Archiv: Folter / torture


07.07.2026 - 23:11 [ Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) / BĂŒro des Hohen Kommissars fĂŒr Menschenrechte ]

Israel must immediately release Dr. Hussam Abu Safiya: UN experts

On 27 December 2024, Kamal Adwan Hospital was the last functioning hospital in North Gaza. “The hospital’s director, Dr. Hussam Abu Safiya along with other medical staff and patients were illegally detained by Israel on the basis of the abusive Unlawful Combatants’ Law”, the experts said.

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“Israel and its allies have ignored the International Court of Justice and UN mechanims and experts as they continue to commit these violations of international law without any consequences,” they said.

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The experts:

– Tlaleng Mofokeng, Special Rapporteur on the right of everyone to the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health
– Francesca Albanese, Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territory occupied since 1967
– Morris Tidball-Binz, Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions
– Ben Saul, Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of human rights and fundamental freedom while countering terrorism

07.07.2026 - 01:56 [ Physicians for Human Rights Israel ]

Save Dr. Abu Safiya

Dr. Hussam Abu Safiya to his attorney: “This is the last time you’ll see me
 They brought me here to kill me.”

Recent reports raise grave concerns about Dr. Abu Safiya and the other healthcare professionals from Gaza held in Israeli detention facilities.

PHRI demands the immediate removal of Dr. Abu Safiya from the Rekafet underground security facility and an urgent assessment of his condition by an independent actor, before it is too late.

07.07.2026 - 01:50 [ theGuardian.com ]

Detained Gaza doctor almost unrecognisable after injuries in Israeli jail, lawyer says

“I have visited Dr Abu Safiya several times since his detention, but the individual I encountered during this latest visit was not the same person I had previously met,” Odeh said on Sunday, calling for an immediate independent medical examination. ‘‘His physical and psychological state, the severe injuries visible on his body, and his personal testimony leave no room for doubt: his life is in immediate danger.”

Abu Safiya appeared frightened, distressed and reluctant to speak freely in the meeting, Odeh said, but told his lawyer that he was subjected to daily beatings in the Rakefet jail, and had lost consciousness several times as a result.

Rakefet, where prisoners never see daylight, was built in the 1980s to hold senior organised crime figures before being closed on the grounds it was inhumane. It was reopened on the orders of the far-right national security minister, Itamar Ben-Gvir.

07.07.2026 - 01:46 [ Zeteo ]

Kidnapped Gaza Doctor Faces ‘Life-Threatening Condition’ in Israeli Captivity

A famed Palestinian hospital director who Israel abducted in December 2024 is on the brink of death, his lawyer warns.

Dr. Hussam Abu Safiya has been in Israeli captivity for 18 months, ever since Israeli forces shut down the crucial Kamal Adwan Hospital – the second largest in northern Gaza – in the winter of 2024.

Now, Physicians for Human Rights Israel (PHRI) is relaying a warning from Abu Safiya’s lawyer, Nasser Odeh, that the prominent Palestinian pediatrician and hospital director is in “life-threatening condition” and enduring “daily violence and beatings.”

03.07.2026 - 21:44 [ Middle East Eye ]

Exclusive: ICC prosecutors shelved RSF arrest warrant as Sudan atrocities mounted

The International Criminal Court‘s prosecutor’s office has not applied for a single arrest warrant over crimes committed in Sudan‘s Darfur region since the country‘s devastating war began in April 2023, despite more than three years of investigation and repeated public assurances that charges were imminent, Middle East Eye can reveal.

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For more than a year after Khan‘s leave of absence in May 2025, the prosecution did not provide any explanation to the pretrial chamber regarding the late application.

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The deputy prosecutor, who is currently in charge of the Darfur investigation, has yet to provide a timeline for any other arrest warrants, MEE understands.

02.07.2026 - 07:26 [ Amnesty International ]

CITY UNDER SIEGE, CHILDREN UNDER FIRE: RAPID SUPPORT FORCES’ CRIMES AGAINST HUMANITY IN NORTH DARFUR

During nearly three years of brutal conflict, civilians in North Darfur have been unlawfully detained, tortured and killed on a massive scale. Women and girls have been raped and forced into sexual slavery. Children have not just been the collateral damage of this violence: very often, they are deliberate targets.

This report documents the Rapid Support Forces’ (RSF’s) slow and violent takeover of North Darfur and its capital, El Fasher, after it began fighting the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) in April 2023. The abuses, which amount to crimes against humanity under international law, displaced hundreds of thousands of children, exposing them to death and injury during attacks or while fleeing. Countless children have been orphaned.

