‘More than a human can bear’: information from confessions and testimonies makes horrific reading
As Skwawkbox covered last week, the United Nations commission on human rights has released a lengthy report which concludes that Israel has systematically and genocidally used sexual and gender-based violence as part of a strategy of extermination against the Palestinian people.
This UN report, titled ‘”More than a human can bear”: Israel’s systematic use of sexual, reproductive and other forms of gender-based violence since 7 October 2023″ catalogues, from confessions and survivor testimonies, Israel’s crimes of sexual violence during the court of its genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity in Gaza – a horrific encyclopaedia of perverse and dehumanising criminality. Below are some excerpts, which may be triggering for some readers:
I w ill be happy to sit with you in jail someday. You know Sde Teiman? Rape for the sake of God, as they say. You understand what I mean.
Threat by an Israeli settler to a Palestinian.
You sons of bitches, we came here to fuck you, you and your mothers, you bitches. You ugly Arab we will burn you alive you dogs.
Writings left by members of the ISF in a women’s shelter in Gaza.
I was lying on the floor, completely naked. The soldiers demanded that I kiss the Israeli flag, but I refused so they heat me severely and kicked me on the genitals. I vomited as a result. I was in pain and my testicles were swollen and bruised from the beating. I lost consciousness for a short period of time and woke up again to realize they were still beating me.
Male detainee in Israel’s Negev prison.
Dr Adnan al-Bursh, head of orthopaedic surgery at Al Shifa hospital, was subjected to sexual torture and assault and died of his injuries. His body has still not been released by Israel:
The Commission received reports that Dr. Adnan al-Bursh, the head of the orthopaedic department at al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City, was subjected to sexual violence in an Israeli prison prior to his death in Israeli custody. Al-Bursh was arrested in December 2023 from al-Awda hospital during the ISF’s siege on the hospital.
UN report, p28.
Al Bursh died at Ofer prison in April after four months in an Israeli prison allegedly due to the mistreatment he endured during his captivity. A released detainee told the Commission that he saw al-Bursh in Sde Teiman in December 2023 where he was bruised and complained of chest pain. The Commission also received reports about a witness in Ofer prison seeing al-Bursh just prior to his death.
According to the witness, al-Bursh had been assaulted and stripped naked on his lower body. Al-Bursh’s body remains withheld by the Israeli authorities. To the Commission’s knowledge there has not been an independent forensic autopsy on the body.
Multiple cases of genital and anal violence were documented:
The Commission documented cases of rape and sexual assault of male
UN report, p27.
detainees, including the use of an electrical probe to cause burns to the anus, and the insertion of objects, such as fingers, sticks, broomsticks and vegetables, into the anus and rectum.
One victim who had been detained in Sde Teiman told the Commission
about severe mistreatment, including being suspended from the ceiling so that only the tips of his toes touched a chair and beaten with tools for hours.
During the abuse, a metal tool was inserted in his penis repeatedly until his penis started bleeding, and he fainted. The victim told the Commission: “They took me into an interrogation room and suspended me by my arms behind my back. My toes barely touched the floor. A male guard inserted a metal stick in my penis on several occasions, about twenty times in total. I started bleeding. The pain was excruciating but the humiliation was worse.”
The report also details widespread actual and threatened sexual violence against women and children, including toddlers:
The Commission also received information about sexual violence against girls, or threats of sexual violence directed against girls. In one case, a 14-year-old girl was reportedly searched and subjected to sexual violence when passing by the Bab Al Zahera Police station on her way to a school. A soldier ordered her to stop and then threw the content of her bag on the ground and dragged her to a location close by that did not have cameras. Two soldiers reportedly touched her on her breasts, neck and waist. When she asked for a female soldier to do the search, she was slapped by one of the soldiers who also made sexual remarks and said “you are murderers”.
UN report, p26.
A pregnant woman who was detained by soldiers close to her house in Hebron was reportedly threatened by the male soldiers with rape, and the threats were also directed at her daughters aged three and four who were present at the time.
