UN Expert Claims Systematic Torture of Palestinians
A UN expert has claimed that Israel is systematically torturing Palestinians on a scale suggesting collective vengeance, according to a report released Friday. Francesca Albanese, the UN’s special rapporteur on rights in the Palestinian territories occupied since 1967, stated that Palestinians in custody have been subjected to “exceptionally ruthless physical and psychological abuse” since Hamas’s October 7, 2023 attack.
The report, titled “Torture and Genocide,” examines Israel’s systematic use of torture against Palestinians from the occupied territory since October 7. It claims that torture has been used on an unprecedented scale as punitive collective vengeance, with brutal beatings, sexual violence, rape, lethal mistreatment, starvation, and systematic deprivation inflicting profound scars on tens of thousands of Palestinians.
Albanese gathered over 300 testimonies for her report, which states that since October 2023, more than 18,500 Palestinians have been arrested in the occupied territories, including at least 1,500 children. The report says around 9,000 Palestinians are still in detention and more than 4,000 have been subjected to enforced disappearance.
Israel is a party to the Convention against Torture but has faced harsh criticism from Albanese over her relentless accusations of “genocide.” She urged Israel’s prosecutor at the International Criminal Court to request arrest warrants for several Israeli ministers.