A United Nations committee has stated that evidence suggests Israel is carrying out a “de facto state policy of organised and widespread torture.”
The Committee Against Torture, which periodically reviews countries that have signed the Convention Against Torture, assessed information provided both by the Israeli government and by human rights organisations.
During Israel’s latest review, Israeli and Palestinian rights groups presented disturbing testimony describing the treatment of Palestinians in Israeli detention facilities. According to their accounts, thousands of Palestinians have been detained since the Hamas attacks on 7 October 2023.
Israel’s laws on administrative detention and on Unlawful Combatants allow individuals—who are not granted prisoner-of-war status—to be held for extended periods without access to legal counsel or family. Many Palestinian families report waiting months to learn that a relative has been detained, a situation the UN committee said amounts to “enforced disappearance.”
The committee expressed particular concern over Israel’s reported use of the Unlawful Combatants law to detain large groups of Palestinians, including minors, elderly people, and pregnant women.
However, the most alarming findings relate to the alleged conditions inside detention centres. Evidence presented to the committee indicates that detainees are routinely deprived of food and water; subjected to severe beatings; attacked by dogs; electrocuted; waterboarded; and exposed to sexual violence. Some are reportedly kept in permanent shackles, denied access to toilets, and forced to wear diapers.
The committee concluded that these practices “amount to war crimes and crimes against humanity” and that the evidence of a “de facto state policy of organised and widespread torture” may constitute an act of genocide under international law.
Israel has consistently rejected all accusations that it is committing genocide against Palestinians in Gaza.
