AhlulBayt News Agency: Sami al-Sa‘i, a Palestinian, spoke out about what a report has described as a “severe pattern” of sexual violence, breaking the social stigma surrounding the issue.
According to The Guardian, reported that Sami al-Sa‘i, a freed Palestinian prisoner, said that during the assault, he heard the laughter of the Israeli guards who were raping him, before being left on the ground blindfolded, with his hands tied, and in pain, while they smoked cigarettes. At least one member of the group was aware that a crime was taking place and intervened—not to stop the abuse, but to prevent it from being documented.
Al-Sa‘i stated that he heard one of the men warning others during the assault, “Don’t take pictures, don’t take pictures.” Following this attack, which occurred shortly after his detention in February 2024, he suffered bleeding from his lower body for more than three weeks. He described the sexual torture, which lasted over 20 minutes, including beatings to the genitals, severe pressure applied by the guards to his reproductive organs, and forced rape using two different objects.
In an interview about his experience, he said: “I tried to resist by tensing my body, but I couldn’t. They… it was extremely painful. I don’t know how loudly I screamed from the pain.” The assault caused him so much pain that when he was ordered to stand and walk, he fainted twice.
Al-Sa‘i said he was then transferred to an overcrowded cell, received no medical treatment, and had to use toilet paper to stop the bleeding. The 47-year-old father of six remained in detention without charge or trial until June 2025.
About 40 days after his release, he posted a video on TikTok detailing the attack, challenging the severe social stigma and Israel’s warnings against publicizing sexual assault in prisons. He said: “I could not stay silent. I have a moral responsibility to speak about what happened to me and to other prisoners.”
A network of torture camps for Palestinians
Widespread and severe sexual violence in both civilian and military Israeli prisons has been documented by internal and international observers, including doctors, Israeli military prosecutors, and the United Nations Committee Against Torture.
The human rights group B’Tselem, in a report released on Tuesday, described a “severe pattern of sexual violence in detention centers and prisons”, detailing the mistreatment of Palestinians in Israeli jails. The report indicates that these abuses range from threats of sexual assault, including forced nudity, to actual sexual rape. It adds: “These cases include beatings to the genitals causing serious injuries, placing dogs on prisoners, and rape using various objects.”
Tamer Qarmout, 41, was arrested in November 2023 by Israeli soldiers during an assault on Kamal Adwan Hospital in northern Gaza, where his family had sought refuge.
He said that within the first 24 hours, he was accused of being a militant—despite having been disabled in his youth due to a leg injury—and was beaten so severely that his hearing was permanently damaged. He was also attacked by a dog and subsequently raped by a soldier.
In testimony provided to B’Tselem, Qarmout said: “An Israeli soldier assaulted me with a stick for about a minute… Then he did it again, even more forcefully… He told me to open my mouth, inserted the stick, and forced me to lick it.” [Certain details have been omitted for audience sensitivity.]
He was held in detention for nearly two years without ever being charged or tried, until he was released in October of last year under an agreement mediated by U.S. President Donald Trump. Israeli military officials did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
B’Tselem’s report is its second on the conditions in Israel’s civilian and military prisons. According to the report, after October 7, 2023, detention centers became a network “systematically dedicated to the abuse of prisoners”, where torture had become an accepted norm. The report states: “Such an environment, in which anyone who enters is condemned to deliberate, severe, and merciless suffering, effectively functions as a torture camp.”
B’Tselem stated that the abuse of Palestinians is not hidden. Prison officials boast about the mistreatment of prisoners, which is openly supported by Israeli politicians and the judicial system, reported in Israeli media, and normalized in Israeli public opinion.
In 2024, Israeli military prosecutors charged several soldiers with violent rape at the Sdei Teyman military detention facility, marking the only attempt to hold Israeli guards accountable for sexual violence in detention centers since October 2023.
Members of the government and Knesset supported the suspects, and when a video of the alleged attack was released, it generated little public outrage in Israel regarding the abuse itself. Instead, it led to the resignation and subsequent arrest of a senior military lawyer. During that period, one soldier was convicted for mistreating Palestinian prisoners.
Yuli Novak, Executive Director of B’Tselem, said that the torture of Palestinian prisoners must be understood within the framework of dehumanization and a broader campaign of extreme violence. She stated: “The Israeli regime has turned its prisons into a network of torture camps for Palestinians, part of a coordinated assault on the Palestinian community aimed at destroying their collective existence.”
She added that, beyond Israel, there have been condemnations regarding torture, but no effective intervention has taken place. “The international community continues to grant this regime full immunity.”
In addition to sexual violence, the report details other forms of torture, including electric shocks, the use of tear gas and stun grenades, burning prisoners with boiling liquids and cigarettes, and placing dogs on them.
Prisoners are also systematically denied medical care, resulting in irreversible harm, including amputations, loss of vision and hearing, and in dozens of cases, death. Since October 7, 2023, at least 98 Palestinians have died in Israeli prisons, with the actual death toll likely being significantly higher.
“Brother, come help me, I’m being tortured.”
Many of those killed were young and had no underlying illnesses. Abdulrahman Miri, 34, was a carpenter who died in November 2023, leaving behind three young sons and a daughter.
He was arrested in February 2023 while returning from work and was held without charge or trial. According to details from a prison autopsy and testimony from other detainees, he was likely beaten to death. Men held in nearby cells during the final hours of his life told his mother, Azizeh, that they heard him screaming in pain: “Brother, come help me, I’m being tortured.”
His family has been unable to confirm the cause of death or hold a burial, as Israel has withheld his body.
Before the Gaza ceasefire agreement mediated by Trump last year, Azizeh Miri received a call from officials asking whether she wanted the remains of her son. She told The Guardian at her family home: “We definitely said yes, but then we heard nothing further.”
Azizeh said that Abdulrahman’s heartbroken father passed away shortly after losing his son, and the rest of the family continues to struggle with the situation. She added: “At night, I keep imagining how Abdulrahman was tortured and what condition he was in before he died. Sometimes I see his daughter crying alone, asking me, ‘Why don’t I have a father?’”
Israel last reported Palestinian detention figures prior to the Trump-mediated ceasefire, showing that by January, it had arrested around 9,000 Palestinians from Gaza, the West Bank, and East al-Quds. About half of them are held indefinitely without charge or trial.
The inhuman living conditions—including meager food rations, overcrowding, and deprivation of basic hygiene needs such as showers and clean clothing—exacerbate the impact of violent assaults.
There is no independent oversight—visits by the International Committee of the Red Cross have been suspended since October 2023, and prisoners are denied contact with their families or any news from the outside world.
Al-Sa‘i has paid a heavy price for speaking out. Forced to leave his home, he struggles to find work and is haunted by terrifying nightmares about the future of his children.
But he does not regret his decision to become the voice for those who cannot confront additional suffering on top of their deep wounds. He said: “It was my choice,” adding that during 16 months in detention, he saw clear evidence in the overcrowded cells that many other prisoners had been attacked. “Even if others didn’t speak about it, it was obvious that they had experienced it too.”
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