U.S. decries reported sexual abuse of Palestinian prisoners after graphic video aired on Israeli TV

Allegations of the sexual abuse of Palestinian prisoners by members of the Israeli military are “horrific,” the United States has said, after a graphic video broadcast on Israeli news added fuel to mounting criticism of the U.S. ally’s conduct in the war in Gaza.

Earlier this week, State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller responded to a question about a video shown on Israel’s Channel 12, the country’s most watched commercial station, that alleged to show the abuse of a Palestinian man at Sde Teiman, a military facility where thousands of Palestinians have been detained since October.

“We have seen the video, and reports of sexual abuse of detainees are horrific,” Miller said, adding that the reports should be “fully” investigated by the Israeli government.

“There ought to be zero tolerance for sexual abuse, rape of any detainee, period,” he added.

The White House also called the reports of rape, torture and abuse “deeply, deeply concerning.”

Spokesperson Karine Jean-Pierre added: “We have been clear and consistent with Israel that it must treat all detainees humanely and with dignity in accordance with international law, must respect detainees’ human rights, and must ensure accountability for any abuses or violations.”

It was the first time that U.S. officials had referred to the video allegedly showing sexual assault. 

NBC News has not confirmed details of the reported abuse or if the video circulating was of that incident, but the allegations came out amid a roiling controversy over the treatment of Palestinian detainees that was sparked in July, when the Israeli military charged a reservist with aggravated abuse and opened an inquiry into nine other soldiers over allegations of mistreating a Palestinian detainee.

A doctor at Sde Teiman interviewed by the Israeli newspaper Haaretz expressed shock at the severity of the man’s injuries.

On Thursday, the Israel Defense Forces confirmed that five soldiers remain in detention for allegations of “serious abuse,” and the investigation is ongoing.

“The military court accepted the request of the military prosecution in its entirety and stated in its decision that the evidence shows a reasonable suspicion of the commission of the acts,” it said in a written statement.

‘Gang sexual violence’ 

A report released Monday by B’Tselem, a Jerusalem-based Israeli human rights group, alleged there was “repeated use of sexual violence, in varying degrees of severity, by soldiers or prison guards against Palestinian detainees as an additional punitive measure,” citing witnesses who described “blows to the genitals,” “the use of metal tools and batons to cause genital pain,” and “cases of gang sexual violence and assault committed by a group of prison guards or soldiers.”

One detainee cited by B’Tselem described an attempt by a member of the Israel Prison Service’s Initial Reaction Force to sodomize him with a carrot, while others recorded the act on their cellphones.

“I screamed in pain and terror,” the testimony read. “It went on like that for about three minutes.” The detainee, who was taken into custody in 2022, said the incident occurred on Oct. 29, 2023.

The detentions have spiked since Hamas’ Oct. 7 terror attack on Israel that left 1,200 dead, and saw 240 kidnapped, some of whom are believed to have been sexually abused. Since the beginning of the war in Gaza triggered by Hamas’ incursion, some 40,000 Palestinians have been killed, according to the enclave’s health officials, many thousand more have been injured and an overwhelming majority of the strip’s population driven from their homes.

A report released in April by the United Nations’ agency for Palestinian aid, UNRWA, also detailed cases of sexual abuse by Israeli forces against detainees, including sodomizing them with “something like a hot metal stick.”

In May, the U.N. special rapporteur on torture, Alice Jill Edwards, called on Israel to investigate torture and other inhumane treatment, including sexual abuse, of Palestinian detainees.

“How we treat others during moments of crisis is a sign of how much we have internalized human rights,” Edwards said. “No circumstances, however exceptional, can ever justify torture or ill-treatment.”

According to the U.N., thousands of Palestinians, including children, have been detained by Israel since the start of the war on Oct. 7, and at least 53 have died. The Palestinian prisoners commission, an organization that is part of the Palestinian Authority and is based in Ramallah in the occupied West Bank, estimated that there were about 9,900 Palestinians in Israeli prisons as of the beginning of August.

Data from the Israel Prison Service cited by B’Tselem says there were 3,615 Palestinians in administrative detention as of March. In addition to the IPS, the Israeli military also holds detainees, and when asked how many Palestinians have been arrested since Oct. 7, the IDF told NBC News it had “no comment.”

‘Everything is legitimate’

Shortly after Israeli authorities announced on July 29 they had detained reservists for allegedly abusing prisoners, hundreds of people demonstrated in front of Sde Teiman and Beit Lid, where the soldiers are believed to be held, to protest their detention.

While the arrest of the reservists had brought this case to wider attention, B’Tselem argued that the abuse of Palestinian detainees is systemic in Israeli prisons.

In a heated meeting of lawmakers in July, a parliamentarian asked if it was legitimate “to insert a stick into a person’s rectum?” 

“Yes!” lawmaker Hanoch Milwidsky, of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s right-wing Likud party, shouted in reply. If the detainee is a Hamas militant, he said, “Everything is legitimate to do! Everything!”

Netanyahu has not publicly addressed Milwidsky’s comments, and his office did not immediately respond to a request for comment on these or the case overall. The prime minister also hasn’t commented on the alleged abuse except for calling for calm amid protests against the arrests of the Israeli reservists, and condemning those who broke into a base believed to be holding them.