Disappearances, torture rampant in IOF prisons, harrowing figures show

By Al Mayadeen English
Source: News websites
3 Aug 2025 13:51

A UN-accredited group has submitted damning evidence of systematic torture, forced starvation, and sexual violence against Palestinians in secret Israeli detention camps.

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A Palestinian Detainee at the Israeli Sde Teiman concentration camp (Social media)

The United Nations is reviewing detailed testimony exposing "Israel’s" brutal and widespread torture of Palestinian detainees since October 7, 2023, amid mounting demands for an international inquiry into what rights advocates are calling enforced torture by Israeli authorities.

The report was submitted by the UK-based Palestinian Return Centre (PRC), which holds special consultative status with the UN Economic and Social Council. The documentation is based on legal records and fieldwork by Khaled Mahajneh, a lawyer working with the Commission for Detainees and Ex-Detainees Affairs.

According to the PRC, Israeli occupation forces have escalated their campaign of inhumane treatment, using methods such as savage beatings, forced starvation, prolonged stress positions, lethal medical neglect, dog maulings, and even amputations without anesthesia.

Detainees speak out on sexual violence in Israeli custody

One of the most harrowing cases includes the rape of a Palestinian detainee by an Israeli prison guard, an act documented and corroborated by internationally recognized human rights organizations, including Physicians for Human Rights–Israel and B’Tselem.

Hundreds of Palestinian detainees, especially from Gaza, are reportedly being held in secret military detention sites, including the notorious Anatot and Sde Teiman concentration camps. These facilities operate entirely outside the framework of international law, with detainees denied access to lawyers and barred from visits by the International Committee of the Red Cross.

The PRC says Israeli authorities are deliberately stripping detainees of legal protections by branding them as “unlawful combatants” or “terrorists,” bypassing basic obligations under international humanitarian law. The organization is urging the immediate launch of an international investigation into "Israel’s" torture and sexual violence practices and for these crimes to be formally submitted to the International Criminal Court.

It also called on world governments to hold "Israel" accountable and end the impunity that has enabled these abuses. The PRC warned that silence, or tepid diplomatic statements, amount to complicity in "Israel’s" escalating violations of human rights.

Arrests, torture, and disappearances reach unprecedented scale

On the occasion of the National and International Day in Solidarity of Gaza and Palestinian Prisoners, prisoner advocacy organizations have released alarming new statistics that paint a harrowing picture of mass incarceration, torture, and enforced disappearance under the Israeli occupation.

Since the start of the genocide in Gaza on October 7, Israeli occupation forces have arrested approximately 18,500 Palestinians across the occupied West Bank, including al-Quds, as per the statistics. This staggering figure excludes the thousands more detained inside Gaza, whose exact number remains unknown due to "Israel’s" policy of enforced disappearance.

Targeting women, children, and journalists

Among those arrested are at least 570 women, some of whom were taken from the 1948 occupied territories, the West Bank, and areas near Gaza. This figure does not account for the dozens of women reportedly abducted from the Gaza Strip itself.

No fewer than 1,500 Palestinian children have also been detained, primarily in the West Bank. Many have been subjected to violent arrests, interrogations without legal representation, and solitary confinement, methods condemned by international human rights organizations.

Journalists have also come under relentless attack, with over 194 arrests or detentions recorded since October 7. Forty-nine journalists remain in Israeli custody, many held without charge.

A campaign of systemic abuse

The mass arrest campaigns have not occurred in isolation. They’ve been accompanied by widespread and systematic violations: physical assaults, threats against detainees and their families, vandalism of civilian homes, and looting of property, including vehicles, money, and gold jewelry.

In refugee camps such as Jenin and Tulkarm, Israeli forces have deliberately destroyed infrastructure, demolished homes of detainees’ families, and used relatives as bargaining chips. Detainees have also been used as human shields, a practice banned under international law.

Even more chillingly, "Israel" has carried out field executions, including of relatives of those arrested. In many cases, detainees were taken from their homes or military checkpoints. Others surrendered under coercion or were kidnapped and held as hostages.

Deaths in custody and enforced disappearance

At least 75 Palestinian detainees have died in Israeli custody since October 7, according to advocacy groups. Forty-six of them were detainees from Gaza. Many were subjected to fatal torture, lethal medical neglect, or starvation in secret detention sites.

Dozens more are missing, presumed dead, in Israeli concentration camps, but "Israel" has refused to release their identities or the circumstances of their deaths. These individuals remain under enforced disappearance, while the bodies of 72 confirmed dead prisoners continue to be withheld by Israeli authorities.

Altogether, 83 martyrs’ bodies are currently being held by "Israel", in violation of international humanitarian norms.

Gaza laborers and patients among the disappeared

The crackdown has extended to laborers and medical patients in Gaza. Thousands of workers who held permits to be inside the 1948 occupied territories have been detained, alongside hundreds more in the West Bank. Even Gaza residents who entered the West Bank for medical treatment have vanished into the Israeli military detention system.

A prison system at breaking point

As of July 2025, the number of Palestinians held in Israeli prisons has reached approximately 10,800, the highest since the Second Intifada in 2000. This includes:

49 female detainees, including two from Gaza
Over 450 child detainees
3,629 administrative detainees, held without charge or trial
2,454 detainees labeled “unlawful combatants”, a designation increasingly used to strip Palestinian detainees of basic legal rights. This number includes Arabs from Lebanon and Syria.

A call for urgent action

Prisoner advocacy groups are calling on the international community to act decisively.

They warn that silence or diplomatic restraint amounts to complicity in a system of brutality and repression.

On this day of solidarity, the voices of Gaza’s detainees, beaten, silenced, and disappeared, echo louder than ever, demanding justice, protection, and freedom.