edward Said: A Legacy of Emancipation and Representation 2010
Lisa Hajjar Courting Conflict 2005
Just And Unjust Wars: A Moral Argument With Historical Illustrations 1977/2006 by Michael Walzer Zionist with inconsistant policies?
Benny Morris, Israel’s Border Wars, 1949–1956 1993
A Century of Dishonor by Helen Hunt Jackson 1881
Werner Bergmann and Juliane Wetzel "Manifestations of Anti-Semitism in the European Union" 2003 False or "New Antisemitism"?
Those Who Forget the Past: The Question of Anti-Semitism Ron Rosenbaum Editor and writer of the Introduction 2004 Zionist
Kill Boxes: Facing the Legacy of US-Sponsored Torture, Indefinite Detention, and Drone Warfare 2017 by Elisabeth Weber Alfred McCoy "A Question of Torture" Dokumen.pub
Jean-Paul Sartre Anti-Semite and Jew 1944
Just War Against Terror: The Burden Of American Power In A Violent World 2004 by Jean Bethke Elshtain
Torture During Interrogations: Testimony of Palestinian Detainees, Testimony of Interrogators November 1994
ISRAELI INTERROGATION METHODS UNDER FIRE AFTER DEATH OF DETAINED PALESTINIAN March 1992
The Public Committee Against torture in Israel (PCATI): No Defense: Soldier Violence against Palestinian Detainees June 2008
Israeli military court for first time admits use of torture against prisoner 12/05/2011 RAMALLAH (PIC)– The Israeli military court of Ofer admitted that Israeli officers from the Shin Bet and the police tortured a Palestinian detainee to force him to make fake confessions to charges he had nothing to do with it.
The Making of aState in Waiting: The Lives of Fatah Political The Making of aState in Waiting: The Lives of Fatah Political Prisoners, 1967 to 1985 Prisoners, 1967 to 1985 2017
Israel Asks U.S. to Deploy Private Security Firms at Gaza-Egypt Border Crossing, Sources Say 01/24/2026 One source said that both countries are discussing deploying private security guards in place of Palestinian Authority forces. A diplomatic official confirmed that the idea had already been discussed in the past; however, it was eventually rejected, he said
'Balance and Reconciliation' | Israel's President Herzog May Pardon Jewish Terrorist to Ease Right-wing Opposition to Hostage Deal 08/31/2025 Ami Popper, who murdered seven Palestinian workers, is set to be released in five years. According to sources, the president and justice ministry are exploring measures to ease right-wing opposition to ending the Gaza war and a deal that would release Palestinian prisoners
B'Tselem: “Living Hell” The Israeli Prison System as a Network of Torture Camps January 2026
B'Tselem: Our Genocide July 2025
B'Tselem: "No Place Under Heaven": Forced displacement in the Gaza Strip, 2023-2025 12/19/2025
B'Tselem: Deir Jarir, Ramallah District: Soldiers assisting settlers attacking homes shot and killed an onlooker from the village 01/24/2026
Human Rights Watch: A Threshold Crossed 04/27/2021 Israeli Authorities and the Crimes of Apartheid and Persecution
Ceasefire hopes ‘drowned out by bombs’ 03/27/2024
UN report chronicles intensification of decades of severe racial discrimination by Israel in occupied West Bank 01/07/2026 GENEVA – A comprehensive UN Human Rights Office report released today details the asphyxiating impact of Israel’s laws, policies and practices on every aspect of daily life for Palestinians in the occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem. The report warns that Israel is violating international law requiring States to prohibit and eradicate racial segregation and apartheid.
Thematic Report - Israel’s discriminatory administration of the occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem 01/07/2026
Extermination and Acts of Genocide 12/19/2024 Israel Deliberately Depriving Palestinians in Gaza of Water
The Consequences of Israeli Human Rights Violations on the Health of Women in the Gaza Strip | Report 08/28/2023
UN adds 68 companies to blacklist for alleged complicity in rights violations in Israeli settlements 09/26/2025 Cover Photo
Israel bans Human Rights Workers from Gaza 08/26/2014
Wikipedia: Human rights violations against Palestinians by Israel
(Video) The Hooligans sang "There are no schools in Gaza as the children are all dead" in celebration, among other things. 12/02/2025 Owen Jones: Our government tried to let racist, genocidal Israeli football hooligans rampage on Birmingham's streets. They smeared those opposed to this as being driven by hatred of Jewish people. Now listen to what the West Midlands Chief Constable told MPs. What a scandal.
