Gazan detainees inform BBC of torture by IDF

Warning: This text accommodates distressing content material

Palestinian detainees launched again to Gaza have informed the BBC they have been subjected to mistreatment and torture by the hands of Israeli navy and jail workers, including to stories of misconduct inside Israel’s barracks and jails.

One man stated he was attacked with chemical substances and set alight. “I thrashed round like an animal in an try and put the fireplace out [on my body],” stated Mohammad Abu Tawileh, a 36-year-old mechanic.

We now have performed in-depth interviews with 5 launched detainees, all of whom have 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 have been held below Israel’s Illegal Combatants Legislation, a measure by which individuals suspected of posing a safety danger might be detained for an unspecified interval with out cost, as Israel got down to get better the hostages and dismantle the proscribed terror group.

The boys say they have been accused of getting hyperlinks with Hamas and questioned over the situation of hostages and tunnels, however weren’t discovered to be concerned within the 7 October 2023 assaults – a situation Israel had set for anybody launched below the latest ceasefire deal.

A few of these freed below the deal have been serving sentences for different severe crimes, together with the killing of Israelis, however that was not the case for our interviewees. We additionally requested the Israel Protection Forces (IDF) and the Israel Jail Service (IPS) if there have been any convictions or accusations in opposition to the boys however they didn’t reply to that query.

Within the males’s testimony:

• They every describe being stripped, blindfolded, cuffed and crushed
• Some additionally say they got electrical shocks, menaced by canine, and denied entry to medical care
• Some say they witnessed the deaths of different detainees
• One says he witnessed sexual abuse
• One other says he had his head dunked in chemical substances and his again set on fireplace

We now have seen stories by a lawyer who visited two of the boys in jail, and have spoken to medical workers who handled a few of them on their return.

The BBC despatched a prolonged proper of reply letter to the IDF which specified by element the boys’s allegations and their identities.

In its assertion, the IDF didn’t reply to any of the particular allegations, however stated it “fully rejects accusations of systematic abuse of detainees”.

It stated a number of the instances raised by the BBC can be “examined by the related authorities”. It added that others “have been introduced with out adequate element, with none element relating to the identification of the detainees, making them unimaginable to look at”.

It continued: “The IDF takes any… actions which contradict its values very severely… Particular complaints about inappropriate behaviour by detention facility workers or inadequate circumstances are forwarded for examination by the related authorities and are handled accordingly. In acceptable instances, disciplinary actions are taken in opposition to the workers members of the ability, and felony investigations are opened.”

The IPS stated it was not conscious of any of the claims of abuse described in our investigation, in its prisons. “[A]s far as we all know, no such occasions have occurred below IPS duty,” it added.

Dr Lawrence Hill-Cawthorne, co-director of the Centre for Worldwide Legislation on the College of Bristol, stated the remedy the boys described was “completely inconsistent with each worldwide legislation and Israeli legislation”, and in some instances would “meet the brink of torture”.

“Underneath worldwide legislation, the legislation of armed battle requires you to deal with all detainees humanely,” he stated. “The obligations regarding the essential wants of detainees are unaffected by any alleged wrongdoing.”

The 5 Palestinians interviewed in depth have been returned earlier this 12 months below the ceasefire take care of Hamas – the group that led the 7 October 2023 assaults on Israel.

They have been amongst about 1,900 Palestinian prisoners and detainees exchanged for 33 Israeli hostages, eight lifeless and 25 dwelling, a few of whom have described being abused, starved and threatened by their Hamas captors.

Feminine hostages beforehand launched have detailed bodily and sexual assaults in captivity.

Israel says forensic checks present a number of the lifeless hostages returned within the ceasefire, together with youngsters, have been killed by Hamas, although the group denies this.

The 5 launched Palestinian detainees all described the identical sample – being arrested in Gaza, taken into Israel to be detained first in navy barracks earlier than being moved on to jail, and eventually launched again to Gaza months later.

They stated they’d been abused at each stage of the method.

