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GENEVA: Israel was questioned at the UN this week over multiple reports alleging the torture of Palestinian detainees, in particular since the Hamas attacks of Oct. 7, 2023.
Israel was undergoing its periodic review before the UN Committee against Torture.
“The committee has been deeply appalled by the description we have received, in a large number of alternative reports, of what appears to be systematic and widespread torture and ill-treatment of Palestinians, including children,” the body’s rapporteur, Peter Vedel Kessing, said.
“It is claimed that torture has become a deliberate and widespread tool of state policy ... from arrest to interrogation to imprisonment.”
The Committee against Torture comprises 10 independent experts who monitor the implementation of the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment by member countries.
Citing reports before the committee, Kessing said that since the Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel, which sparked the retaliatory war in Gaza, torture and ill-treatment have escalated, reaching “unprecedented levels” and carried out with impunity.
Those reports, he said, came from various UN bodies, Israeli, Palestinian, and international nongovernmental organizations, and other sources.
“Many of those detained and subsequently released have reportedly been subject to torture and other ill-treatment,” said Kessing.
“Severe beatings, including on the genitals; electric shocks; being forced to remain in stress positions in prolonged periods; deliberate inhuman conditions and starvation; waterboarding; and widespread sexual insults and threats of rape,” he said, giving examples.
In July 2024, the UN human rights office published a report stating that Palestinians detained by Israel during the Gaza war have largely been held in secret and in some cases subjected to treatment that may amount to torture.
Similar accusations have been levelled against Hamas regarding its treatment of hostages held in the Gaza Strip.
Israel’s ambassador to the UN in Geneva, Daniel Meron, rejected the allegations, branding them “disinformation,” particularly, he said, on the part of the UN-mandated Commission of Inquiry, and Francesca Albanese, the UN’s independent special rapporteur on rights in the Palestinian territories.
Meron said Israel was “committed to upholding its obligations in line with our moral values and principles, even in the face of the challenges posed by a terrorist organization.”
Kessing said “the fact that one of the parties to the armed conflict violates and disregards obligations under these rules cannot be used as an excuse for the other party” to do likewise.
He told the Israeli delegation that the committee was aware of allegations of acts of torture and war crimes committed by Hamas against Israeli soldiers and civilians.
“This is, of course, very disturbing and something we will take up ... with the state of Palestine” in a future session.
The committee’s 83rd session, running from Nov. 10 to 28, is conducting periodic reviews of Albania, Argentina, Bahrain and Israel’s efforts to implement the convention’s provisions.
The committee is set to publish its findings on Israel on Nov. 28.