A growing body of evidence points to the normalization of sexual violence as a tool of control inside Israeli detention sites. Israelnews updates
The Cradle
Each visit set off a chain of events he could not stop. The guards waited for the lawyer’s arrival, then used it as their moment. By the time the meeting ended, the punishment had already been carried out.
The account, relayed by Israeli human rights lawyer Ben Marmarelli, is not an isolated one. Similar testimonies have surfaced from Palestinian detainees across Israel’s prison system. What emerges from them is a recurring practice in which access to the outside world carries its own punishment, with sexual violence used to intimidate prisoners and deter them from speaking out.
“Every time I come, they rape him!” Marmarelli said, describing what he encountered while documenting prisoner testimonies. One of his clients eventually asked him to stop visiting, fully aware of what each meeting would bring.
Nearly three years after the Hamas-led Operation Al-Aqsa Flood, a dense record of claims, counterclaims, and investigations has accumulated. Early narratives focused heavily on allegations directed at Palestinian fighters, many of which circulated widely despite the absence of verifiable evidence.
Since then, reports from international organizations, medical personnel, lawyers, and survivors have accumulated, describing repeated cases of sexual abuse against Palestinian detainees. The accounts, drawn from different sources and locations, describe practices that recur and operate largely out of public view.
From allegation to pattern
Documentation of abuse did not begin with the current war, but the scale and frequency of reports have intensified since it began.
Within weeks of 7 October 2023, Amnesty International recorded cases of detainees being stripped and exposed in public settings, alongside broader signs of torture. By the end of 2023, Palestinian rights groups were already reporting instances of rape, with two male survivors speaking to the BBC about their experiences.
In February 2024, UN experts confirmed they had collected evidence of rape against Palestinian women in Gaza. “We might not know for a long time what the actual number of victims are,” stated UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC) Special Rapporteur Reem Alsalem at the time.
A June 2024 report by the UNHRC described sexual and gender-based violence carried out by Israeli forces as “systematic.” Additional findings from Canadian physicians working with Palestinian victims detailed cases of prolonged assault, including one woman who was “raped for two days until she lost her ability to speak.”
Sde Teiman: A system exposed
As more testimonies surfaced, specific detention sites began to draw attention. The Sde Teiman facility emerged repeatedly in accounts describing the use of sexual torture involving metal rods and other objects.
One 41-year-old survivor recounted that “they made me sit on something like a hot metal stick and it felt like fire – I have burns [in the anus]” adding that “there were people who were detained and killed – maybe nine of them … One of them died after they put the electric stick up his [anus]. He got so sick; we saw worms coming out of his body, and then he died.”
By mid-2024, these accounts were reinforced by developments inside Israel itself. In July, 10 Israeli soldiers were arrested on allegations of gang rape at the facility. The incident caused uproar in Israeli society, but not for the reason most would expect. Israelis began protesting, rioting, and even raiding military sites in support of the gang rapists.
Hanoch Milwidsky, an elected official and member of the ruling Likud Party, furiously defended the gang rapists in the Knesset, screaming that “everything is legitimate to do! Everything!” One of the released gang rapists was even paraded around like a celebrity across the Israeli media.
In the end, all 10 gang rapists were acquitted, and Israel’s military legal chief, who leaked the video proving it occurred, was fired from her role, becoming a national disgrace who attempted suicide twice, while the abusers have earned national hero status. Famous Israeli comedian Reshef Eli even recently joked on stage about the rape of Palestinians, drawing large laughs from the crowd.
Silence, denial, and selective outrage
Despite the growing body of documentation, coverage in western media has been sporadic.
Attention focused on contested claims while the wider pattern remained largely unexamined. Even reports by Israeli rights organizations such as B’Tselem, which detail sexualized torture in Israeli detention facilities, have circulated with limited amplification.
At the same time, public discourse within Israel has reflected a degree of normalization. Political figures have defended those accused of abuse, while others have treated the subject with open indifference.
There was such a blackout in the western mainstream press, regarding this enormous body of evidence, that when the New York Times (NYT) finally reported on the brutal rape of Palestinians by Israeli forces, it sparked a massive controversy.
Die-hard Zionists decided to target the NYT piece for alleging that dogs were trained to rape Palestinians, attempting to ridicule the claim in order to dismiss it, without presenting anything substantive to the contrary, and apparently unaware of the body of evidence that this has indeed been taking place.
The Tribeca Film Festival recently released a statement regarding the “offensive and unacceptable” jokes made on the red carpet for “The Wedding Entertainer (The Tale of Moishe Badhan)” by comedian Elon Gold and influencer Lizzy Savetsky.
“I was only raped by two Israeli dogs,” Gold told Savetsky in the footage, who then replied, “I thought they only raped Palestinians.”
Lawyers, witnesses, and the cost of exposure
Marmarelli’s account points to another aspect of the practice. The abuse is timed around moments of legal access. Detainees are targeted during lawyer visits, creating a deterrent that affects both prisoners and those representing them.
Other lawyers have described similar incidents. Palestinian human rights lawyer Khaled Mahajneh recounted a case involving a 27-year-old detainee at Ofer prison in the occupied West Bank:
“A pipe from a fire extinguisher was used on a handcuffed prisoner. Forcing him to lie on his stomach, stripping him of all his clothes, and inserting the pipe of the fire extinguisher into the prisoner’s rectum. Then, activating the extinguisher … in front of the eyes of the other prisoners.”
Psychological warfare and children
Sexual violence has not only come in the form of rape, but also as a means of psychological warfare, including against Palestinian children. Local rights group Defense for Children International-Palestine (DCIP) released a report on 13 November 2025 that completely flew under the radar – even of the independent media – in which it interviewed minors who had been abducted from Gaza.
One case that particularly stood out was that of 16-year-old Faris Abu Jabal, who was not only severely tortured and sexually assaulted, but was even shown edited [likely AI] images of his mother to convince the boy that she had been raped. As Faris told DCIP:
“‘Look at what our soldiers did to your mother,’ the jailer taunted. In the image, my mother was lying next to a soldier. I could see her hair. ‘Do you want to go and see your mother? Our soldiers raped and killed your mother and sisters.’”
Beyond the prison walls
Allegations of sexual abuse have also emerged outside formal detention centers. International activists detained while attempting to deliver aid to Gaza as part of the Global Sumud Flotilla have alleged sexual violence, with at least 15 of them testifying that they were raped or otherwise subjected to sexual assault. These allegations have largely fallen on deaf ears.
Across these accounts, the same practices keep reappearing. The methods shift, the locations change, but sexual violence remains a constant feature. It is used to dominate, punish, and silence.
These accounts point to a system that continues to operate with little meaningful accountability.
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