Greater than a dozen different launched detainees, whom the BBC spoke to extra briefly as they arrived house in Gaza, additionally gave accounts of beatings, starvation and illness.

These, in flip, align with testimony given by others to Israeli human rights group B’Tselem and the United Nations, which in July detailed stories 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 canine set on them.

An additional report by UN consultants final month documented instances of rape and sexual assault, and stated utilizing this as a risk was “commonplace working process” for the IDF. Israel responded to say it “categorically rejects the unfounded allegations”.

As Israel doesn’t at present permit worldwide journalists free entry to Gaza, our interviews have been performed by telephone name and textual content message, and in addition in individual by our contracted freelancers within the territory.

All 5 males informed us their abuse had begun in the intervening time of their arrest – after they stated they’d been stripped, blindfolded and crushed.

Mechanic Mohammad Abu Tawileh informed us he had been tortured for days.

He was taken by troopers to a constructing not removed from the situation of his arrest in March 2024, he stated, and held in a room – the only detainee there – for 3 days of interrogation by troops.

Warning: Graphic picture under

Troopers combined chemical substances used for cleansing right into a pot, he informed 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 informed us.

“They used an air freshener with a lighter to set my again on fireplace. I thrashed round like an animal in an try and put the fireplace out. It unfold from my neck all the way down to my legs. Then, they repeatedly hit me with the bottoms of their rifles, and had sticks with them, which they used to hit and poke me on my sides,” he stated.

They then “continued pouring acid on me. I spent round a day and a half being washed with [it],” he informed us.

“They poured it on my head, and it dripped down my physique whereas I used to be sitting on the chair.”

Ultimately, he stated, troopers poured water on his physique, and drove him into Israel the place he obtained medical remedy in hospital, together with pores and skin grafts.

Most of his remedy, he stated, happened at a subject hospital at Sde Teiman barracks, an IDF base close to Beersheba in southern Israel. He stated he was cuffed bare to a mattress and given a nappy as an alternative of entry to a rest room. Israeli docs at this hospital have beforehand informed the BBC shackling sufferers and forcing them to put on nappies is routine.

When the BBC interviewed Mr Abu Tawileh shortly after his launch, his again was coated in crimson welts. The residual ache from his burns nonetheless woke him up, he stated, and his imaginative and prescient had been affected.

The BBC was not in a position to communicate to anybody who witnessed an assault on Mr Abu Tawileh, however a specialist eye physician who handled him on his return to Gaza confirmed that he had suffered a chemical burn to the attention, damaging the pores and skin round it. He additionally stated Mr Abu Tawileh’s imaginative and prescient was weakening, because of both the chemical substances or different trauma.

We confirmed photographs of his accidents and gave particulars of his testimony to a number of UK docs, who stated they appeared constant together with his account, although they famous there have been limitations to what they may assess by photographs.

The BBC gave intensive particulars of this account to the IDF, giving it 5 days to research. It didn’t reply on to Mr Abu Tawileh’s allegations however stated it took any actions “which contradict its values very severely”.

It stated it will “look at” a number of the instances, however didn’t reply to follow-up questions on whether or not this included Mr Abu Tawileh.

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 informed us he was arrested in November 2023 at an Israeli checkpoint whereas following evacuation orders together with his household. A report filed by a lawyer who later visited Mr Mushtaha famous he had been “subjected to extreme beatings, humiliation, degradation and stripping throughout his arrest till he was transferred to jail”.

Two stated they’d then been left exterior within the chilly for hours, and two stated Israeli troopers stole their belongings and cash.

The BBC gave particulars of the allegations of theft to the IDF, which described it as “opposite to the legislation and IDF values”. It stated it will “totally” look at the instances if extra particulars have been supplied.

All our interviewees, together with Mr Mushtaha, stated they have been transferred to the Israeli barracks of Sde Teiman, the place Mr Abu Tawileh additionally stated he obtained remedy in its subject hospital.

