BBC
Caution: This newsletter comprises distressing content material
Palestinian detainees launched again to Gaza have advised the BBC they had been subjected to mistreatment and torture by the hands of Israeli army and jail workforce, including to experiences of misconduct inside Israel’s barracks and jails.
One guy stated he used to be attacked with chemical substances and set alight. “I thrashed round like an animal in an try to put the fireplace out [on my body],” stated Mohammad Abu Tawileh, a 36-year-old mechanic.
We’ve got carried out in-depth interviews with 5 launched detainees, all of whom had been arrested in Gaza within the months after Hamas and different teams killed about 1,200 folks in Israel and took 251 hostage. The boys had been held underneath Israel’s Illegal Fighters Regulation, a measure wherein folks suspected of posing a safety possibility will also be detained for an unspecified length for free of charge, as Israel got down to get well the hostages and dismantle the proscribed terror workforce.
The boys say they had been accused of getting hyperlinks with Hamas and wondered over the site of hostages and tunnels, however weren’t discovered to be concerned within the 7 October 2023 assaults – a situation Israel had set for any person launched underneath the hot ceasefire deal.
A few of the ones freed underneath the deal had been serving sentences for different severe crimes, together with the killing of Israelis, however that used to be no longer the case for our interviewees. We additionally requested the Israel Protection Forces (IDF) and the Israel Jail Provider (IPS) if there have been any convictions or accusations towards the boys however they didn’t reply to that query.
Within the males’s testimony:
- They each and every describe being stripped, blindfolded, cuffed and overwhelmed
- Some additionally say they got electrical shocks, menaced by way of canines, and denied get right of entry to to hospital therapy
- Some say they witnessed the deaths of alternative detainees
- One says he witnessed sexual abuse
- Every other says he had his head dunked in chemical substances and his again set on hearth
We’ve got noticed experiences by way of a legal professional who visited two of the boys in jail, and feature spoken to scientific workforce who handled a few of them on their go back.
The BBC despatched a long proper of answer letter to the IDF which specified by element the boys’s allegations and their identities.
In its commentary, the IDF didn’t reply to any of the particular allegations, however stated it “utterly rejects accusations of systematic abuse of detainees”.
It stated one of the crucial circumstances raised by way of the BBC can be “tested by way of the related government”. It added that others “had been introduced with out enough element, with none element in regards to the identification of the detainees, making them unimaginable to inspect”.
It endured: “The IDF takes any… movements which contradict its values very severely… Particular proceedings about beside the point behaviour by way of detention facility workforce or inadequate stipulations are forwarded for exam by way of the related government and are handled accordingly. In suitable circumstances, disciplinary movements are taken towards the workforce participants of the ability, and prison investigations are opened.”
The IPS stated it used to be no longer acutely aware of any of the claims of abuse described in our investigation, in its prisons. “[A]s a long way as we all know, no such occasions have took place underneath IPS duty,” it added.
Dr Lawrence Hill-Cawthorne, co-director of the Centre for Global Regulation on the College of Bristol, stated the remedy the boys described used to be “solely inconsistent with each global regulation and Israeli regulation”, and in some circumstances would “meet the brink of torture”.
“Below global regulation, the regulation of armed battle calls for you to regard all detainees humanely,” he stated. “The duties when it comes to the fundamental wishes of detainees are unaffected by way of any alleged wrongdoing.”
Mohammad Abu Tawileh displays the scars he says had been inflicted by way of IDF squaddies
The 5 Palestinians interviewed extensive had been returned previous this 12 months underneath the ceasefire handle Hamas – the gang that led the 7 October 2023 assaults on Israel.
They had been amongst about 1,900 Palestinian prisoners and detainees exchanged for 33 Israeli hostages, 8 lifeless and 25 residing, a few of whom have described being abused, starved and threatened by way of their Hamas captors.
Feminine hostages prior to now launched have detailed bodily and sexual attacks in captivity.
Israel says forensic exams display one of the crucial lifeless hostages returned within the ceasefire, together with kids, had been killed by way of Hamas, although the gang denies this.
The 5 launched Palestinian detainees all described the similar trend – being arrested in Gaza, taken into Israel to be detained first in army barracks sooner than being moved directly to jail, and in the end launched again to Gaza months later.
They stated they’d been abused at each and every degree of the method.
Greater than a dozen different launched detainees, whom the BBC spoke to extra in short as they arrived house in Gaza, additionally gave accounts of beatings, starvation and illness.
Those, in flip, align with testimony given by way of others to Israeli human rights workforce B’Tselem and the United International locations, which in July detailed experiences from returning detainees that they’d been stripped bare, disadvantaged of meals, sleep and water, subjected to electrical shocks and burned with cigarettes, and had canines set on them.
