Lawyer Khaled Mahajneh provided a harrowing first-hand account of the conditions of Palestinian prisoners at the “Israeli” Sde Teiman detention facility.

His account corroborates the shocking claims of Palestinians systematically abused, raped, sexually assaulted, and experiencing inhumane treatment by “Israeli” soldiers, according to reports by the Hebrew newspaper Mekomit.

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Mahajneh, the first lawyer to access the facility known as the “Israel's Guantánamo Bay,” visited last Wednesday to meet with Muhammad Arab, a journalist for Al-Arabi network who had been detained for approximately 100 days.

The 45-minute visit left him shaken and horrified. The lawyer is now urgently calling on the international community and the international courts to intervene to save the prisoners from "Israel's" brutality.

“I have been visiting political and security detainees and prisoners in Israeli prisons for years, even since 7 October, and I know that the conditions of detention have become much more difficult and that the prisoners are abused on a daily basis in all prisons,” said Mahajneh. “However, what I saw in the Sde Teiman facility during a 45-minute visit is unlike anything I have ever seen and heard before,”

“The treatment is more horrifying than anything we have heard about Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo,” he continued.

The infamous Abu Ghraib prison complex in Iraq was exposed as the center of an extensive network run by the US military following the coalition invasion in 2003. Sexual abuse and the torture of largely innocent Iraqi civilian detainees by American soldiers were common.

Mahajneh reported horrific conditions that violate basic human rights and international laws on the treatment of prisoners.

Detainees are shackled 24 hours a day, blindfolded constantly, and forced to sleep on bare floors without any bedding. Handcuffs are removed only once a week for a minute, with severe punishments for those who exceed this time limit.

Perhaps most disturbingly, Mahajneh recounted instances of rape and sexual assault used as punishment for minor infractions.

“Six prisoners were stripped of their clothes and sexually assaulted with a stick in front of all the other prisoners,” Muhammad Arab told Mahajneh. “My biggest wish has become not to reach this situation.”

His account confirms testimonies from a released Gaza prisoner who claimed to have witnessed similar acts of sexual violence, as reported by the New York Times and CNN.

Detainees reportedly receive inadequate food and water, limited to a slice of bread and a small piece of cucumber or tomato per day.

Basic hygiene is denied, with prisoners beginning to refuse showers due to the risk of punishment for exceeding the allotted time.

Medical care is severely lacking, with the lawyer describing instances of detainees being treated for injuries without anesthesia by nursing students rather than qualified doctors.

“The prisoners are prevented from talking to each other, even though more than 100 people are locked up in a ‘warehouse’, some of them elderly and minors. They are not allowed to pray or even read the Qur’an,” reported Mahajneh.

Mahajneh stressed that most detainees are civilians, not combatants.

“Most are not accused of belonging to any organization or military activity. They are ordinary citizens, not fighters, and not even Hamas members or any other organization.”

Muhammad Arab, according to Mahajneh, “looked like a different person in his face, his hair, the color of his skin, his health, and he was full of dirt, lice, and pigeon droppings. He said that all prisoners were in this condition, and that he was only allowed to change pants for the first time because of the visit.”

The impact of these conditions on the detainees is severe. “For five minutes, Arab rubbed his eyes and did not believe that he could see the light.”

The psychological trauma is evident, with the journalist doubting Mahajneh’s role as a lawyer.

“What proves to me that you are a lawyer and not a spy?” he asked. “I have been here for 100 days, and I know that lawyers are not coming, so what will make me believe you?”

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Mahajneh stated, “Since the visit, I have been suffering from extreme frustration. I have been in the profession for 15 years and I have never witnessed anything like this. I think that after all this I need psychological treatment. I never expected to hear about the rape of prisoners or such humiliations.”