Back From ‘Hell’: Watchdog Details Torture of Palestinian Journalists

By Staff, Agencies

A new report by the Committee to Protect Journalists [CPJ] said Palestinian journalists held by "Israeli" occupation have described enduring systematic torture, sexual abuse and deliberate starvation inside "Israeli" prisons.

The report, titled ‘We returned from hell’, draws on interviews with 59 Palestinian journalists jailed since October 2023.

All but one said they endured “torture, abuse or other forms of violence”.

Testimonies detail baton beatings, electroshocks and being forced into prolonged stress positions, including being forced to stand under sewage water. Two journalists said they were raped by their "Israeli" captors.

Journalist Sami al-Sai recounted how soldiers stripped him and penetrated him with a baton and other objects inside a small cell at Megiddo prison, leaving 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,” the report states.

Others described threats against their families, sleep deprivation through the use of blaring music, and the denial of urgent medical care, including treatment for broken bones and eye injuries.

“CPJ’s reporting shows a clear pattern in how Palestinian journalists were treated in 'Israeli' custody,” said the organization’s CEO Jodie Ginsberg.

“The scale and consistency of these testimonies point to something far beyond isolated misconduct," she added.

"When dozens of journalists independently describe physical and psychological abuse, the international community must take action."

Journalist Amin Baraka said interrogators threatened his family because of his work with Al Jazeera.

“An 'Israeli' soldier told me, word for word in Arabic, that Al Jazeera correspondent Wael al-Dahdouh defied us and stayed in the Gaza Strip, so we killed his family, and we will kill yours too,” he said.

Dahdouh, Al Jazeera Arabic’s Gaza bureau chief, lost his wife, daughter, son and grandson in an "Israeli" air strike while they sheltered in a relative’s home.

He was later wounded in another strike that killed his colleague Samer Abudaqa.

CPJ said 80 percent of those interviewed were held under administrative detention, without charge.

One in four said they never met a lawyer and most reported suffering extreme hunger.

CPJ reviewed photographs showing “gaunt faces, protruding ribs and hollowed cheeks”.

Some detainees survived on “moldy bread and rotten food”, losing an average of 23 and a half kilograms each.

One journalist, Sami al-Sai, said soldiers targeted the site of his recent kidney surgery despite him informing them of the operation.

“We returned from hell,” Imad Ifranji told CPJ, using the term detainees used to describe a section at the notorious "Israeli" prison "Sde Teiman".

“These are not isolated incidents,” said CPJ regional director Sara Qudah.

“They expose a deliberate strategy to intimidate and silence journalists, and destroy their ability to bear witness.”

Nearly 300 Palestinian journalists and media workers have been killed in "Israeli" attacks on Gaza since October 2023 in what has been described the deadliest place for journalists in the world.