Sudan’s current crisis erupted against the backdrop of decades of armed conflict. When major violence escalated in April 2023 between the SAF and the RSF (a former government force), fighting was first concentrated in the capital, Khartoum. But it soon spread to other parts of the country, including Darfur, a region on the western border with Chad that has been wracked by cycles of conflict since the early 2000s. By November 2023, the RSF controlled four of the five state capitals in Darfur.

El Fasher was the lone holdout and last major stronghold in Darfur for the SAF and the allied Joint Forces (a coalition of local armed groups that draws heavily from the Zaghawa ethnic group). The area is of particular strategic importance due to its sizeable gold reserves and its position as a geographical hub linking Darfur to Libya and Chad along trans-Saharan trade routes. It became a prize the RSF seemed willing to take at any price – something made possible by the steady flow of weapons and other equipment from its foreign backers, most notably the United Arab Emirates (UAE).

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TO THE AFRICAN UNION PEACE AND SECURITY COUNCIL

– Apply sustained political pressure on the RSF, SAF and all other parties to the conflict in Sudan to immediately agree to and implement a nationwide ceasefire accompanied by a sustainable framework for longer-term security and stability, human rights protection, justice and accountability. Regardless of progress towards a ceasefire, use all available leverage to urge all parties to immediately end attacks on civilians and civilian infrastructure, ensure safe and unfettered humanitarian access into North Darfur, and urgently facilitate the scaling up of humanitarian funding and response commensurate with the scale of civilian need.

– In line with the recommendation of the ACHPR’s Joint Fact-Finding Mission on the Human Rights Situation in the Republic of the Sudan, and given the ongoing risk to civilians, urgently establish and deploy a protection force to Sudan with a mandate to protect and deter attacks against civilians, prevent atrocities, create the security conditions conducive to the delivery of humanitarian assistance, and monitor and publicly report on attacks against civilians and civilian infrastructure. Ensure the protection force is adequately resourced, equipped and supported to operate effectively, including through predictable and sustainable financing.

02.07.2026 - 07:12 [ Amnesty International ]

Sudan: RSF atrocities in El Fasher ‘a stain on the conscience of humanity’ – new report

The Rapid Support Forces (RSF) committed crimes against humanity and ethnic cleansing during its campaign to seize El Fasher in North Darfur state in Sudan, Amnesty International concluded in a major new report. The organization is now calling for an immediate ceasefire in Sudan, and for the urgent deployment of an international force to protect civilians.

24.06.2026 - 04:10 [ Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) / BĂŒro des Hohen Kommissars fĂŒr Menschenrechte ]

“The essence of childhood has been destroyed”: Israel’s deliberate targeting of Palestinian children in the Occupied Palestinian Territory since 7 October 2023

56. On 24 January 2024, at around 08:30, a family was preparing to evacuate from their ground-floor apartment in a seven-storey building at al-Amal, west of Khan Younis, following receipt of an evacuation order by the Israeli security forces. The father noticed quadcopters hovering over the area and presence of the Israeli security forces about 100 meters east of their house, instructing people to head west to Al-Mawasi in Khan Younis. His 15-year-old son stepped out of the house holding a white cloth, when the father, who was inside the house, heard a gunshot from the eastern side where Israeli soldiers were located. The boy was hit in the left foot, and he fell on his face. As he attempted to stand, two more gunshots were fired within seconds from the same direction. One shot hit the boy on his back and another on the left side of his neck. Seeing this, the boy’s 20-year-old brother ran towards him and was also shot on the left side of his chest. He collapsed on top of his younger brother.

57. The victims’ mother waved her hands at the south side window to signal for an ambulance when the Israeli security forces fired bullets which hit her too, slightly injuring her in her left hand. The father tried several times to pull away the bodies of both his sons but, every time he tried to advance towards them, the Israeli security forces fired in his direction. He then left the neighbourhood with the rest of his family. In early March 2024, he learned that two days after the incident, an ambulance arrived to retrieve his sons’ bodies. To date, the family is unaware where the bodies are buried.

