Gaza Herald — A joint investigation by The Guardian and Arab Reporters for Investigative Journalism (ARIJ) has revealed that Israeli occupation forces have systematically deployed electric shock weapons manufactured by the American technology firm Axon to torture Palestinian prisoners inside Israeli detention facilities. Despite documented evidence linking its Taser products to severe human rights violations, the Arizona-based military contractor continues to secure supply contracts and host sales expos with Israeli security agencies.
The findings provide horrifying forensic and testimonial proof of how American corporate technology is directly integrated into Israel’s system of institutionalized prisoner abuse, torture, and sexual violence.
Testimonies from the “Hell Wing”: Shocking Amputees and Drenching Victims
Forensic medical evaluations and survivor testimonies document a pattern of sadistic cruelty carried out inside Israeli prison sections, including designated abuse units known among guards and detainees as the “Hell Wing.” Among those subjected to this torture was Issa, a 43-year-old double amputee who was arrested from Jabalia refugee camp in January 2024 after losing both feet in an Israeli missile strike.
Upon his arrival at Ofer Prison, guards slammed him into a wall, shot him at point-blank range with rubber-coated steel bullets, tightly bound his wrists, and subjected his torso to repeated electric shocks using an Axon Taser, leaving paired entry scars verified 18 months later by the International Rehabilitation Council for Torture Victims (IRCT) as fully consistent with electrocution while immobilized.
Another former prisoner recounted how guards routinely poured water over his bare body before discharging Tasers directly onto his skin to maximize voltage conduction, a systematic method of electrocution that left him with permanent neurological impairment, chronic seizures, severe vision loss, and frequent fainting spells. Similar abuses have been documented across Israel’s prison system. In August 2025, the Palestinian Commission of Detainees and Ex-Detainees Affairs reported that guards at Gilboa Prison dragged bound captives to outdoor washing areas, drenched them in water, and electrocuted them.
Corporate Complicity: Axon Expands Israeli Contracts Amid Torture Reports
Despite mounting evidence of war crimes and torture, Axon has actively maintained its commercial partnership with Israeli occupation authorities. In June 2025, the American corporation hosted a trade showcase in Israel to present its latest line of electroshock weapons and tactical hardware to Israeli military and police forces.
“Taser devices represent only a fraction of the weapons used against Palestinian prisoners,” warned Amani al-Sarhanah of the Palestinian Prisoners Club. “The full range of imported equipment used in these torture chambers remains largely hidden, but the bulk of these brutal tools originate directly from the United States.”
Amnesty International and international legal bodies have repeatedly called for immediate global export bans on electroshock technology to Israel, citing its documented use in torture.
Sexualized Torture and Complete Judicial Impunity
The investigation also highlighted the July 2024 sexual assault of a Palestinian prisoner at the notorious Sde Teiman torture camp. An internal investigation by Israeli military prosecutors confirmed that soldiers deployed an Axon Taser during a gang rape, causing internal injuries that required emergency surgical intervention.
In November 2025, the UN Committee Against Torture reported an unprecedented surge in physical, psychological, and sexualized torture across Israeli detention centers since October 2023, documenting widespread acts of rape and the application of electric shocks to the genitals and anus of Palestinian detainees.
While Israeli human rights groups have documented the deaths of at least 92 Palestinian prisoners in Israeli custody since late 2023, the Israeli military judicial system maintains near-total impunity: only a single Israeli soldier has been prosecuted for prisoner abuse throughout three years of war, underlining the urgent necessity for international criminal indictments against both Israeli military personnel and the corporate executives arming them.
