‘Torture, threats, rape’: Palestinian journalists detail Israeli jail abuse

CPJ report shares harrowing accounts of dozens of Palestinian journalists jailed by Israel since October 2023.

Palestinian journalists jailed by Israel have reported widespread abuse in custody, including routine beatings, starvation and sexual assault, according to testimony published by the International Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ).

In a February 19 report, the media rights group said it interviewed 59 Palestinian journalists imprisoned by Israel after the Hamas-led attacks of October 2023. All but one reported experiencing “torture, abuse or other forms of violence”, it said.

The alleged abuse meted out by Israeli authorities ranged from baton beatings and electroshocks to excruciating stress positions – including under sewage water – as well as sexual violence. Two journalists said they were raped.

Journalist Sami al-Sai said soldiers stripped him and penetrated him with a baton and other items in a small cell in Israel’s Megiddo prison, an ordeal he said left him in a “severe psychological state”.

“Descriptions of sexual violence appeared repeatedly in the testimonies, with journalists describing assaults as intended to humiliate, terrorise and permanently scar them”, said the CPJ report.