Thousands of Palestinians, including children, medical staff, have been held incommunicado, subjected to severe abuse, says UN report
The UN Human Rights Office published a report on Wednesday regarding the arbitrary, prolonged, and incommunicado detention of thousands of Palestinians by Israeli authorities since October 2023, revealing severe allegations of torture and mistreatment.
The report stated that since Oct. 7, 2023, thousands of Palestinians, including medical staff, patients, residents fleeing conflict, and captured fighters, have been taken from Gaza to Israel, often shackled and blindfolded.
Many more have been detained in the West Bank and Israel without being given reasons for their detention, access to lawyers, or judicial review, the document stressed.
UN Human Rights Chief Volker Turk expressed grave concerns: “The staggering number of men, women, children, doctors, journalists and human rights defenders detained since 7 October, most of them without charge or trial and held in deplorable conditions, along with reports of ill-treatment and torture and violation of due process guarantees, raises serious concerns regarding the arbitrariness and the fundamentally punitive nature of such arrests and detention.”
The report detailed horrifying testimonies of detainees subjected to acts like waterboarding, prolonged blindfolding, deprivation of food and water, electric shocks, and sexual violence.
“The testimonies gathered by my Office and other entities indicate a range of appalling acts, such as waterboarding and the release of dogs on detainees, amongst other acts, in flagrant violation of international human rights law and international humanitarian law,” Turk lamented.
Israeli authorities have acknowledged investigations into soldiers' alleged abuse of a Palestinian prisoner earlier this month but have provided little information on the fate of many detainees or allowed the International Committee of the Red Cross access to detention facilities.
Conditions in military-run detention facilities are reportedly dire, with detainees, including children, “held in cage-like facilities, stripped naked, wearing only diapers,” deprived of basic necessities, and subjected to physical and psychological abuse, including “being subjected to electric shocks and being burnt with cigarettes.”
The report also criticized the Palestinian authority for “arbitrary detention and torture” in the West Bank, primarily to suppress dissent.
“International humanitarian law protects all those being held, requiring their humane treatment and protection against all acts of violence or threats thereof,” said Turk.
“International law requires that all those deprived of their liberty be treated with humanity and dignity, and it strictly prohibits torture or other ill-treatment, including rape and other forms of sexual violence,” he stated, adding: “Secret, prolonged incommunicado detention may also amount to a form of torture.”
The official further reiterated calls for the immediate release of all hostages held in Gaza and for the release of all Palestinians arbitrarily detained by Israel.
He underscored the need for independent investigations into all serious violations of international law and accountability for perpetrators.
Israel, flouting a UN Security Council resolution demanding an immediate cease-fire, has faced international condemnation amid its continued brutal offensive on Gaza since an Oct. 7, 2023 attack by the Palestinian group Hamas.
At least 39,400 Palestinians have since been killed, mostly women and children, and nearly 91,000 injured, according to local health authorities.
Over nine months into the Israeli onslaught, vast tracts of Gaza lie in ruins amid a crippling blockade of food, clean water, and medicine.
Israel is accused of genocide at the International Court of Justice, which ordered it to immediately halt its military operation in the southern city of Rafah, where more than 1 million Palestinians had sought refuge from the war before it was invaded on May 6.
