INVESTIGATION – While Western corporate media relentlessly amplified unsubstantiated claims of minor suffering among Israeli captives to justify sweeping military campaigns, numerous rights organisations, United Nations experts, and released Palestinian detainees have documented a systematic regime of torture, sexualized abuse, and dehumanisation inflicted on Palestinians held in Israeli detention facilities, including children, women, doctors, and civilian non-combatants. These documented abuses, involving rape, sexual humiliation, threats, electric shocks, dog attacks, and psychological torture, have been met with astonishing silence or euphemistic coverage in much of the global mainstream press. This silence is not accidental; it reveals how structural bias in reporting perpetuates dehumanisation and shields power from accountability.

Documented, Systematic Abuse: Rights Groups And UN Findings.

Multiple human rights organisations and international bodies have verified extensive patterns of torture and sexual violence against Palestinian detainees:

• Amnesty International reported that every one of the 27 former detainees it interviewed, including one child, described torture or cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment during incommunicado detention by Israeli forces. Many were held blindfolded and handcuffed for prolonged periods in stress positions consistent with acts of torture.
• The United Nations Independent Experts, the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, and the UN Committee Against Torture documented widespread abusive conditions, including sexual and gender‑based violence, waterboarding, attacks by dogs, suspension by the ceiling, deprivation of basic needs, and prolonged solitary confinement. Their reports describe “appalling acts … in flagrant violation of international human rights and humanitarian law.”
• The Arab Organisation for Human Rights (AOHR UK) stated that testimonies show these atrocities are not isolated incidents but part of a deliberate institutional policy aimed at the physical and psychological destruction of Palestinian prisoners. Victims recounted rape with objects, assaults using trained police dogs, and being filmed during assaults for humiliation and blackmail.
• Human Rights Watch documented Israeli military publication of degrading images of Palestinian detainees stripped or semi-nude, a practice it characterised as sexual violence that can amount to war crimes when it is used systematically and with state acquiescence.
• Recent independent monitoring by Physicians for Human Rights Israel recorded at least 98 Palestinian deaths in custody since the Gaza war began, flagging widespread abuse, medical neglect, internal trauma, and malnutrition as contributing factors to the high fatality count.

These findings are consistent across UN agencies, international rights organisations, and testimonies collected from released detainees, forming a body of evidence that goes far beyond isolated allegations.

Grievous Testimonies From Palestinian Survivors:

Survivors’ voices reveal the human toll of this systemic brutality:

“They forced me to stand naked for hours, blindfolded and without water… dogs were unleashed on us, and when we spoke, they shocked us.”
— Former detainee recounting conditions in Israeli military detention, United Nations testimony.

“I lay naked on the floor. They demanded I kiss their flag; when I refused, they beat me and struck my groin… I lost consciousness and woke to more kicks.”
— Male detainee in Negev detention facility.

“I will be happy to sit with you in jail someday… You know Sde Teiman? They say it’s about punishment.”
— Threat by an Israeli settler quoted in UN reporting on detainee abuse.

“The torture wasn’t random or occasional. It was systematic, meant to break us, physically and mentally.”
— One Palestinian former detainee interviewed by Amnesty International.

These testimonies are corroborated by medical reports and documented injuries, including broken ribs, bruising, electric shock marks, and internal trauma, consistent with torture and abuse mechanisms described by survivors themselves.

Sexualized Torture And Psychological Abuse Against Children:

The abuse of minors, particularly the case of 16-year-old Faris Ibrahim Faris Abu Jabal, documented by Defence for Children International‑Palestine, exemplifies how Israeli detention practices have targeted children with sexualized and psychological torture, including threats involving fabricated images of family members assaulted, prolonged suspension in painful stress positions, and sleep, food, and water deprivation.

These are not isolated horrors. UN and NGO reporting indicate that hundreds of children have been detained since October 7, 2023, many without charge, and subjected to conditions that constitute cruel, inhuman, and degrading treatment under international law.

A Culture Of Impunity: Accountability And Israeli Response.