One interviewee informed us he was mistreated on the way in which there. He requested for his identify to not be printed for concern of reprisals, so we’re calling him “Omar”.

He stated Israeli troopers stood and spat on him, and others with him, calling them “sons of pigs” and “sons of Sinwar” – referring to the Hamas chief and architect of the 7 October assaults, killed by Israel 5 months in the past.

“They made us hearken to a voice recording that stated: ‘What you probably did to our kids, we are going to do to your youngsters’,” stated the 33-year-old, who labored for {an electrical} cable firm.

Sde Teiman has been the main focus of earlier severe complaints within the wake of the October 2023 assaults. A number of troopers stationed there have been charged in February after they have 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 was sentenced after he admitted to the aggravated abuse of Palestinian detainees from Gaza.

Three of the boys we spoke to alleged that canine have been used to intimidate detainees at Sde Teiman and different services.

“We might get crushed up after they took us from the barracks to the medical clinic or the interrogation room – they’d set [muzzled] canine on us, tighten our cuffs,” stated Mr Abu Tawileh who was held generally detention within the barracks, in addition to being handled there.

The BBC requested the IDF to reply to allegations it ceaselessly used canine to intimidate and assault detainees. It stated: “The usage of canine to hurt detainees is prohibited.”

It additionally stated there have been “skilled terrorists thought-about to be very harmful among the many detainees held in IDF detention services” and that “in distinctive instances there may be prolonged shackling throughout their detention”.

A number of detainees stated they’d been pressured to imagine stress positions, together with having their arms lifted above their heads for hours.

“We might be sitting on our knees from 5am till 10pm, when it was time to sleep,” stated Mr Abu Tawileh.

Hamad al-Dahdouh, one other interviewee, stated beatings on the barracks “focused our heads and delicate areas just like the eyes [and] ears”.

The 44-year-old, who labored as a farmer earlier than the warfare, stated he had suffered momentary again and ear injury consequently, and his rib cage had been fractured.

The IDF didn’t reply to this allegation.

Mr Dahdouh and a number of the different launched detainees stated electrical shocks have been additionally used throughout interrogations or as punishment.

“The oppression items would convey canine, sticks and stun weapons, they might electrocute and beat us,” he stated.

They might be subjected to beatings and intimidation each time they have been moved, Mr Abu Tawileh added.

“We might get crushed up after they took us from the barracks to the medical clinic or the interrogation room – they’d set [muzzled] canine on us, tighten our cuffs,” he stated.

Throughout these interrogations they’d been accused of hyperlinks with Hamas, the boys added.

“Anybody who was imprisoned… they stated: ‘You’re a terrorist’,” stated Mr Mushtaha. “They at all times tried to inform us that we had taken half in 7 October. All of them had a grudge.

“I informed them: ‘If I’m Hamas or anybody else, would I be shifting by way of the secure passage? Would I’ve listened to your calls to go away?'”

He stated interrogations would undergo the night time.

“For 3 nights, I could not sleep as a result of they have been torturing me. Our fingers have been tied and put above our heads for hours, and we weren’t carrying something. Any time you’ll say ‘I am chilly’… they might fill a bucket with chilly water, pour it on you and swap on the fan.”

Mr Dahdouh stated their interrogators informed them that whoever is from Gaza “is affiliated with terrorist teams”, and when detainees requested if they may problem this in courtroom they have been informed there was no time for that.

He stated he was not given entry to a lawyer. The IDF informed the BBC: “Israeli legislation grants the suitable to judicial overview in a civil district courtroom, authorized illustration by an legal professional, and the suitable of attraction to the Supreme Court docket.”

“Omar” stated he was taken for 3 days of interrogation when he first arrived at Sde Teiman.

He stated the detainees have been wearing skinny overalls and held in a freezing room, with loud audio system taking part in Israeli music.

When the questioning was over, the boys stated they have 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 something,” stated Omar.