58. The Commission assesses that the 15-year-old boy holding the white flag was shot by Israeli soldiers using a DAN.338 calibre bolt-action sniper rifle, commonly used by Israeli snipers, from a position located around 200 metres away. Given that sniper rifles used by the Israeli security forces normally have a precision accuracy range of more than 1,200 metres, the Israeli shooter should have been able to see that the target was a child and that he was holding a white flag. The additional two shots fired after the boy was hit were likely meant to ensure that he was dead. The additional killing of the boy’s brother points to a deliberate effort by the Israeli security forces to target the boy as well as any person that came to retrieve him. The Commission could not find any indication of a threat towards members of the Israeli security forces from the family’s location. The Commission finds that the Israeli security forces’ 98th Division were operating in the area at the time of the incident.

Injuring of a 10-day-old baby by quadcopter inside the tent in Nuseirat camp

59. On 12 April 2024 at 13:00, a 10 day-old-baby boy was shot by a quadcopter while being breastfed by his mother inside their tent in Nuseirat camp. The mother was alone in the tent, breastfeeding her baby, when a single bullet from a quadcopter hit the baby in the head and exited through the back of his head, hitting the pillow behind her. The baby survived but sustained brain injuries and now suffers from seizures.

60. The Commission viewed and analysed images of the bullet that hit the baby. The Commission concluded on reasonable grounds that the bullet was fired from a sniper rifle mounted on a quadcopter. Considering that the shooting occurred in broad daylight, the
Commission concludes that the quadcopter controller would have been able to see inside the tent and assesses that the target was a mother and a baby.

Injuring of a four-year-old girl in Khan Younis displacement camp

61. On 24 August 2024, at around 08:00, a four-year-old girl was hit by a bullet to her head while she was eating with her family in her tent in Khan Younis, southern Gaza…………..

24.06.2026 - 04:00 [ United Nations ]

HRC Press Conference: Commission of Inquiry (COI) on OPT, including East Jerusalem, and Israel

Press conference with the Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, and in Israel, to launch their latest report.
Description

Speakers:

– Srinivasan Muralidhar, Chair of the Commission
– Florence Mumba, Commissioner
– Chris Sidoti, Commissioner

24.06.2026 - 03:54 [ United Nations ]

Israel continues to commit genocide, atrocity crimes by deliberately targeting Palestinian children, UN independent commission finds

Last year, the commission concluded that “Israel had committed genocide against the Palestinian group in the Gaza Strip, found that the intense scale and systematic nature of the Israeli military operations have continued, resulting in unprecedented death, injury and trauma of Palestinian children.”

Here are some findings in the commission’s latest report:

– Israel has killed 20,000 children and injured 44,000 more since 7 October 2023
– Severe physical and mental injuries, mass trauma, orphanhood, separation, disability, repeated displacements, starvation and the collapse of education and healthcare have erased childhood and will continue to affect children in Gaza throughout their lives
– Palestinian children have been arrested and subjected to torture and other severe forms of mistreatment in Israeli prisons and detention facilities, with no information on their whereabouts
– Israeli security forces have used sexual violence against children as part of the collective shaming and oppression, entrenched within a prolonged, ethnic, gendered and intergenerational pattern of occupation and hostilities

15.06.2026 - 16:59 [ Al Jazeera ]

EU fails to agree on sanctions on Israel’s far-right minister Ben-Gvir

EU foreign ministers have failed to agree on sanctions against Israel’s far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, the bloc’s foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas says.

“Many member states have also proposed to sanction Minister Ben-Gvir, but no consensus on that was reached,” Kallas said.

09.06.2026 - 23:40 [ Al Jazeera ]

‘They were laughing’: Israel’s use of rape and sexual abuse in prisons

It was April 10, 2024, during the Eid al-Fitr holiday, at the end of the holy month of Ramadan. The Gaza civil servant had been beaten, tortured, bound and forced to soil himself since his arrest by Israeli soldiers a month earlier.

The soldiers and their guard dogs surrounded him that day. “There were six soldiers on the right and six on the left,” he recalled. “They would ask your name. If you said ‘Muhammad’, they would say, ‘No, say your name is b****.’”

Al-Bakri said he was held with seven other prisoners. They were all stripped, blindfolded and handcuffed.

“We were raped after being stripped of our clothes,” he said. “We were shouting, ‘Oh Lord, oh God’, but they were just laughing and filming us.” Al-Bakri then echoed what several rights agencies have also reported – that guards also used dogs during the sexual abuse of prisoners. “The dogs were following commands from the officers to [attack] us,” he said.

“There was no mercy. We stayed in that state of sexual abuse and beatings for about 20 minutes to half an hour. Then they told us to get dressed and took us back to the prison.”

