Gaza Herald- As Israel’s war on Gaza extends beyond the battlefield into prisons and detention centers, horrifying accounts continue to emerge of systematic sexual violence against Palestinian detainees. New testimonies from survivors, documented by the Palestinian Center for Human Rights (PCHR), expose a disturbing pattern of rape, forced nudity, and physical abuse carried out by Israeli soldiers, acts described as tools of humiliation and domination aimed at breaking the spirit of an entire people.
A Palestinian woman recently released from Israeli custody has shared harrowing details of her ordeal, revealing that she was raped four times and filmed naked during her detention. Her testimony, published by PCHR, paints a chilling portrait of what the organization calls a coordinated campaign of sexual torture by Israeli forces.
The PCHR report documents the testimony of the former detainee, identified as N.A., describing an “organized and deliberate policy of sexual torture” including rape, forced stripping, filming, and sexual assault with foreign objects and dogs committed by Israeli soldiers.
According to the center, these crimes are not isolated but form part of a “systematic policy of psychological humiliation aimed at destroying human dignity and erasing identity,” carried out within the broader framework of Israel’s ongoing genocide against Gaza’s population.
N.A., a 42-year-old woman from Gaza, was arrested in November 2024 while attempting to cross an Israeli checkpoint in northern Gaza. During her detention, she endured multiple forms of physical and sexual violence, including rape, electroshock torture, beatings, and forced nudity.
“At dawn, soldiers shouted that morning prayers were forbidden,” she recalled. “They forced me to undress, pinned me to a metal table, handcuffed me, and spread my legs apart. One of them raped me while others beat me on my back and head. I was blindfolded and screaming, wishing for death every moment.”
After the assault, she said she was left handcuffed and unclothed for hours. “I remained naked the entire day, while they watched and filmed me through the door slit,” she continued. “One soldier told me they would post my photos online. My period started while I was still without clothes. Only then did they give me something to wear and move me to another room.”
The report also highlights that sexual violence in Israeli detention is not confined to women. Another detainee, M.A., an 18-year-old male arrested near a Gaza aid distribution center, testified that soldiers sexually assaulted him and six other prisoners. “They forced us to kneel,” he said, “then raped us with bottles.”
The PCHR condemned these acts as part of a broader campaign of systematic torture and enforced disappearance targeting Palestinians. It called on the international community to “take immediate action to end Israel’s use of sexual violence and torture as a weapon of war” and to “pressure Israel to release all arbitrarily detained Palestinians and disclose the fate of the forcibly disappeared.”
The organization also warned that thousands of Palestinian detainees face a risk of death under a new Israeli bill proposing the death penalty for individuals convicted of “terrorism.” The legislation passed its preliminary reading in the Knesset with 39 votes in favor and 16 against, according to the Israeli Broadcasting Authority (KAN).
These testimonies form part of a growing body of evidence exposing Israel’s widespread use of sexual violence and torture against Palestinians, tactics long condemned by human rights experts as instruments of control and genocide. As survivors speak out, they challenge the international community to confront these crimes not as isolated abuses, but as deliberate state policies meant to terrorize, dehumanize, and erase a people’s will to exist.