The IDF stated it had “oversight mechanisms”, together with closed-circuit cameras, “to make sure that detention services are managed in accordance with IDF orders and the legislation”.

Omar and Mr Mushtaha stated they have been then transferred to Ketziot jail, the place they described a “welcoming ceremony” of beatings and different abuse.

Omar stated he witnessed sexual assault at Ketziot.

“They took the garments off a number of the guys and would do shameful acts… They pressured guys to carry out intercourse acts on one another. I noticed it with my very own eyes. It wasn’t penetrative intercourse. He would inform one man to suck one other man. It was compulsory.”

The BBC didn’t obtain every other stories of this nature, however the Palestinian Prisoners Society, which tracks circumstances of Palestinians in Israeli jails, described sexual abuse of detainees held in Ketziot as a “frequent prevalence”. This ranged from rape and sexual harassment to the beatings of genitals, it stated.

The group stated that whereas it had not obtained testimony of pressured sexual acts between detainees, it had been informed some had been made to have a look at one another bare and had been thrown on prime of one another bare.

A report by B’Tselem has additionally gathered 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 have been pressured to carry out sexual acts on one another to the Israel Jail Service (IPS). It replied that it was “not conscious” of the sexual abuse declare or any of the opposite claims made about remedy and circumstances at Ketziot and different prisons that the BBC had gathered.

It stated: “IPS is a legislation enforcement organisation that operates in response to the provisions of the legislation and below the supervision of the state comptroller and lots of different official critiques.

“All prisoners are detained in response to the legislation. All primary rights required are totally utilized by professionally skilled jail guards. We’re not conscious of the claims you described and, so far as we all know, no such occasions have occurred below IPS duty.

“Nonetheless, prisoners and detainees have the suitable to file a grievance that will probably be totally examined and addressed by official authorities.”

Omar stated they have been additionally hit with batons at Ketziot jail.

“After we bought tortured, I used to be in ache all night time – from my again to my legs. The blokes would carry me from my mattress to the bathroom. My physique, my again, my legs – my entire physique was 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 place. They might inform us ‘We are going to castrate you’,” he stated.

He stated beatings have been “meant to interrupt your bones”, and that detainees would typically be grouped collectively and have sizzling water poured over them.

“The quantity of torture was huge,” he added.

Each he and Omar additionally described incidents of what they stated amounted to medical negligence.

“My fingers have been all blisters and swollen,” stated Mr Mushtaha.

“If folks might have seen my legs they might have stated they wanted to be amputated from the irritation… [Guards] would simply inform me to scrub my fingers and legs with water and cleaning soap.

“However how was I meant to do that, when there was solely water for one hour a day [between us], and as for cleaning soap, each week they might convey [only] a spoon of shampoo,” he added.

Mr Mushtaha stated he was informed by guards that: “So long as you’ve a pulse you’re in fine condition. So long as you’re standing, you are in fine condition. When your pulse is gone, we are going to come to deal with you.”

A report by a lawyer 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 fingers, ft and buttocks, and there’s no cleanliness and he isn’t supplied with any form of remedy.”

Mr Mushtaha additionally supplied the BBC with a report compiled by a physician in Gaza, which confirmed he was nonetheless contaminated with scabies on the day of his launch.

Omar stated detainees have been crushed for requesting medical care.

The lawyer famous that Omar wanted consideration for “pimples spreading on the pores and skin – within the groin and buttocks as a result of harsh jail circumstances” together with lack of toiletries and polluted water. “The prisoner says that even when it’s his flip to bathe he tries to keep away from it as a result of the water… causes itching and irritation.”

All of the detainees added they’d been given restricted entry to meals and water whereas in detention at varied services – a number of reported dropping important quantities of weight.

Omar stated he misplaced 30kg (4st 10lb). The lawyer stated Omar informed him meals was “nearly non-existent” within the first few months, although circumstances later “improved slightly”.

Mr Mushtaha described meals there being left exterior their caged compounds for cats and birds to eat from first.