31.05.2026 - 17:01 [ New Jersey Monitor ]

Newark migrant jail detainees launch hunger, labor strike over conditions behind bars

(May 22, 2026)

NEWARK — Roughly 300 people detained at migrant jail Delaney Hall began a hunger and labor strike to bring attention to what they call the detrimental conditions and treatment they say they face behind bars.

For two hours near a tent outside the Doremus Avenue detention center Friday morning, people shared their stories of loved ones who are detained inside. Gabriela Soto translated calls from prisoners, including one from her husband, Martin, who has been held there since February.

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Shortly after their calls with advocates, guards cut access to phones and tablets inside.

31.05.2026 - 16:42 [ LaHuelga.com ]

S.O.S: A Second Letter From Delaney Hall

(May 12, 2026)

We feel vulnerable and, in a way, kidnapped —detained without justification— not to mention that we are being tortured physically and psychologically due to the poor food resources provided in these detention centers. We see with deep helplessness and frustration that our due process, rights, and defense have been violated, disregarding benefits granted under the 4th, 5th, and 6th Amendments of the UNITED STATES CONSTITUTION. Families are being destroyed and separated, where there are children, nieces, and minors who are suffering a very strong psychological impact because they do not understand the situation, and in some cases they have witnessed the arrests of their relatives, who have been struck by tragedy and the economic burden, since in most cases we are heads of household.

30.05.2026 - 17:50 [ American Prospect ]

The Miller Doctrine

(May 27, 2026)

Yet proposals that skirt the edges of international law didn’t come out of nowhere. The U.S. under George W. Bush created legal mechanisms following the September 11th attacks to torture hundreds of people in CIA black sites and then at Guantanamo Bay. The Obama administration’s targeted drone strikes were assassinations by another name. The Biden administration further eroded international norms and subverted its own policies by financing Israel’s genocide in Gaza, in violation of the Leahy Law, which prohibits foreign military assistance to nations that violate human rights.

“Seems like Miller is sort of taking what he was already willing to do during the first term and then combining that with what Israel has been doing in the way it has just been completely ignoring any kind of international law, Geneva Conventions, any of it in its conduct in Gaza and Lebanon, to then influence U.S. foreign policy,” Annelle Sheline, a research fellow in the Middle East program at the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft, said in an interview.

In other words, Miller and the Trump administration have been able to steamroll what was left of international law; they just had to figure out how to do it.

27.05.2026 - 18:23 [ Common Dreams ]

Global Sumud Flotilla Urges Probe of US Complicity in Members’ Abduction and Torture by Israel

That vessel, the amphibious landing ship INS Nahshon, was built by Bollinger Mississippi Shipbuilding in Louisiana and was fully financed by the US government. GSF activists first became aware of what they now call the “torture boat” when it was used to detain members of the previous Gaza-bound flotilla, dozens of whom required medical attention for broken ribs, noses, and other injuries inflicted by Israeli forces.

This time, according to GSF, “detained humanitarians, doctors, and journalists were processed one by one through a darkened shipping container. Inside, groups of three to five soldiers systematically brutalized each person who came through the door while those waiting outside listened to the screams.”

25.05.2026 - 12:10 [ Global Sumud Flotilla ]

Global Sumud Flotilla Releases Horrific, Newly Emerging Testimonies as Survivors Return Home

May 24, 2026 INTERNATIONAL – As civilian participants from the Global Sumud Flotilla (GSF) begin landing in their respective home countries and some continue their recovery in Istanbul, the full, devastating scale of the violence executed by the israeli Occupation Forces (iOF) is being laid bare. Following the most recent unlawful interception of the flotilla in international waters on 18 May, newly emerging and harrowing testimonies confirm a coordinated campaign of systematic torture, severe physical and psychological trauma, and targeted gender-based and sexual violence.

(The violence reported in this release covers only the second of two illegal israeli interceptions that took place during the Spring 2026 flotilla mission; the first attack took place on 29 April off the coast of Crete, which also had numerous reports of sexual violence, rape and physical injuries including 35 people requiring medical care for broken noses, ribs and injuries from rubber bullets deployed by it iOF.)