An additional document by way of UN professionals final month documented circumstances of rape and sexual attack, and stated the use of this as a danger used to be “usual working process” for the IDF. Israel answered to mention it “categorically rejects the unfounded allegations”.
As Israel does no longer recently permit global reporters loose get right of entry to to Gaza, our interviews had been carried out by way of telephone name and textual content message, and likewise in particular person by way of our reduced in size freelancers within the territory.
All 5 males advised us their abuse had begun in this day and age in their arrest – once they stated they’d been stripped, blindfolded and overwhelmed.
Mechanic Mohammad Abu Tawileh advised us he have been tortured for days.
He used to be taken by way of squaddies to a development no longer a long way from the site of his arrest in March 2024, he stated, and held in a room – the only real detainee there – for 3 days of interrogation by way of troops.
Caution: Graphic symbol underneath
Infantrymen blended chemical substances used for cleansing right into a pot, he advised us, and dunked his head in them. The interrogators then punched him, he stated, and he fell to the rubble-strewn flooring, injuring his eye. He stated they then coated his eye with a fabric, which he stated “worsened his harm”.
In addition they set him alight, he advised us.
“They used an air freshener with a lighter to set my again on hearth. I thrashed round like an animal in an try to put the fireplace out. It unfold from my neck all the way down to my legs. Then, they time and again hit me with the bottoms in their rifles, and had sticks with them, which they used to hit and poke me on my facets,” he stated.
They then “endured pouring acid on me. I spent round an afternoon and a part being washed with [it],” he advised us.
“They poured it on my head, and it dripped down my frame whilst I used to be sitting at the chair.”
In the end, he stated, squaddies poured water on his frame, and drove him into Israel the place he gained scientific remedy in medical institution, together with pores and skin grafts.
Mohammad Abu Tawileh’s again is roofed in purple welts
Maximum of his remedy, he stated, happened at a box medical institution at Sde Teiman barracks, an IDF base close to Beersheba in southern Israel. He stated he used to be cuffed bare to a mattress and given a nappy as an alternative of get right of entry to to a rest room. Israeli docs at this medical institution have prior to now advised the BBC shackling sufferers and forcing them to put on nappies is regimen.
When the BBC interviewed Mr Abu Tawileh in a while after his unlock, his again used to be coated in purple welts. The residual ache from his burns nonetheless woke him up, he stated, and his imaginative and prescient have been affected.
The BBC used to be no longer in a position to talk to any person who witnessed an assault on Mr Abu Tawileh, however a expert eye physician who handled him on his go back to Gaza showed that he had suffered a chemical burn to the attention, destructive the outside round it. He additionally stated Mr Abu Tawileh’s imaginative and prescient used to be weakening, because of both the chemical substances or different trauma.
We confirmed pictures of his accidents and gave main points of his testimony to a number of UK docs, who stated they gave the impression in keeping with his account, although they famous there have been barriers to what they might assess by way of having a look at pictures.
The BBC gave in depth main points of this account to the IDF, giving it 5 days to research. It didn’t reply without delay to Mr Abu Tawileh’s allegations however stated it took any movements “which contradict its values very severely”.
It stated it will “read about” one of the crucial circumstances, however didn’t reply to follow-up questions on whether or not this incorporated Mr Abu Tawileh.
A expert eye physician in Gaza showed Mr Abu Tawileh had suffered a chemical burn to the attention, destructive the outside round it
Others we interviewed additionally described abuse on the level of arrest.
“They cuffed us and hit us. No-one would give me a drop of water,” stated Abdul Karim Mushtaha, a 33-year-old poultry slaughterhouse employee, who advised us he used to be arrested in November 2023 at an Israeli checkpoint whilst following evacuation orders together with his circle of relatives. A document filed by way of a legal professional who later visited Mr Mushtaha famous he have been “subjected to serious beatings, humiliation, degradation and stripping all through his arrest till he used to be transferred to jail”.
Two stated they’d then been left outdoor within the chilly for hours, and two stated Israeli squaddies stole their assets and cash.
The BBC gave main points of the allegations of robbery to the IDF, which described it as “opposite to the regulation and IDF values”. It stated it will “totally” read about the circumstances if extra main points had been supplied.
All our interviewees, together with Mr Mushtaha, stated they had been transferred to the Israeli barracks of Sde Teiman, the place Mr Abu Tawileh additionally stated he gained remedy in its box medical institution.
One interviewee advised us he used to be mistreated at the manner there. He requested for his title to not be revealed for worry of reprisals, so we’re calling him “Omar”.