One other of our interviewees, Ahmed Abu Seif, stated he was taken to a special jail – Megiddo, close to the occupied West Financial institution, after being arrested on his seventeenth birthday.

He stated Israeli authorities would recurrently storm their cells there and spray them with tear gasoline.

“We might really feel suffocated and unable to breathe effectively for 4 days after every tear gasoline assault,” in response to Ahmed, who stated he had been held within the jail’s youth wing.

“There was no consideration of us being youngsters, they handled us just like the militants of seven October.”

Throughout interrogations he had his nails pulled out, he informed us. When the BBC filmed him the day after his launch, he confirmed us how a number of of his toenails have been nonetheless affected, in addition to scars on his fingers he stated had been attributable to 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 by way of beatings, together with using canine, and one by way of medical negligence.

The names and dates they gave of the incidents match media stories and accounts from human rights teams.

At the very least 63 Palestinian prisoners – 40 of them from Gaza – have died in Israeli custody since 7 October 2023, the Palestinian Prisoners Society informed the BBC.

The IPS didn’t reply to questions on deaths of Palestinians in custody, whereas the IDF stated it was “conscious of instances of detainee deaths, together with those that have been detained with pre-existing sickness or harm ensuing from fight”.

“Based on procedures, an investigation is opened by the Navy Police Felony Investigation Division (MPCID) into each detainee dying,” it added.

The abuse continued proper up-to-the-minute they have been freed in February, a number of the males stated.

“On the discharge day, they handled us brutally. They tightened {the handcuffs} and after they wished to make us transfer they put our fingers above our heads and pulled us,” Mr Mushtaha stated.

“They stated: ‘If you happen to work together with Hamas or work with Hamas, you’ll be focused.’ They stated: ‘We are going to ship a missile on to you.'”

Ahmed, 17, additionally stated circumstances worsened after the ceasefire deal was signed in January. “The troopers intensified the aggression in opposition to us realizing we have been getting launched quickly.”

It was solely as soon as the detainees have been transferred to the Crimson Cross bus for transportation again to Gaza that they felt “secure”, Omar stated.

Footage confirmed some being returned in sweatshirts with the Star of David on them and the phrases: “We don’t overlook and we don’t forgive” written in Arabic.

An official at Gaza’s European Hospital, which assessed the circumstances of returned detainees, stated pores and skin circumstances, together with scabies, have been frequent, and medics had noticed many instances of “excessive emaciation and malnutrition” and “the bodily results of torture”.

Authorized skilled Dr Lawrence Hill-Cawthorne informed us: “Actually using chemical substances to burn the detainee and submerge their head would meet the brink of torture, as would using electrical shocks, elimination of toenails, and extreme beatings. These, or comparable acts, have all been recognised to represent torture by worldwide our bodies,” as have using stress positions and loud music.

The Worldwide Committee of the Crimson Cross (ICRC), which conducts interviews with returning detainees, stated it couldn’t touch upon people’ circumstances because of privateness issues.

It added that it was wanting to be granted entry to these nonetheless detained – one thing which has not been allowed for the reason that 7 October assaults.

“The ICRC stays deeply involved in regards to the wellbeing of detainees and emphasises the pressing want for it to renew visits to all locations of detention. We proceed to request entry in bilateral and confidential dialogue with the events,” it informed the BBC.

Fifty-nine hostages are nonetheless being held in Gaza, 24 of whom are believed to be alive. The ICRC has by no means been granted entry 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 was each a second of celebration and of despair.

Mr Abu Tawileh stated his household was shocked by his look when he was launched, and added he was nonetheless affected by his expertise.

“I’m unable to do something due to my harm, as a result of my eye hurts, and it tears and feels itchy, and the entire burns on my physique feels itchy as effectively. That is bothering me lots,” he stated.

Teenager Ahmed stated he now needs to go away Gaza.

“I wish to to migrate due to the issues we noticed in detention, and due to the psychological torture of fearing the bombs falling on our heads. We wished for dying however could not discover it.”