UN expert claims Israel using 'systematic' torture

A UN expert claimed Israel was systematically torturing Palestinians on a scale “that suggests collective vengeance and destructive intent”, in a report released to media on Friday.

Francesca Albanese, the UN’s special rapporteur on the rights situation in the Palestinian territories occupied since 1967, said that since Hamas’s October 7, 2023 attack, which triggered the Gaza war, Palestinians in custody “have been subjected to exceptionally ruthless physical and psychological abuse”.

AFP has sought a comment from Israel’s mission in Geneva, which has previously accused Albanese of being motivated by an “obsessive, hate-driven agenda to delegitimise the state of Israel”.

Albanese has faced harsh criticism, allegations of anti-Semitism and demands for her removal, from Israel and some of its allies, over her relentless criticism and long-standing accusations of “genocide”.

Last month, France and Germany called for her to resign following her remarks to a forum in Doha. Albanese said they had done so based on “false accusations” and a “manipulation” of what she had actually said.

Though appointed by the UN Human Rights Council, special rapporteurs are independent experts and do not speak on behalf of the United Nations itself.

– ‘Unprecedented scale’ –

A statement accompanying her new report said that while Albanese “unequivocally condemns torture and other forms of ill- treatment committed by all actors, including Palestinian armed groups”, this report “focuses on Israeli conduct”.

Entitled “Torture and genocide”, the report “examines Israel’s systematic use of torture against Palestinians from the occupied Palestinian territory since October 7, 2023”.

It claimed that “torture in detention has, been used on an unprecedented scale as punitive collective vengeance”.

“Brutal beatings, sexual violence, rape, lethal mistreatment, starvation, and the systematic deprivation of the most basic human conditions have inflicted profound and lasting scars on the bodies and minds of tens of thousands of Palestinians and their loved ones,” the report said.

“Torture has become integral to the domination of and punishment inflicted on men, women and children, both through custodial abuse and through a relentless campaign of forced displacement, mass killings, deprivation and destruction of all means of life to inflict long-term collective pain and suffering,” it said.

Israel is party to the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment.

Albanese said she had gathered written submissions, including over 300 testimonies.

– ‘Widespread humiliation’ –

Albanese said that since October 2023, arrests of Palestinians in the occupied territories had “escalated dramatically”, with more than 18,500 people arrested, including at least 1,500 children.

The report said around 9,000 Palestinians were still in detention, while “more than 4,000 have been subjected to enforced disappearance”.

Albanese said Israel’s detention system “has descended into a regime of systemic and widespread humiliation, coercion, and terror”.

She said Israel should “immediately cease all acts of torture and ill-treatment of the Palestinian people as part of its ongoing genocide” and urged all countries “to do everything in their power to stop the destruction of what remains of Palestine” as every delay “worsens irreversible harm and further entrenches a system of cruelty”.

Albanese urged the prosecutor of the International Criminal Court to request arrest warrants for Israel’s Defence Minister Israel Katz, National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir and Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich.

She is due to present her report to the UN Human Rights Council on Monday.