He stated Israeli squaddies stood and spat on him, and others with him, calling them “sons of pigs” and “sons of Sinwar” – regarding the Hamas chief and architect of the 7 October assaults, killed by way of Israel 5 months in the past.
“They made us pay attention to a voice recording that stated: ‘What you probably did to our youngsters, we can do on your kids’,” stated the 33-year-old, who labored for {an electrical} cable corporate.
Sde Teiman has been the point of interest of earlier severe proceedings within the wake of the October 2023 assaults. A number of squaddies stationed there have been charged in February once they had been filmed assaulting a detainee, leading to his hospitalisation for a torn rectum and a punctured lung. In a separate case, a soldier on the base used to be sentenced after he admitted to the annoyed abuse of Palestinian detainees from Gaza.
Getty Photographs
Our interviewees had been first of all detained at Sde Teiman, an IDF barracks which has been the centre of great allegations referring to its remedy of Palestinians
3 of the boys we spoke to alleged that canines had been used to intimidate detainees at Sde Teiman and different amenities.
“We’d get overwhelmed up once they took us from the barracks to the scientific hospital or the interrogation room – they might set [muzzled] canines on us, tighten our cuffs,” stated Mr Abu Tawileh who used to be held typically detention within the barracks, in addition to being handled there.
The BBC requested the IDF to reply to allegations it often used canines to intimidate and assault detainees. It stated: “The usage of canines to hurt detainees is illegal.”
It additionally stated there have been “skilled terrorists regarded as to be very bad a few of the detainees held in IDF detention amenities” and that “in outstanding circumstances there may be prolonged shackling all through their detention”.
A number of detainees stated they’d been compelled to suppose rigidity positions, together with having their palms lifted above their heads for hours.
“We’d be sitting on our knees from 5am till 10pm, when it used to be time to sleep,” stated Mr Abu Tawileh.
Hamad al-Dahdouh, some other interviewee, stated beatings on the barracks “centered our heads and delicate spaces just like the eyes [and] ears”.
The 44-year-old, who labored as a farmer sooner than the warfare, stated he had suffered transient again and ear injury because of this, and his rib cage have been fractured.
The IDF didn’t reply to this allegation.
Hamad al-Dahdouh stated he suffered beatings so serious that they fractured his rib cage
Mr Dahdouh and one of the crucial different launched detainees stated electrical shocks had been extensively utilized all through interrogations or as punishment.
“The oppression devices would carry canines, sticks and stun weapons, they might electrocute and beat us,” he stated.
They might be subjected to beatings and intimidation each and every time they had been moved, Mr Abu Tawileh added.
Throughout those interrogations they’d been accused of hyperlinks with Hamas, the boys added.
“Any individual who used to be imprisoned… they stated: ‘You’re a terrorist’,” stated Mr Mushtaha. “They at all times attempted to let us know that we had taken phase in 7 October. All of them had a grudge.
“I advised them: ‘If I’m Hamas or any person else, would I be shifting throughout the secure passage? Would I’ve listened on your calls to go away?'”
Abdul Karim Mushtaha says he used to be overwhelmed such a lot that “blood used to be pouring” down his legs and arms
He stated interrogations would pass throughout the night time.
“For 3 nights, I could not sleep as a result of they had been torturing me. Our palms had been tied and put above our heads for hours, and we were not dressed in the rest. Any time you might say ‘I am chilly’… they might fill a bucket with chilly water, pour it on you and turn at the fan.”
Mr Dahdouh stated their interrogators advised them that whoever is from Gaza “is affiliated with terrorist teams”, and when detainees requested if they might problem this in court docket they had been advised there used to be no time for that.
He stated he used to be no longer given get right of entry to to a legal professional. The IDF advised the BBC: “Israeli regulation grants the fitting to judicial evaluate in a civil district court docket, criminal illustration by way of an lawyer, and the fitting of enchantment to the Ultimate Court docket.”
“Omar” stated he used to be taken for 3 days of interrogation when he first arrived at Sde Teiman.
He stated the detainees had been wearing skinny overalls and held in a freezing room, with loud audio system enjoying Israeli track.
When the wondering used to be over, the boys stated they had been led again to the barracks blindfolded.
“We did not know if night time had come or morning had come. You do not see the solar. You do not see the rest,” stated Omar.
The IDF stated it had “oversight mechanisms”, together with closed-circuit cameras, “to be sure that detention amenities are controlled in response to IDF orders and the regulation”.
Omar and Mr Mushtaha stated they had been then transferred to Ketziot jail, the place they described a “welcoming rite” of beatings and different abuse.
