A horrific purported video of Israeli soldiers allegedly sexually assaulting a Palestinian detainee has brought to light similar concerns expressed by multiple rights bodies for long.

Rights experts have said “reports of alleged torture and sexual violence in Israel’s Sde Teiman prison are grossly illegal and revolting, but they only represent the tip of the iceberg”, while another testimony-based report has called Israeli prisons a “network of torture camps”.

The shadowy detention centre of Sde Teiman has gained notoriety in recent months after CNN and the Associated Press published harrowing investigations that detailed abuses and inhumane treatment of Palestinian prisoners there.

According to CNN, the footage was broadcast by Israeli channel N12 and allegedly showed Israeli soldiers sexually assaulting a Palestinian held at a detention centre.

The leaked surveillance video appears to show a group of detainees lying on the ground and a group of soldiers can be seen taking a detainee to a corner of the facility, CNN said.

The footage surfaced online days after Israeli police arrested nine soldiers from Sde Teiman over allegations of severe abuse of a Palestinian detainee during the ongoing Gaza conflict.

While it could not be confirmed if the video was from the same incident in which arrests were made, the soldiers had been apprehended from Sde Teiman and AP, citing unnamed Israeli soldiers, said the video matched the facility’s description.

The United States called the allegations “horrific” while the European Union (EU) said it was “gravely concerned”. Journalists and others vocal about similar past allegations reiterated their call to hold the suspects accountable.

The US called the sexual abuse allegations “horrific” and said that Israel ought to “swiftly” and “fully” investigate them.

“When there are alleged violations the government of Israel needs to take steps to investigate those who are alleged to have committed abuses, and if appropriate, hold them accountable,” said US State Department spokesperson Mathew Miller.

He urged Israel to “investigate those who are alleged to have committed abuses and, if appropriate, hold them accountable”.

“There ought to be zero tolerance for sexual abuse, rape of any detainee, period,” Miller said when asked about a report issued by Israeli human rights group B’tselem detailing abuses against Palestinian detainees.

About whether the US would “support an independent investigation into those allegations”, Miller said the Israeli government and the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) needed to “fully investigate those actions”.

The EU was “gravely concerned” by the allegations, Peter Stano, a spokesperson for the bloc’s diplomatic service, told Politico.

Stano stressed that the EU has “repeatedly called on Israel to ensure that all those arrested or detained are treated in line with international human rights and international humanitarian law and standards”.

Jeremy Laurence, media officer for the UN’s Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), called the footage “shocking”.

“It is one of many seen in recent months involving gross violations against Palestinian detainees by Israel, including acts of ill-treatment, torture, sexual violence and rape,” Laurence told Anadolu.

He highlighted that the OHCHR regularly raised concerns about impunity being a “long-standing problem” in Israel in the context of violations against Palestinians. The official also urged Israel to “give immediate access to independent monitoring bodies” to all prisons.

In a statement, the UN’s Human Rights Office in occupied Palestinian territories “reiterated the urgent need for a full-scale investigation into Israel’s detention practices”.

It said the UN’s OHCHR has “documented a number of videos in recent months which show gross violations of the rights of Palestinians detained by Israel, including acts of ill treatment, torture, sexual violence and rape”.

Noting “Israel’s well documented long-standing failure to ensure accountability for serious violations of international humanitarian law”, the OHCHR said “remedies at the international level” were necessary.

Journalists, rights monitors and others also shared the footage to highlight the human rights abuses allegedly committed by Israeli soldiers.

Euro-Med Monitor, an independent rights organisation, shared its statement dated August 2 that called on the international community to “act swiftly and forcefully to end Israel’s systematic and widespread use of torture and other serious violations against Palestinian prisoners”.

It also shared a video testimony on X of Abdulaziz Junaid, who was informed of his son Omar’s death months after he was detained by the Israeli army from northern Gaza.

“Don’t look away,” said renowned journalist Mehdi Hasan as he shared a post with the alleged video.

“This is what the US government is helping to pay for. Right now,” he said.

Husam Zomlot, the Palestinian ambassador to the United Kingdom, said it was “time that rapists and criminals are stopped and held accountable”.

“Without justice how can we get peace?” he asked on X.

Francesca Albanese, the UN’s special rapporteur for occupied Palestinian territories, said it was a “legitimate question” as she shared a writer’s post asking why the alleged incident was “not being shared on Western mainstream news channels”.

Scottish historian William Dalrymple also questioned why the development was not a “major story” in the UK’s media giants.

He termed the Sde Teiman centre as the “Israeli Abu Ghraib rape camp” — a reference to an American prison in Iraq.

