Israeli Forces Accused of Systematic Rape and Sexual Violence Against Palestinian Detainees

Abhi. It has been revealed that systematic and planned severe sexual violence and rape are occurring against Palestinian detainees under the control of the Israeli army.

In the documentary 'Bodies of Evidence: Israel's Darkest Weapon' produced by Al Jazeera, Palestinian citizens released from custody during investigations have publicly shared disturbing details of rape by Israeli soldiers and trained dogs.

Gaza government employee Muhammad al-Bakri cannot forget the dark day of mass rape he endured. On April 10, 2024, while celebrating the Eid ul Fitr holiday, he was arrested by Israeli soldiers.

After a month of beatings, torture, and hardship with handcuffs, on that day, he and six other prisoners were surrounded by six soldiers and their guard dogs. According to al-Bakri, he and seven other prisoners were forced to undress, blindfolded, handcuffed, thrown to the ground, and were raped in turns by Israeli soldiers who laughed and recorded videos.

Not only that, but he stated that trained dogs were also used for sexual harassment of the prisoners under the orders of the authorities. After this inhumane act, which lasted for about half an hour, they were allowed to dress and returned to prison.

This tragic story is not just al-Bakri's. Another middle-class Palestinian laborer, identified as 'Job' in the documentary, has also recounted an incident of rape by female Israeli soldiers. According to him, after being tied up and thrown to the ground, female soldiers raped him using artificial objects, while other soldiers around applauded and filmed it. The victims claim they were subjected to such torture under the pretext of questioning about Hamas's attack on Israel on October 7, 2023.

Judges of the International Criminal Court (ICC), the United Nations, and the UN Special Rapporteur for the Palestinian Territories, Francesca Albanese, have confirmed that rape and sexual torture are being used as a widespread and systematic weapon by the Israeli army against Palestinians. Human rights organizations such as the Palestinian Center for Human Rights (PCHR) and Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor have also collected numerous pieces of evidence and testimonies of rape of detainees using dogs in Israeli prisons.

A United Nations report released in March 2025 indicated that Israel has systematically promoted sexual and gender-based violence since the events of October 7. For this reason, Israel has also been added to the UN's 'blacklist of those spreading sexual violence in conflict zones'. Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International, and the Israeli human rights organization B'Tselem have also noted that a culture of sexual violence against Palestinian prisoners is prevalent within the Israeli security forces.

Despite such grave and serious accusations and the emergence of evidence, no Israeli soldier or guard has been punished for sexual abuse to date. In July 2024, after a video of a Palestinian prisoner being gang-raped at the Sde Teiman detention camp in the Negev desert was released, ten Israeli officers were arrested.

However, right-wing protesters and lawmakers in Israel attempted to raid the detention center to free them. Ultimately, in July, Israel dropped all charges against those rapist guards. Instead, female military officer Major General Yifat Tomer-Yerushalmi was arrested for leaking the video of the rape. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu even described the release of the military rape video as the 'most serious PR attack' since the country's establishment.

In the Israeli parliament in July 2024, when asked 'Is it permissible to rape prisoners?', Hanoch Milwidsky, a Member of Knesset from Netanyahu's Likud party, loudly advocated for rape, saying, 'Yes, if he is a Hamas fighter, he is allowed to do anything.'

Sociologists analyze that behind this extreme cruelty and inhumanity lies a mentality in Israeli society where Palestinians are not seen as 'human beings'. Israel's then-Defense Minister Yoav Gallant called Palestinians 'human animals' and declared a complete blockade on Gaza, while Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich and National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir have continuously portrayed Palestinian society as criminal and terrorist.

According to Triesstino Mariniello, a professor at Liverpool John Moores University and a member of the legal team representing Gaza's victims at the ICC, there is a significant difference in international law between individual sexual violence and state-sponsored systematic violence. The occurrence of such crimes in military and government detention centers and the lack of punishment for the perpetrators clearly indicate an institutional policy behind it, which is considered a 'crime against humanity'.

Despite the paper ceasefire enforced by US President Donald Trump in October 2025, the oppression, displacement, and sexual torture within prisons against Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank have not stopped. According to Albanese, the purpose of such collective and systematic sexual violence is not just to inflict pain, but to completely destroy the dignity and identity of the victims and to end an entire human community.