Getty Photographs
Omar and Abdul Karim Mushtaha stated beatings at Ketziot jail, pictured right here in 2011, had been serious and meals minimum
Omar stated he witnessed sexual attack at Ketziot.
“They took the garments off one of the crucial guys and would do shameful acts… They compelled guys to accomplish intercourse acts on each and every different. I noticed it with my very own eyes. It wasn’t penetrative intercourse. He would inform one man to suck some other man. It used to be mandatory.”
The BBC didn’t obtain every other experiences of this nature, however the Palestinian Prisoners Society, which tracks stipulations of Palestinians in Israeli jails, described sexual abuse of detainees held in Ketziot as a “commonplace incidence”. This ranged from rape and sexual harassment to the beatings of genitals, it stated.
The crowd stated that whilst it had no longer gained testimony of compelled sexual acts between detainees, it have been advised some have been made to take a look at each and every different bare and have been thrown on most sensible of one another bare.
A document by way of B’Tselem has additionally accumulated allegations of sexual violence, together with from one prisoner who stated guards tried to rape him with a carrot.
The BBC put the allegation that prisoners had been compelled to accomplish sexual acts on each and every different to the Israel Jail Provider (IPS). It responded that it used to be “no longer conscious” of the sexual abuse declare or any of the opposite claims made about remedy and prerequisites at Ketziot and different prisons that the BBC had accumulated.
It stated: “IPS is a regulation enforcement organisation that operates in keeping with the provisions of the regulation and underneath the supervision of the state comptroller and lots of different respectable opinions.
“All prisoners are detained in keeping with the regulation. All fundamental rights required are totally carried out by way of professionally educated jail guards. We aren’t acutely aware of the claims you described and, so far as we all know, no such occasions have took place underneath IPS duty.
“However, prisoners and detainees have the fitting to record a grievance that might be totally tested and addressed by way of respectable government.”
Omar stated they had been additionally hit with batons at Ketziot jail.
“Once we were given tortured, I used to be in ache all night time – from my again to my legs. The blokes would raise me from my bed to the bathroom. My frame, my again, my legs – my entire frame used to be blue from beatings. For almost two months I could not transfer.”
Mr Mushtaha described having his head slammed right into a door, and his genitals hit.
“They might strip us bare. They might Taser us. They might hit us in a delicate position. They might let us know ‘We will be able to castrate you’,” he stated.
He stated beatings had been “intended to damage your bones”, and that detainees would infrequently be grouped in combination and feature sizzling water poured over them.
“The volume of torture used to be monumental,” he added.
Each he and Omar additionally described incidents of what they stated amounted to scientific negligence.
“My palms had been all blisters and swollen,” stated Mr Mushtaha.
“If folks will have noticed my legs they might have stated they had to be amputated from the irritation… [Guards] would simply inform me to clean my palms and legs with water and cleaning soap.
“However how used to be I intended to do that, when there used to be best water for one hour an afternoon [between us], and as for cleaning soap, each and every week they might carry [only] a spoon of shampoo,” he added.
Mr Mushtaha stated he used to be advised by way of guards that: “So long as you have got a pulse you might be in just right form. So long as you might be status, you might be in just right form. When your pulse is long past, we can come to regard you.”
Abdul Karim Mushtaha used to be inflamed with scabies on unlock from jail, a scientific document displays
A document by way of a legal professional who visited each Mr Mushtaha and Omar in Ketziot final September stated of Mr Mushtaha: “The prisoner, like the remainder of the prisoners, suffers from ache because of boils on his palms, ft and buttocks, and there is not any cleanliness and he isn’t supplied with any roughly remedy.”
Mr Mushtaha additionally supplied the BBC with a document compiled by way of a health care provider in Gaza, which showed he used to be nonetheless inflamed with scabies at the day of his unlock.
Omar stated detainees had been overwhelmed for inquiring for hospital therapy.
The legal professional famous that Omar wanted consideration for “acne spreading at the pores and skin – within the groin and buttocks because of the tough jail stipulations” together with loss of toiletries and polluted water. “The prisoner says that even if it’s his flip to bathe he tries to keep away from it for the reason that water… reasons itching and irritation.”
All of the detainees added they’d been given restricted get right of entry to to meals and water whilst in detention at more than a few amenities – a number of reported dropping vital quantities of weight.
Omar stated he misplaced 30kg (4st 10lb). The legal professional stated Omar advised him meals used to be “nearly non-existent” within the first few months, although stipulations later “stepped forward a bit of”.
Mr Mushtaha described meals there being left outdoor their caged compounds for cats and birds to devour from first.
Every other of our interviewees, Ahmed Abu Seif, stated he used to be taken to another jail – Megiddo, close to the occupied West Financial institution, after being arrested on his seventeenth birthday.
Ahmed Abu Seif, held in Megiddo jail’s formative years wing, says he had his toenails pulled out all through interrogations
He stated Israeli government would ceaselessly hurricane their cells there and spray them with tear fuel.
“We’d really feel suffocated and not able to respire smartly for 4 days after each and every tear fuel assault,” in keeping with Ahmed, who stated he have been held within the jail’s formative years wing.
“There used to be no attention folks being kids, they handled us just like the militants of seven October.”
Throughout interrogations he had his nails pulled out, he advised us. When the BBC filmed him the day after his unlock, he confirmed us how a number of of his toenails had been nonetheless affected, in addition to scars on his palms he stated have been led to by way of handcuffs and canine scratches.
The IPS didn’t reply to this allegation.
Two of the boys stated they’d witnessed the deaths of fellow detainees in Sde Teiman and Ketziot – one via beatings, together with using canines, and one via scientific negligence.
The names and dates they gave of the incidents fit media experiences and accounts from human rights teams.
A minimum of 63 Palestinian prisoners – 40 of them from Gaza – have died in Israeli custody since 7 October 2023, the Palestinian Prisoners Society advised the BBC.
The IPS didn’t reply to questions on deaths of Palestinians in custody, whilst the IDF stated it used to be “acutely aware of circumstances of detainee deaths, together with those that had been detained with pre-existing sickness or harm attributable to struggle”.
“In line with procedures, an investigation is opened by way of the Army Police Legal Investigation Department (MPCID) into each and every detainee demise,” it added.
The abuse endured proper up to date they had been freed in February, one of the crucial males stated.
“At the unlock day, they handled us brutally. They tightened {the handcuffs} and once they sought after to make us transfer they put our palms above our heads and pulled us,” Mr Mushtaha stated.
“They stated: ‘For those who engage with Hamas or paintings with Hamas, you are going to be centered.’ They stated: ‘We will be able to ship a missile without delay to you.'”
Ahmed, 17, additionally stated stipulations worsened after the ceasefire deal used to be signed in January. “The warriors intensified the aggression towards us figuring out we had been getting launched quickly.”
It used to be best as soon as the detainees had been transferred to the Pink Move bus for transportation again to Gaza that they felt “secure”, Omar stated.
Photos confirmed some being returned in sweatshirts with the Famous person of David on them and the phrases: “We don’t put out of your mind and we don’t forgive” written in Arabic.
An respectable at Gaza’s Ecu Health center, which assessed the stipulations of returned detainees, stated pores and skin stipulations, together with scabies, had been commonplace, and medics had seen many circumstances of “excessive emaciation and malnutrition” and “the bodily results of torture”.
Criminal skilled Dr Lawrence Hill-Cawthorne advised us: “Unquestionably using chemical substances to burn the detainee and submerge their head would meet the brink of torture, as would using electrical shocks, removing of toenails, and serious beatings. Those, or related acts, have all been recognised to represent torture by way of global our bodies,” as have using rigidity positions and loud track.
Lawrence Hill-Cawthorne stated a number of of our interviewees’ allegations met the definition of torture
The Global Committee of the Pink Move (ICRC), which conducts interviews with returning detainees, stated it might no longer touch upon folks’ stipulations because of privateness issues.
It added that it used to be desperate to be granted get right of entry to to these nonetheless detained – one thing which has no longer been allowed for the reason that 7 October assaults.
“The ICRC stays deeply involved concerning the wellbeing of detainees and emphasises the pressing want for it to renew visits to all puts of detention. We proceed to request get right of entry to in bilateral and confidential discussion with the events,” it advised the BBC.
Fifty-nine hostages are nonetheless being held in Gaza, 24 of whom are believed to be alive. The ICRC hasn’t ever been granted get right of entry to to them of their 18 months in captivity, and their family members have grave issues over their wellbeing.
For lots of the launched Palestinian detainees, returning to Gaza used to be each a second of party and of depression.
Mr Abu Tawileh stated his circle of relatives used to be surprised by way of his look when he used to be launched, and added he used to be nonetheless suffering from his revel in.
“I’m not able to do the rest on account of my harm, as a result of my eye hurts, and it tears and feels itchy, and the entire burns on my frame feels itchy as smartly. That is bothering me so much,” he stated.
Teen Ahmed stated he now desires to go away Gaza.
“I wish to to migrate on account of the issues we noticed in detention, and on account of the psychological torture of fearing the bombs falling on our heads. We wanted for demise however could not to find it.”
