A Palestinian former detainee has spoken publicly about sexual abuse he suffered in Israeli detention, defying deep social stigma to describe what a new human rights report calls a “grave pattern” of sexual violence in Israeli prisons and concentration camps, The Guardian reported.

Sami al-Saei said that Israeli prison guards who raped him laughed during the assault, before leaving him blindfolded, handcuffed, and in agony on the floor while they took a cigarette break.

Al-Saei said that at least one member of the group appeared aware that a crime was being committed and intervened only to prevent it from being documented.

He said he heard the man warning others, “don’t take a photo, don’t take a photo," as the assault continued.

The attack took place shortly after his detention in February 2024. Al-Saei said he bled from his rectum for more than three weeks afterward.

Sexual torture described during detention

The 47-year-old father of six described sexual torture lasting more than 20 minutes

“I tried to prevent them by clenching my muscles, but I could not. They forced it in very deep, it was extremely painful,” he said. “I don’t know how loudly I screamed from the pain.”

He said he collapsed twice when ordered to stand and walk afterward and was moved to an overcrowded cell, where he received no medical treatment and was forced to use toilet paper to stop the bleeding.

Detention without charge and decision to speak publicly

Al-Saei was held without charge or trial until June 2025. About 40 days after his release, he posted a video on TikTok detailing the assault, despite Israeli warnings and the severe social stigma attached to speaking publicly about sexual abuse.

“I could not stay silent. I have a moral responsibility to say what happened to me and other prisoners,” he stressed.

Report documents ‘grave pattern’ of sexual violence

Extensive sexual abuse in "Israel’s" civilian and military detention facilities has been documented by Israeli and international observers, including doctors, "Israel’s" military prosecutor, and the UN committee on torture.

In a report released on Tuesday, the Israeli human rights group B’Tselem described a “grave pattern of sexual violence in detention facilities and prisons”.

The abuse ranges from “threats of sexual assault, through forced stripping, to actual sexual assaults," the report said.

“These include beatings to the genitals that caused severe injuries, setting dogs on prisoners, and forced anal penetration with various objects,” it added.

Another former detainee recounts sexual assault

The report also includes testimony from Tamer Qarmut, 41, who was detained by Israeli occupation forces in November 2023 during a raid on Kamal Adwan hospital in northern Gaza, where his family had taken shelter.

Qarmut said that within the first 24 hours, he was accused of being a militant, beaten so severely that he suffered permanent hearing damage, attacked by a dog, and then raped by a soldier.

“He shoved a wooden stick up my anus, left it there for about a minute, and pulled it out. Then he shoved it back in, even harder, and I screamed at the top of my lungs,” Qarmut said in testimony to B’Tselem.

“After a minute, he pulled the stick out again, told me to open my mouth, pushed the stick into my mouth, and forced me to lick it,” he recalled.

He was held for nearly two years without charge before being released in October last year.

‘A network of torture camps’

B’Tselem said its report was the second it had published on conditions in "Israel’s" civil and military prisons. After 7 October 7, 2023, it said detention centers were transformed into a network “dedicated to the abuse of inmates as policy”.

“A space of this kind, in which anyone who enters is condemned to deliberate, severe, and unrelenting pain and suffering, functions de facto as a torture camp,” the report said.

The group said abuse was publicly endorsed by politicians, backed by the judicial system, and normalized in Israeli public opinion.

Limited accountability for abuse

In 2024, Israeli military prosecutors charged several soldiers over a violent rape at the notorious Sde concentration camp, the only prosecution related to sexual violence in detention since October 2023.

Government ministers and Knesset members defended the suspects, and when video footage of the assault was leaked, it prompted little public outrage over the abuse itself. Instead, it led to the resignation and later arrest of the chief military lawyer. Only one soldier has been convicted of abuse during that period.

“The Israeli regime has turned its prisons into a network of torture camps for Palestinians, as part of a coordinated onslaught on Palestinian society intended to destroy their existence as a collective,” the report said.

It added that despite international condemnation, “the international community continues to grant this regime full immunity”.

Deaths in custody and denial of medical care

Beyond sexual violence, the report documents electric shocks, tear gas and stun grenades, burning with boiling liquids and cigarettes, and the use of dogs against detainees.

It said Palestinians are systematically denied medical care, leading to amputations, loss of sight and hearing, and dozens of deaths. At least 98 Palestinians have died in Israeli custody since October 7, 2023, with the true number likely higher.

‘Brother, come help me, I’m being tortured’

Many of those who died were young and had no prior health conditions. Abdul Rahman Mirie, a 34-year-old carpenter, died in November 2023 after being detained without charge earlier that year.

According to autopsy findings and testimony from other detainees, he was likely beaten to death. Detainees held nearby told his mother, Aziza Mirie, they heard him crying out: “Brother, come help me, I’m being tortured.”

His family has not been able to bury him, as "Israel" is still holding his body.

Families left without answers

Ahead of a Gaza ceasefire deal brokered by Trump last year, authorities contacted Mirie’s family about releasing his remains, but no further information followed.

“We said definitely yes, but never heard any more,” Aziza Mirie told The Guardian.

She said her husband died soon after their son, and the family continues to struggle. “At night I keep imagining how they tortured Abdul Rahman,” she said. “Sometimes I find his daughter crying alone, and she asks me, ‘why don’t I have a father?’”

Thousands detained without charge

Israeli figures released before Trump’s ceasefire deal indicated that by January, about 9,000 Palestinians from Gaza, the occupied West Bank, and eastern al-Quds were being held in Israeli detention, roughly half without charge or trial.

Inhuman living conditions,  including starvation rations, overcrowding, and denial of hygiene, compound the impact of abuse, the report said. International Committee of the Red Cross visits have been suspended since October 2023, and detainees are denied contact with families.

Source:Websites