Rapes were so violent that victims were left needing surgery, including one who has been forced to use a stoma bag to defecate because his rectal wounds were so severe:
In at least two cases documented by the Commission, victims needed medical treatment and/or surgery due to the injuries caused by rape. In one case, a detained Palestinian man was raped after he was transferred from Ofer prison to Sde Teiman detention facility. According to an indictment submitted to an Israeli military court, the man was physically abused by five soldiers, reservists in Unit 100, during a search at Sde Teiman prison.
UN report, pp27-28.
The men, including the commander of the team, kicked the victim and hit him with a baton and tasered him in the head. A baton was also inserted in his mouth and a dog was used to intimidate the victim during the assault.
The assault resulted in the fracture of several of the victim’s ribs and a punctured lung. The victim was also stabbed in the rectum with a sharp object. The victim’s rectum was raptured due to the assault, and he required surgery to the rectum. Following the assault, the victim was required to use a stoma bag due to the gravity of the injuries. A video filming the assailants were taken by a soldier.
Sexual abuse, humiliation and harassment of male Palestinian detainees was so common as to be ‘routine’:
…detainees were routinely subjected to sexual abuse and harassment, and that threats of sexual assault and rape were directed at detainees or their female family members. The Commission received information about detainees being forced to undress and lie on top of each other while subjected to verbal abuse and forced to curse their mothers.
UN report, p28.
One detainee was subjected to an attempted rape with a carrot in the anus in front of the other detainees. Another detainee held in Sde Teiman reported that female soldiers had forced him and others to make sounds like a sheep, curse the Hamas leadership and the prophet Muhammad, and say “I am a whore”. Detainees were beaten if they did not comply.
In another case, a soldier took off his trousers and pressed his crotch to a detainee’s face, saying: “You are my bitch. Suck my dick.”
Palestinian women and girls were no less horrifically abused:
Female detainees were also subjected to sexual assault and harassment in military and Israel Prison Service facilities, as well as threats to their lives. The sexual assault and harassment included kicking the women’s genitals, touching their breasts, attempting to kiss them, and threats of rape.
UN report, p28.
One female detainee interviewed by the Commission said that a soldier threatened to gang rape her, kill her and burn her children. The soldier asked her: “How do you want us to rape you? one by one or all together?” The victim was also denied access to her lawyer once she had informed him of the rape threat.
In one case reported to the Commission, a woman was threatened with sexual assault in front of her husband while detained in Hasharon prison. One soldier reportedly unzipped his pants and threatened to make the woman sit on his lap while another soldier commented on her breasts. The woman, who had given birth two months prior to her detention, was reportedly spat in her face by the soldiers and beaten repeatedly until she fainted.
The abuse of both women and men was perpetrated by female guards as well as male:
Female detainees reported being subjected to repeated, prolonged and invasive strip searches, both before and after interrogations. One woman was strip searched in her cell every three hours during her four-day detention, the guards forcing her to remove all her clothes even though she was menstruating.
UN report pp 28-29.
Women were forced to remove all clothes, including the veil, in front of male and female soldiers. They were beaten and harassed while called “ugly” and subjected to sexual insults, such as “bitch” and “whore”, directed at them.
One victim described to the Commission the humiliation she and her fellow detainees were subjected to: “They forced us to strip and laughed at us during the search because some of us had clothes stained with menstruation blood and some smelled because we had not been allowed to take showers. They also laughed at one detainee who was overweight. We felt so insulted and humiliated.”
Amnesty International also reported on a violent strip search involving a female detainee in Damon prison where guards reportedly used a huge knife to rip off her clothes.
Women were also raped using objects, both vaginally and anally, and were denied sanitary products and even access to toilets.
As well as the crimes perpetrated by military personnel and prison guards, the report lists extensive and verified sexual violence by Israeli settlers, protected by military and police, against Palestinian civilians – both women and men, including the sexual desecration of the bodies of victims who had been murdered by the settlers. As Skwawkbox has already reported, it also lists crimes against reproductive health facilities including the deliberate destruction of stored embryos and semen.
It goes on to conclude that Israel has shown no intention of prosecuting and punishing offenders:
The Commission notes that, there have been no meaningful efforts by Israel to hold the perpetrators accountable. The Commission has not seen any evidence that the Israeli authorities have taken any effective measures to prevent or stop acts of sexual violence or to identify and punish perpetrators, despite the abundance of witness and digital evidence of Israeli soldiers committing crimes in Gaza.
