A major United Nations investigation has concluded that Israel operates a de facto state policy of organised and widespread torture against Palestinian detainees. The report, covering the two-year period since the Gaza war began on 7 October 2023, raises grave concerns about the systematic impunity for what it suggests may constitute war crimes.
Systematic Abuse and Inhumane Treatment
The UN Committee against Torture, composed of ten independent experts, expressed profound alarm over the sheer volume and severity of allegations. The findings detail repeated incidents of severe beatings, dog attacks, electrocution, and waterboarding. Detainees were also reportedly subjected to the use of prolonged stress positions and sexual violence.
The report further describes humiliating treatment, with Palestinians being made to act like animals or being urinated on. It highlights a systematic denial of medical care and the excessive use of restraints, which in some tragic instances led to amputation. The committee also flagged the abnormally high number of 75 Palestinian deaths in custody during this period, a toll that appears to have exclusively affected the Palestinian detainee population.
Wholesale Detention Without Trial
A central concern of the UN committee is Israel's extensive application of its Unlawful Combatants Law. This legislation is used to justify the prolonged detention without trial of thousands of Palestinians. According to the Israeli human rights group B'Tselem, 3,474 Palestinians were being held in administrative detention by the end of September.
The report sheds a particularly harsh light on the detention of children. It notes that Israel sets the age of criminal responsibility at 12, but that children younger than 12 have also been detained. Those categorised as security prisoners face severe restrictions, including limited family contact, potential solitary confinement, and a denial of access to education. The committee has urgently appealed to Israel to amend its laws to prohibit the use of solitary confinement for children.
Culture of Impunity and a Recent Incident
The UN experts found a near-total lack of accountability for these alleged crimes. They pointed out that the official inspector for interrogations had brought no criminal prosecutions for acts of torture and ill-treatment in the past two years, despite widespread allegations. Israel could point to only one conviction, where a soldier received a seven-month sentence for attacking bound and blindfolded detainees—a punishment the committee deemed insufficient for the severity of the offence.
The report's publication coincided with a fresh incident underscoring these concerns. On Thursday, Israeli border police officers shot dead two detained Palestinians, Youssef Asasa and Mahmoud Abdallah, in Jenin. Video evidence shows the men, who were unarmed, being ordered back into a building before being shot at close range. The three officers involved were released after questioning, with their claims of feeling a threat contradicted by the video evidence.
While Israel's government has consistently denied the use of torture, the UN committee argues that the daily imposition of Israeli policies in occupied Palestine, taken as a whole, may itself amount to torture. The findings present a stark picture of a system where, the committee states, no state officials have been held responsible for the deaths and abuses occurring in detention.