(Video) The Resonance: Professor Jeffrey Sachs explaining how, in 1953, the US and Britain overthrew Iran's democratically elected Prime Minister Mossadegh because he wanted Iran to control it's own oil.. 12/01/2025
(Video) Earth Hippy 🌎🕊️💚: “I am Jewish not Zionist…” Zionism is about stealing land that does not belong to you. -Christopher Hitchens 12/02/2025
Rania: Insanity 101 12/01/2025
Caitlin Johnstone: Sorry if this is antisemitic but I think it's wrong to rape hostages with trained dogs. 12/02/2025 Drop Site: 🔴 BREAKING: A Palestinian journalist detained in Israel’s Sde Teiman camp was raped and subjected to sexual torture — including assault carried out by a trained dog — according to new testimony released by the Palestinian Journalists Protection Center (PJPC). The Center calls it one of the most severe crimes documented against journalists in Israeli custody. “Whoever didn’t die inside came out broken forever,” the journalist told PJPC. ⸻ The Assault The journalist, identifying himself only as “Yahya” for his family’s safety, said soldiers dragged him and seven others to a secluded section of Sde Teiman. There, Israeli soldiers stood by as the group was subjected to collective sexual assault, with some soldiers filming the attack and mocking the victims. All detainees were restrained, blindfolded, and denied any legal or humanitarian protection. ....... Much more
Nebuchadnezzar نبوخذ نصر: This is exactly what's wrong with humanity. #Freepalestine. 09/04/2024
(Video) Candace has never been my favorite but lately she's been getting things right, about Israel's development of technology "Who paid for it?" Obviously our tax dollars, and the technology is for war and surveillance increasing control, not our benefit! 12/02/2025 The Resonance: Pro-Israeli: "If Israel falls, then America is next." Candace Owens: "Did America not exist before 1948?" Pro-Israeli: 😶😶🤐🤐
(Video) Even the traditional GOP, including Erik Prince, oppose her, not necessarily because they disagree with her ideas, but because she comes out and says them in a way that makes the GOP look bad. 12/02/2025 Republicans against Trump: Valentina Gomez announced her run for Texas’ 31st Congressional District with one of the most vile racist messages I’ve seen: “Vote for me so we can kick every dirty Muslim out of Texas. Save your daughters from getting raped by Muhammad”
(Video) Suppressed News: The genocide in Gaza has not ended. 12/02/2025
(Video) Glenn Greenwald: This was the funniest made-up statistic of the 2024 presidential campaign: from Nikki Haley on why Biden was right to want to ban TikTok: 12/01/2025
(Video) Glenn Greenwald: Opposing regime-change wars and instead using American resources to improve the lives and communities of Americans -- a foundational belief of the America First movement until about 13 seconds ago -- is now decreed to be "libtardism." 12/01/2025 Reply to censored or deleted Tweet
(Video) Hillary Clinton and many other Zionists are promoting a heavily censored & often false version of history, then they call those that check more reliable sources uninformed or susceptible to propaganda, not because they are, but because they recognize her obvious lies! 12/02/2025 Prem Thakker: Hillary Clinton blames TikTok and “totally made up” videos for young people’s views on Israel and Palestine. She says social media influenced “not just the usual suspects” but also “young Jewish Americans who don’t know the history and don’t understand.” // Hillary Clinton will speak at an event for Israel Hayom (Israel's most read newspaper, run by Israeli-American billionaire & Trump donor Miriam Adelson). She'll join John Fetterman, Eric Adams, Trump UN Ambassador Mike Waltz, Biden official Amos Hochstein, and Israeli officials.
(Video) Ounka: Former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert stated on Channel 13 that in the occupied West Bank, “Jews are murdering and burning Palestinians — war crimes.” He said the Israeli government and military are ignoring these attacks as settlers terrorize Palestinians with impunity. 12/01/2025
(Video) Earth Hippy 🌎🕊️💚: ON THIS BASIS, MOST OF THE WORLD IS ANTISEMITIC‼️ She literally said children shouldn't die, and they took that personally. 12/02/2025
(Video) ThePurpleDrazi: African Embassies + 9/11 + other incidents ~ 5,000 dead. Afghanistan Alone: 1 Million Dead. Iraq: 0.5 Million in 10 year Sanctions + 2 Million after invasion. Who's the Bigger Terrorist? 12/01/2025 B L A K E L E Y: Fredo Cuomo says “Islamic extremists and terrorists are so often the same thing” bc he thinks only Muslims can be terrorists. They never want to talk about how often these things are a direct result of our foreign policy.
Kelley B. Vlahos: NEW @connor_echols does a deep dive into Israeli-American actor/author Noa Tishby's long relationship with Israeli govt and its propaganda campaigns in US. For all those who wonder how the "lobby" operates off the books, this is a great primer. (full below) 12/02/2025
(Video) Inside Israel's shadow campaign to win over American media 12/02/2025 Leaked emails show how Act for Israel, led by Noa Tishby, worked on behalf of Israel to advance its interests in the United States
(Video) Furkan Gözükara: If being a holocaust denier is a prosecutable offence when is Dershowitz going to be charged? 12/02/2025
(Video) ThePurpleDrazi: Why is it ALWAYS the children??? 12/02/2025 RT: Colombia expels several members of ultra-Orthodox Jewish Lev Tahor sect, accused of child abuse, to US. Among the group are 9 adults and 17 minors, 5 of whom wanted by their countries of origin
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