Gaza Herald- Palestinian journalist Sami Al-Saai, who was arrested by Israeli forces in February 2024 and released in June 2025, exposed the severe torture and ill-treatment he faced during his detention.
During a meeting with the MADA Center for Media Freedom in Ramallah, Sami talked about the suffering he endured in Israeli prisons, revealing that he was raped by a group of Israeli jailers.
“While I was handcuffed and blindfolded, I was brutally beaten and then raped by a group of Israeli prisoners in Megiddo Prison in the northern occupied territories,” Sami said.
The journalist, who is from the northern West Bank city of Tulkarem, said the guards dragged him while beating and threatening him, forced him into a corner of the prison, stripped him of his clothes, and compelled him to kneel in a prostration position. He then felt a hard object forcibly inserted into his body, causing what he described as unbearable pain.
He recounted the brutal beating he suffered in sensitive areas, noting that one of the Israeli jailers stood on his neck and head.
In his testimony, Al‑Sa’i described the conditions faced by Palestinian detainees in Israeli prisons as “catastrophic,” citing systematic beatings, starvation, threats, and medical neglect.
According to Palestinian prisoners’ rights organizations, since the start of the war on Gaza, dozens of testimonies have been documented describing an escalation in torture practices, from the moment of arrest, through interrogation, and throughout imprisonment.
Israeli crimes against Palestinian prisoners have escalated alongside the two-year genocidal campaign in Gaza. Over 9,300 Palestinian prisoners, including children and women, are currently held in Israeli jails, facing torture, starvation, and medical neglect, resulting in the deaths of multiple detainees, according to human rights organizations.
