“Israeli civilians” watched army torture nude Palestinians, Euro-Med Monitor reports

The Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF), in what is a recurring episode of torturing and abusing Palestinians, has invited “Israeli civilians” into detention centers where they hold Palestinians captive to watch the torture crimes being committed and film them on their phones - a recent report by the Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor has said.

The Monitor received shocking testimonies from recently released prisoners, in which they reported that the IOF invited a group of 20 “civilians” to the interrogation sessions and laughingly watched and filmed Palestinians stripped down to their undergarments and beaten up with metal batons, electric sticks, and pouring hot water on their head.

The abuse happened in two detention centers, one located in the Zikim area on the northern border of the Gaza Strip, and another affiliated with the Naqab prison in southern Israel.

This is the first incident of this kind that has come to the attention of the Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor, per their statement.

“I was arrested at the checkpoint set up near the Kuwait roundabout, which separates Gaza City from the central region, as part of the Israeli random arrest campaigns. I was subjected to all types of torture and abuse for approximately 52 days,” said Omar Abu Mudallala, 43, in a testimony to the Monitor.

“[They] brought Israeli civilians to watch our nude torture…this happened five times while I was being held.”

One of the times happened while the detainees were blindfolded, and four others while they were not.”

“Since we were not wearing blindfolds at the time, I saw them all four times with my own eyes,” Abu Mudallala said.

The Monitor warned of the “dire consequences of introducing Israeli civilians into arrest and detention centres, displaying Palestinian detainees to them during torture, and letting them use their personal phones to document these inhumane practices” and labelled it as a retaliatory approach.

It added that the “Israeli” practices against Palestinian detainees are blatant violations of international conventions and standards, particularly the 1949 Fourth Geneva Convention, which forbids an occupying authority from transferring prisoners from the occupied territory to detention facilities on its territory, as well as torturing, attacking, or otherwise degrading the human dignity of those detained.