UN report, p33.
before listing examples of the state-sanctioned impunity afforded to even the most brutal and sadistic perpetrators – and notes the encouragement of such violence by Israeli media figures:
158. The lack of effective measures to ensure accountability for rape and other forms of sexual violence is evident both in cases where there have been strong public reactions in Israel against attempts to hold the assailants accountable, such as the case above, as well as in other cases where there is little public attention. The Commission documented a case where a male detainee was raped repeatedly in an Israeli detention facility. A complaint was filed with the Israeli prosecution but, more than six months after the incident was reported, the Commission has received information that no effective measures were taken by the Israeli authorities to investigate the allegations or prosecute those involved despite the evidence.
UN report, p35.
159. The Commission also documented statements from public and media figures that excused or encouraged the use of sexual violence against Palestinians in detention.
In an illustrative example, Israeli journalist Yehuda Schlesinger from the Israel Hayom newspaper made a statement on Israeli channel 12 in August 2024 in relation to the rape of Palestinian detainees, stating that it should be institutionalised by the Israeli authorities to punish, exact revenge and deter Palestinians. The journalist later retracted his statement.
The report further accuses Israel of a strategic policy of extermination and concludes that, while horrific violence and abuse has been perpetrated against men and boys as a form of collective punishment, women and girls have been the particular target of the occupation regime’s extermination plan in Gaza – and concludes that this strategy of crimes against humanity is unequivocally genocidal:
Israeli military operations in Gaza have had a disproportionate impact on
Palestinian women and girls, who continue to bear the brunt and pay the price for decisions made by those in power while themselves marginalised from decision making and military and political power. The Commission notes in this regard the high and increasing number and proportion of female fatalities in Gaza, which is on an unprecedented scale, and the gender-specific harms related to a broad range of violations and crimes that have caused specific and serious bodily and mental harm to women and girls.
Israel has targeted civilian women and girls directly, acts that constitute
the crime against humanity of murder and the war crime of wilful killing.
Women and girls have also died from complications related to pregnancy and childbirth due to the conditions imposed by the Israeli authorities impacting access to reproductive health care, acts that amount to the crime against humanity of extermination.
In addition to the disproportionate impact on women and girls as a result
of intentionally directing attacks against civilians and civilian objects, specific gendered harms have been suffered as a result of starvation as a method of warfare, forcible transfer, extermination and collective punishment.
Israel’s use of starvation as a method of war, the denial of humanitarian
assistance and the concerted policy to destroy Gaza’s healthcare system,
compounded by the lack of water and access to sanitation facilities, have caused severe reproductive harms to women and girls, impacting all aspects of reproduction, including pregnancy, childbirth, post-partum recovery and
lactation. Other reproductive harms include conditions that lead to the inability to manage postpartum-bleeding and menstruation hygienically and with dignity.
As primary caregivers, women have suffered gender-specific harms as a
result of multiple displacements, deaths of children, separation of families and caring for sick and wounded family members. Pre-existing structural
discrimination has also exacerbated controlling behaviours from male family
members and has impacted women’s and girls’ freedom and agency.
Sexual and reproductive healthcare facilities have been systematically
destroyed across Gaza, including maternity hospitals and maternity wards of hospitals and Gaza’s main in-vitro fertility clinic.
Israeli authorities deliberately destroyed such healthcare facilities rendering them non-functional, while simultaneously imposing a siege, and preventing humanitarian assistance at scale, including necessary medications and equipment to ensure safe pregnancies, deliveries and neonatal care. Israeli authorities have implemented the systematic
denial of approval for patients to exit Gaza and seek treatment elsewhere,
including patients with gynaecological cancer. The Commission finds that the Israeli authorities have destroyed in part the reproductive capacity of the Palestinians in Gaza as a group, including by imposing measures intended to prevent births, one of the categories of genocidal acts in the Rome Statute and the Genocide Convention.