Despite compelling evidence:

• Israel has prosecuted only a handful of cases, often charging soldiers with “abuse” or “severe violence” rather than rape or sexual violence, even in some incidents where video evidence exists.
• Internal Israeli political and public reactions have often defended accused personnel or reframed the release of evidence as the crime, illustrating how political discourse within Israel has tended to protect perpetrators rather than prioritise justice.
• International avenues for accountability, including the International Criminal Court and UN special procedures, face obstruction, denial, and political pressure from Israeli authorities and their allies, complicating efforts to investigate and prosecute these crimes.

Western Media Hypocrisy And Structural Bias:

A deeply structural problem emerges when comparing coverage of alleged abuses against Israeli captives with documented abuses of Palestinian detainees:

• Unverified allegations of rampant rape by Hamas fighters on October 7, 2023, were widely amplified in Western mainstream media and endorsed in political narratives, despite limited verified evidence. The reporting shaped public perception and helped morally justify extensive military operations.
• In contrast, documented cases of torture and sexual abuse of Palestinian detainees, backed by UN reports, NGO research, and firsthand testimony, are met with euphemism (“abuse” or “mistreatment”), neglect, or silence in many Western outlets. This reflects a hierarchy of human worth that privileges certain victims over others, thereby weakening the moral authority of independent reporting.

As a senior human rights expert told the press, “Failing to report verified torture, because of political expediency, erodes journalism’s role as a check on power.” (analysis based on patterns of coverage across outlets; verified evidence found in rights group reporting)

Voices From Palestinian Advocates, Lawyers, And Activists:

• Lawyers representing Palestinian prisoners repeatedly testified that detainees reported sodomy, insertion of objects, and sexual assault, sometimes witnessed by multiple detainees, consistent with acts of sexual violence.
• Activists with Defence for Children International‑Palestine emphasise that children’s detention experiences are marked by gross violations of international law, echoing reports from international humanitarian law scholars.
• Palestinian civilians, families of detainees, and rights advocates argue that this abuse is not incidental but part of a broader system of collective punishment and control that targets civilian populations.

Conclusion: Systemic Abuse, Structural Impunity, And The Urgent Need For Justice.

The weight of credible evidence from victims, human rights organisations, UN bodies, and independent monitors demonstrates that torture and sexual violence against Palestinian detainees, including minors, are neither isolated nor incidental but systematic and widespread. From the Sde Teiman detention facility to improvised military holding sites, testimony from survivors, corroborated by medical records, NGO documentation, and UN investigations, paints a chilling portrait of abuse that meets the threshold of war crimes and crimes against humanity under international law.

Yet international institutions, media outlets, and the eastern and western governments have largely failed to treat these allegations with the seriousness they demand, whether through euphemistic coverage, political shielding of perpetrators, or prioritising certain narratives over others. Verified accounts of rape, sexualized torture, and psychological torment are routinely minimised or ignored, while unverified claims of Israeli suffering are amplified to justify military campaigns, exposing a stark double standard in global reporting and political discourse.

The case of 16-year-old Faris Abu Jabal exemplifies how children are subjected not only to physical brutality but also to psychological torture designed to break their spirit, a tactic applied systematically across detainees. Women, too, endure horrific sexualized violence, often under conditions engineered for maximum humiliation, fear, and coercion, acts that are rarely reflected in mainstream Western and Eastern media, further entrenching impunity.

True accountability requires an independent international investigation, unfettered access to detention sites, and transparent legal processes that treat all victims with equal dignity, Palestinian or Israeli, civilian or combatant. Without these measures, the cycle of impunity will continue, normalising sexualized torture and violent abuse as acceptable instruments of state policy.

Only then can the world confront the full extent of cruelty inflicted in this conflict and avoid perpetuating further cycles of violence under the cover of silence. Until justice is pursued rigorously and impartially, the systematic abuses against Palestinians, including the sexualized torture of children, will remain not only unpunished but also obscured, rendering the international human rights framework ineffective and complicit.

“Ignoring the evidence of systematic sexualized torture is not neutrality; it is complicity. The question is not whether these crimes occurred, the evidence is clear, but whether the international community will enforce justice or allow impunity to reign.” — Independent human rights analyst, Middle East Institute, 2025.