Israel has a “de facto state policy of organized and widespread torture,” according to a new UN report covering the past two years, which also raised concerns about the impunity of Israeli security forces for war crimes.
The UN Committee on Torture expressed deep concern over allegations of “repeated severe beatings, dog attacks, electric shocks, waterboarding, use of prolonged stress positions (and) sexual violence”.
The report, published on Friday as part of routine monitoring by the Committee of States that have signed the UN Convention against Torture, also said Palestinian detainees were humiliated by being “treated like animals or having their bodies urinated on”, were systematically denied medical care and were subjected to excessive use of restraints, “in some cases resulting in amputation.”
A UN committee of 10 independent experts expressed concern over Israel’s wholesale use of unlawful combat law to justify the long-term detention without trial of thousands of Palestinian men, women and children. The latest figures published by Israeli human rights group B’Tselem said that as of the end of September the Israeli prison service was holding 3,474 Palestinians in “administrative detention”, meaning without trial.
The new UN report, covering the two-year period since the beginning of the Gaza war on 7 October 2023, draws attention to the “high proportion of children currently detained without charge or on remand”, noting that the age of criminal responsibility imposed by Israel is 12, and children under 12 are also detained.
The new report says children classified as security prisoners “face severe restrictions on family contact, may be held in solitary confinement, and do not have access to education, in violation of international standards”. It calls on Israel to amend its law so that solitary confinement cannot be used against children.
The UN committee, which was established to monitor the implementation of the 1984 UN Convention against Torture, further states that the daily enforcement of Israeli policies in occupied Palestine, “may be tantamount to torture”.
The report said that 75 Palestinians have died in custody during the Gaza war, during which conditions of detention for Palestinians have “significantly deteriorated”. It found that the death toll was “unusually high and appears to have particularly affected the Palestinian captive population”. It added that “to date, no state official has been held responsible or accountable for such deaths”.
The government of Israel has repeatedly denied the use of torture. The UN committee heard evidence from representatives of the country’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Ministry of Justice and prison service who argued that prison conditions were adequate and subject to supervision.
However, the Committee reported that the inspector charged with investigating complaints at the Inquiry “did not initiate any criminal prosecutions for acts of torture and ill-treatment” in the past two years, despite widespread allegations of such practices.
It said Israel had pointed to just one conviction for torture or ill-treatment in that two-year period, apparently a reference to an Israeli soldier sentenced for attacking bound and blindfolded detainees in Gaza in February this year with his fists, a baton and his assault rifle. In that case, the Committee found that a seven-month sentence “does not reflect the seriousness of the crime”.
The report was published the day three Israeli border police officers were released after questioning over the fatal shooting of two Palestinians they had detained in Jenin.
Video of the incident on Thursday evening shows two men, Yusuf Asasa and Mahmoud Abdullah, crawling from a building. Asasa and Abdullah can be seen raising their hands and lifting their shirts to show that they are unarmed.
Both men, claimed by Palestinian Islamic Jihad as fighters from its al-Quds Brigades, were detained for a few seconds by Border Police officers, including a bald-headed officer with a beard, who appears to take control in the video and kick both detainees before pointing and leading them back inside the building. A few seconds later Assa and Abdullah were shot by officers from a distance of about 2 meters.
According to Israeli media, three border officers who were questioned on Friday about the incident claimed that they “felt an immediate and concrete threat” to their lives. His report of what happened stated that two detainees had refused to strip and “put their hands in their pockets”, and then one of them tried to “run back into the building”.
Video of the incident, the authenticity of which is not disputed by Israeli authorities, shows no apparent resistance from either man, nor does it show them with their hands in their pockets. It appears that they are reluctant to re-enter the building under express orders from the Border Police officer.
The three border police officers were released after questioning on the condition that they not discuss the case with others.
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