The harm for pregnant, lactating and new mothers is of an unprecedented
scale in Gaza. Furthermore, the lack of access to sexual and reproductive health care has caused immediate physical and mental harm and suffering to women and girls that will have irreversible long-term effects on the mental health and the physical reproductive and fertility prospects of the Palestinians in Gaza as a group.
The underlying acts amount to crimes against humanity and deliberately
inflicting conditions of life calculated to bring about the physical destruction of Palestinians as a group, one of the categories of genocidal acts in the Rome Statute and the Genocide Convention.
The UK’s ‘mainstream’ media have ignored the report. The BBC, the UK’s state broadcaster, has a mention of Israel being called upon to stop torturing prisoners – from 1997:
UK PM Keir Starmer and his government have remained silent about the UN’s report. Starmer and Foreign Secretary David Lammy have refused even to admit that Israel is committing genocide, despite the findings of the World Court and the United Nations, and the arrest warrants issued by the International Criminal Court for Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu and former defence minister Yoav Gallant.
Read the full report here.
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But they have the right to defend themselves. How many times have we heard that?
Thanks for reporting this thoroughly. The BBC actually does have a full story on the website — https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/clyr154314vo — which anybody can find and you should acknowledge, rather than your sneaky little quote from 1997. You don’t have to do this sort of thing! and would have more credibility if you didn’t, at least among people who take news seriously. It’s true the BBC don’t broadcast it and this happens a lot — people say the BBC don’t report something significant and they can say — ah but there’s a story on the website. You undermine that point when you cheat yourself.
And how many horrors have the ever-impartial beeb failed to report on?
Why are there NEVER any critical, in-depth reports on netanyahu & co, the royals, the government of the day?
No. The bbc are complicit by their dumbing-down, same as the press
In the rare instances when they actually do some journalism remotely worthy of the name,then they’re invariably buried away under, for example, tales about them two geordie twunts getting a new tv show, or some royal parasite publishing a photo that no bastard gives a flying one about?
The only one worth anything to the cause of journalism is Victoria Derbyshire…and she’s pushed around from pillar to post, unlike the overtly and unashamedly tory kuenssberg.
Small wonder more & more people are turning to citizen journalism like @Skwawkbox – where they can get NEWS.
If it was a report detailing sexual violence and torture against Israeli prisoners/captives by Hamas, then it would be headline news on BBC news bulletins and the BBC News Channel and on their radio channels. And all the rest of the MSM of course.
The reason the BBC decided not to cover S. Africa’s submission to the ICJ in full – but cover Israel’s defence of the charges in full the following day – and only show clips of it, is because S. Africa’s submission included numerous examples of genocidal statements/rhetoric made by Israeli politicians – including Netanyahu – and officials and commentators etc, the vast majority of which were blanked by the MSM.
The following article is from November 30th, 2023, and includes quite a few examples, but there have been many, many more since then, and hundreds altogether:
‘Erase Gaza’: How genocidal rhetoric became normalised in Israel
In-depth: Incendiary language of extermination, ethnic cleansing, and the wholesale destruction of Gaza, including with nuclear weapons, has become part of mainstream discourse in Israel during the war.
https://www.newarab.com/analysis/erase-gaza-how-genocidal-rhetoric-normalised-israel
Check out the following article by The National from March last year, which I just came across. I wasn’t aware until I read it that the BBC was questioned by MPs on the Media Committee about it last year. Oh, right, and it was a ‘mistake’ you see, which of course explains it. NOT!:
BBC ‘made mistake’ in coverage of ICJ genocide case against Israel
THE BBC made a “mistake” in choosing to broadcast Israel’s defence of genocide charges at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in full – but only show clips of South Africa’s submission arguing the opposite, a top official has said.
David Jordan, the director of editorial policy and standards at the BBC, told MPs on Westminster’s Media Committee that the news team may have “done it differently” if they were covering the ICJ case again.
Jordan was asked to speak after Tim Davie, the BBC director-general, repeatedly declined to say whether he thought it had been fair for the corporation to broadcast the Israeli defence in full while South Africa’s counter-arguments were only shown in part….
https://www.thenational.scot/news/24197886.bbc-made-mistake-coverage-icj-genocide-case-israel/