Al Jazeera journalist Laila Al Arain pointed out: “There hasn’t been any mainstream media coverage, no breaking news alerts, no cable news panels.”

Arrests shed light

The arrests of the Israeli soldiers suspected of sexual abuse led to scuffles between their supporters and the military, meaning it was unlikely for the matter to go unreported in international media.

According to the Associated Press, five of the soldiers are no longer under investigation as of August 8.

AP further reported that the Israeli supreme court was also hearing a petition seeking the closure of the Sde Teiman facility and had given the state a week and a half to provide more information about conditions at the prison.

Physicians for Human Rights Israel (PHRI), an Israeli rights group, told CNN that the alleged victim — a man in his thirties — was brought to one of Israel’s public hospitals in a life-threatening condition, with injuries to his upper body and his rectum.

“Mounting testimonies indicate these incidents are not isolated. They suggest systematic abuse and violence, and a blind eye to violations,” the PHRI said in a post on X.

According to Al Jazeera, an Israeli medical staffer told the Wall Street Journal about the “shocking” condition of the Palestinian detainee.

“It was pretty horrifying,” the staffer was quoted as saying. “It’s just setting the bar so low that I don’t know how we can deteriorate more morally.”

‘Tip of the iceberg’

Reports from rights organisations, such as the United Nations, and dozens of testimonies from former Palestinian detainees suggest that these incidents are just glimpses of Israel’s systemic abuse of Palestinians.

“Reports of alleged torture and sexual violence in Israel’s Sde Teiman prison are grossly illegal and revolting, but they only represent the tip of the iceberg,” nine independent rights experts part of the UN’s OHCHR said in a press release issued on August 5.

“Allegations of gang-rape of a Palestinian detainee, now shockingly supported by voices in the Israeli political establishment and society, provide irrefutable evidence that the moral compass is lost,” the experts said.

They cited testimonies that described “detainees in cage-like enclosures, tied to beds blindfolded and in diapers; stripped naked; deprived of adequate healthcare, food, water and sleep; electrocutions including on their genitals; blackmail and cigarette burns”.

“In addition, victims spoke of loud music played until their ears bled, attacks by dogs, waterboarding, suspension from ceilings and severe sexual and gender-based violence,” the UN rapporteurs highlighted.

In a separate report published on July 31, the UN’s human rights office OHCHR said at least 53 detainees from Gaza and the West Bank have died in Israeli detention since the Gaza conflict began on October 7 last year.

Testimonies for the report suggested that Israel had subjected prisoners to “a range of appalling acts, such as waterboarding and the release of dogs on detainees”, UN rights chief Volker Turk was quoted as saying.

Amnesty International said in July that it had documented 27 cases of Palestinians, including five women and a 14-year-old boy, who were detained by Israel “for up to four and a half months” without being able to contact their families.

It demanded that “Israeli authorities must end their indefinite incommunicado detention of Palestinians from the occupied Gaza Strip”.

B’tselem, described by BBC as Israel’s leading human rights organisation, published a 118-page report on August 5 titled ‘Welcome to Hell: The Israeli Prison System as a Network of Torture Camps’.

B’tselem collected testimonies from 55 Palestinians who were released after being incarcerated in Israeli prisons and detention facilities during the ongoing Gaza conflict.

A few of the harrowing testimonies were also covered by the BBC.

Israeli newspaper Haaretz published an editorial titled ‘Corrupted by the Desire for Revenge, Israeli Prisons Have Become Abuse Centers’.

“A litany of violence, threats, sleep deprivation, starvation and humiliation described by dozens of Palestinians held in Israeli prisons […] leaves no room for doubt: the Israeli prison system operates as a facility for abusing inmates,” Haaretz said.

The B’tselem report said the testimonies uncovered a “systemic, institutional policy focused” on the torture of Palestinian prisoners using various methods such as sexual assault, humiliation and degradation, deliberate starvation, forced unhygienic conditions, and sleep deprivation.

It detailed prison conditions and protocols — including overpopulation, no sunlight or ample air, cell searches and living in darkness.

Based on the testimonies, the report also described alleged physical and sexual violence as well as psychological abuse inflicted upon Palestinian detainees.

Other alleged abuses include denial of medical aid, amputation due to torture, food deprivation and starvation, cutting off the water supply for hygiene and drinking, limiting access to shower facilities, and exposure to cold due to open windows.

While such disturbing reports with graphic details continue to surface, it remains to be seen if Israel will face an independent international probe for its alleged human rights abuses.

Header image: Palestinian Moazaz Obaiyat, who was released from Israeli jail, shows marks on his body, in a hospital in Bethlehem, in Israel-occupied West Bank on July 11, 2024. — Reuters