The Israeli army turns the torture of Palestinian prisoners into entertainment segments for Israelis
According to numerous accounts, the Israeli army took groups of Israeli settlers to the jails and detention facilities where Palestinian inmates were held from the Gaza Strip so they could observe the acts of torture committed against the Palestinian people and record them on their cell phones. Remarkable accounts emerged from recently freed Palestinian inmates, revealing that the Israeli army had called some Israeli settlers in for questioning so they could observe the deliberate torture and harsh treatment they were receiving.
Based on eyewitness accounts, groups of ten to twenty Israeli civilians were permitted to watch and record Palestinian prisoners being stripped of their clothes while they were being beaten by Israeli soldiers using metal rods and electric sticks, had hot water thrown over their heads, and were being verbally and physically threatened in Arabic. This is the first time that these unlawful torture practices have come to light; they were carried out in front of mocking Israeli settlers who were permitted to record the abuses on their phones. This adds another crime to the long list of crimes the Israeli army has committed against Palestinians in the area, particularly against the detainees who endure cruel torture, arbitrary arrests, and forced disappearances.
43-year-old Palestinian "Omar Abu Madlala" said: "I was detained as part of arbitrary arrest operations based on people's forms and appearances from the checkpoint near Kuwait Circle, which divides Gaza City from the central area. Throughout the course of my roughly 52-day incarceration, I endured torture and brutality." Israeli forces, he pointed out, "brought civilians to watch us being tortured while naked."
"During our beatings, the Israeli army brought some civilians to our detention centers and told them that these are Hamas saboteurs who killed and raped their women on October 7," Abu Madlala continued. In the meantime, Israeli citizens were making fun of us while using their cellphones to record the beating, mistreatment, and suffering we endured."
"This occurred five times while I was being held captive. The first time it happened, we were blindfolded in "Zikim barracks," but one of the other prisoners who knew Hebrew told us that the troops were claiming to be captured fighters in conversations with Israeli residents. At the Negev detention camp, the same procedure was carried out four more times, each time bringing successive groups of Israelis inside tents to witness our torture and record the acts the soldiers performed on us without allowing us to speak or interact with them. We weren't blindfolded on the four instances that I witnessed them with my own eyes."
Source: Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor