Israel faced questioning before the United Nations Committee Against Torture over two days this week, as the body reviewed the country’s human rights record following multiple reports alleging systematic torture of Palestinian detainees, including children, particularly since the start of the war in Gaza.
According to Agence France-Presse (AFP), Committee rapporteur Peter Fedele Kessing said: “The Committee was deeply alarmed by the large number of reports from diverse sources indicating that torture has become a deliberate and widespread tool of Israeli policy, practiced at multiple stages from arrest to interrogation and imprisonment.”
Kessing cited information from UN bodies and Israeli, Palestinian, and international human rights organizations, reporting that torture and ill-treatment have risen to “unprecedented levels” and are carried out with impunity. The accounts describe severe beatings, electric shocks, stress positions, starvation, water torture, sexual humiliation, and threats of rape.
The Committee Against Torture, composed of ten independent experts, monitors implementation of the Convention Against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment. The panel seeks to hold states accountable for human rights violations and systematically investigates reports of torture to ensure justice and prevention.
