Lawyer visits Israel’s ‘death camp’ and gives harrowing account of rape of Palestinian detainees  

In a deeply unsettling revelation that corroborates shocking accounts of Palestinians being raped and sexually assaulted by Israeli soldiers, lawyer Khaled Mahajneh has provided a harrowing first-hand account of conditions at the Sde Teiman detention facility inside the occupation state. The disturbing details, published originally in the Hebrew newspaper Mekomit, paint a grim picture of systematic abuse, sexual assault and inhumane treatment of Palestinian detainees.

Mahajneh was the first lawyer to gain access to the facility known as the “death camp” when he visited last Wednesday to meet with Muhammad Arab, a journalist for Al-Arabi network who had been detained for approximately 100 days. What he witnessed during his 45-minute visit left him shaken. The lawyer is now calling on the international community and the international courts to act to save the prisoners from Israeli 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. However, what I saw in the Sde Teiman facility during a 45-minute visit is unlike anything I have ever seen and heard before,” said Mahajneh. “The treatment is more horrifying than anything we have heard about Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo.”

The infamous Abu Ghraib prison complex in Iraq was exposed as the centre of an extensive network run by the US military after the coalition invasion of the country in 2003. Sexual abuse and the torture of largely innocent Iraqi civilian detainees at the hands of American soldiers were common. The full extent of what went on in the prison was leaked to a shocked world on 28 April 2004, a year after the invasion and the toppling of Saddam Hussein.

Mahajneh has 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. The handcuffs are only removed once a week for a minute, with severe punishments for those who exceed this time limit.

READ: Netanyahu fears potential ICC arrest warrants for Gaza crimes by 24 July

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 the testimonies of a released Gaza prisoner who claimed to have witnessed similar acts of sexual violence. Details of the horrific accounts of rape were reported by the New York Times and CNN.

The conditions described by Mahajneh extend beyond physical abuse.

Detainees are reportedly provided with 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 reported to be severely lacking, with the lawyer describing instances of detainees being treated for injuries without anaesthesia 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. He highlighted the psychological toll of the detention conditions.

The also stressed that most detainees are civilians, not combatants. “Most are not accused of belonging to any organisation or military activity, they are ordinary citizens, not fighters and not even Hamas members or any other organisation.”

The detained journalist Muhammad Arab, said Mahajneh, “looked like a different person in his face, his hair, the colour 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?”

The impact of what he witnessed has been devastating for Mahajneh. “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.”

The revelations have intensified calls for international intervention. “Mohammed Arab and the rest of the prisoners in the detention centre are calling on the international community and the international courts to act to save them” concluded Mahajneh. “It is unthinkable that the whole world is talking about the Israeli abductees [in Gaza] and no one is talking about the Palestinian prisoners.”

READ: Ben-Gvir calls prisoner food ration reduction ‘deterrent measure’