25.05.2026 - 12:00 [ Global Sumud Flotilla ]

Global Sumud Flotilla Volunteers Recount Abuse on ‘Torture Boat’

(May 22, 2026)

In what is believed to be the US-built-and-funded INS Nahshon, detainees were “processed” one by one, and taken into darkened containers where groups of iOF commandos brutalised them one by one. Yassine Benjelloun, who had sailed on a previous flotilla mission and expected comparable treatment, described the moment of entry:

„He throws me in a container that is dark, and all of a sudden, I hear, “Welcome to israel. ” And I start getting hit, like first hit on the head, second hit in the ribs, then I fall, then they kick me. And I‘m hearing people screaming, and all of a sudden people stop screaming, and I don‘t see anything, and I don‘t know what‘s going to happen. “ — Yassine Benjelloun

Adrien Berthel, France, described being singled out for targeted humiliation and beating after iOF soldiers noticed he was wearing nail polish and made assumptions about his sexuality.

Veronica Otero, participant number 22 to board, witnessed the processing of nearly all 180 detainees across three days:

„I can say that all were in many ways abused, not one single person walking with nothing. Among them there were 36 fractures, many broken ribs, torso, shoulders, and back. People were in agony. People were not breathing [due to the broken ribs]. „— Veronica Otero

At least 12 sexual assaults have been documented on that vessel alone, including anal rape and forcible penetration by a handgun. iOF soldiers tased volunteers in the face, neck and body, the strikes multiplying with each new group brought in. Multiple volunteers report being photographed during strip searches and guards laughing throughout.

22.05.2026 - 13:50 [ Ounka / X ]

A Global Sumud Flotilla participant just testified from the depths of an Israeli detention center

„I was illegally kidnapped by Israel – like 425 other people.“

„Handcuffs on my hands and feet. Dragged me. When I couldn‘t walk, they dragged me on the ground.“

„They hit us. Hurt all of us a lot. Handcuffs so tight my hands lost feeling.“

„They laughed all the time. Super sadistic.“

„Took off my shirt. Took pictures. Mistreated us all night long.“

Then she delivered her message to the world:

„Shame on you. Shame on all of you. Shame on every government that keeps trading with Israel. My government is complicit. Europe is complicit. The whole world is complicit.“

22.05.2026 - 13:47 [ Thiago Ávila / X ]

Warning: distressful content!

Those genocidal maniacs RAPED humanitarian activist trying to take food and medicine to children in Gaza! And the worst is that even this they escalate to much worse forms with the 9000 Palestinians in israeli dungeons (almost 400 children)!

22.05.2026 - 13:36 [ PalMedia / X ]

Global Sumud Flotilla activist Juliet Lamont describes severe abuse by Israel: “I was tied with cables, water tortured, and sexually assaulted. People had broken ribs, were tased in the face, and injected with unknown sedatives.”

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22.05.2026 - 13:15 [ Furkan GözĂŒkara / Youtube ]

Terrifying revelation. A Global Sumud Flotilla captain shows his back completely covered in massive bruises from Israeli forces.

He confirms the horrific reality that Arabic and non-white captives were beaten much worse.

22.05.2026 - 13:06 [ The Resonance / X ]

The Sumud Flotilla activists, kidnapped in international waters, have been hospitalized after being brutally tortured by Israeli forces.

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22.05.2026 - 13:06 [ NBC News / Youtube ]

Deported Gaza flotilla activists allege abuse while detained in Israel

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13.05.2026 - 04:17 [ Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) ]

CAIR Says Congress, Trump Admin Must Act After New NYT Revelations of Israel’s Widespread Sexual Abuse of Palestinian Prisoners

The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), the nation’s largest Muslim civil rights and advocacy organization, today called on Congress and the Trump administration to take immediate action after a New York Times report detailed horrifying allegations of widespread sexual abuse, rape, torture, and humiliation of Palestinians held in Israeli detention facilities.

13.05.2026 - 04:07 [ Nicholas Kristof / X ]

This is a hard article to read, but I hope you‘ll do so.

(May 11, 2026)

I‘ve spent some time reporting on widespread rape and other sexual violence of Palestinian male and female prisoners by Israeli authorities, and the article is now published. The assault victims were warned not to give speak of what they endured — they were sometimes told they would be killed or raped if they gave interviews — but they found the courage to do so. One man described being raped three times in a single day in Israeli prison, the third time after he tried to protest. A young woman said the guards would come in at the beginning of each shift and strip her naked and abuse her. Another reported that she was shown photos of herself being raped and warned they would be released unless she cooperated with Israeli intelligence. Even three children who had been detained told me they had been sexually abused. Look, whatever our position on the Middle East, we should be able to agree on being anti-rape. Sexual assaults were horrific when Israeli women were targeted on Oct. 7, and they‘re equally horrific when Israeli authorities use them against Palestinians day after day after day. We should be able to find common ground in opposing rape. Here‘s a gift link to the article: