- Israeli civilians were permitted to witness and film Palestinian detainees being tortured by the IDF.
- These actions further compound the crimes committed by the Israeli army against Palestinians in Gaza, eliciting widespread condemnation.
Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor has received disturbing accounts from recently released Palestinian detainees, who revealed that the Israeli army invited Israeli civilians to witness their interrogation sessions, during which they were subjected to torture and inhumane treatment deliberately in front of the civilians.
According to testimony received by Euro-Med Monitor, groups of ten to twenty Israeli civilians were allowed to observe and record Palestinian prisoners and detainees in their underwear, while Israeli army soldiers subjected them to physical abuse. This included beating them with metal batons, electric sticks, and pouring hot water on their heads, all while the detainees endured verbal abuse.
“The IDF brought Israeli civilians to watch us being tortured naked”. one prisoner asserted.
Palestinian Omar Abu Mudallala, 43, recounted to the Euro-Med Monitor team: “I was arrested at the checkpoint near the Kuwait roundabout, which separates Gaza City from the central region, as part of the Israeli random arrest campaigns. I endured various forms of torture and abuse for approximately 52 days.” He highlighted that Israeli soldiers “brought Israeli civilians to witness our naked torture.”
Abu Mudallala further stated: “The Israeli army escorted a group of Israeli civilians into our detention centres while assaulting us and informing them, ‘These are Hamas terrorists who murdered your people and raped your women on 7 October.’ Meanwhile, the Israeli civilians recorded us being beaten, mistreated, and tortured while mocking us.”
Israeli civilians were brought into detention centres and prisons housing Palestinian detainees from Gaza, where they witnessed torture inflicted upon the detainees. Many were even allowed to film these acts on their personal phones.
This introduces a new offence to the catalogue of crimes perpetrated by the Israeli army against Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.
