‘They used dogs’: New Al Jazeera film exposes Israel’s use of rape in jails | Investigation News | Al Jazeera

A UN report published in March 2025 found evidence of the “systematic” use of sexual, reproductive and other forms of gender-based violence by Israel since October 7, 2023. In May, Israel was added to the UN “blacklist of sexual violence in conflict zones”. Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International, Israeli rights group B’Tselem and the PCHR have described the pervasive culture of sexual violence within Israeli forces, especially among those charged with overseeing Palestinian prisoners. Many were arrested and held without charge under Israel’s system of administrative detention.

No soldiers or guards have been convicted of sexual abuse of Palestinians. Israel detained 10 security officers after a video of the rape of a prisoner was leaked from the Sde Teiman detention camp in the Negev desert in July 2024. But gangs of right-wing protesters, including legislators, attempted to storm the facility where the guards were being held in a bid to free them.

Last July, Israel dropped all charges against the guards. The female officer who allegedly leaked the video of the attack, Major-General Yifat Tomer-Yerushalmi, was subsequently arrested. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu termed her “crime” – sharing footage of the rape by Israeli soldiers – as the “most severe public relations attack” on the country since its founding.

Asked in the Knesset, Israel’s parliament, in July 2024 whether it was ever legitimate to rape a prisoner, Hanoch Milwidsky, a member of Netanyahu’s Likud party, shouted: “Yes.”

“If he is a Nukhba [Hamas fighter], everything is legitimate to do, everything.”

Israeli President Isaac Herzog had no issue with “unequivocally” blaming all Palestinians for the Hamas-led attack on October 7, telling reporters: “It is an entire nation out there that is responsible. It’s not true [that] this rhetoric about civilians not [being] aware, not involved. It’s absolutely not true.”

former Defence Minister Yoav Gallant said Israel was fighting what he called “human animals” and ordered a “complete siege” on the men, women and children there. Others, such as Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich and National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, have been consistent offenders, routinely referring to Palestinians as terrorists or framing large segments of Palestinian society in broadly criminal or extremist terms, particularly in relation to Gaza and the occupied West Bank.