A United Nations committee has asked Israel to set up an independent commission to investigate allegations of torture of Palestinians, warning that the situation has worsened since the beginning of the Gaza war. The findings of the UN Committee Against Torture offer a severe indictment of Israel’s treatment of Palestinian detainees. The committee says Israel has a “de facto state policy of organised and widespread torture”, raising concerns about the scope of alleged abuses and the longstanding lack of accountability within the security apparatus. The report forms part of the committee’s regular monitoring of states that have signed the 1984 UN Convention against Torture.
The committee of ten independent experts drew on testimony from Israeli and Palestinian rights groups to detail allegations about conditions in Israeli detention centres. The reported methods of abuse include repeated severe beatings, dog attacks, electrocution, waterboarding, prolonged stress positions and sexual violence. Detainees described extreme humiliation, including being made to act like animals or being urinated on. Many were regularly deprived of food and water, denied permission to use toilets and sometimes forced to wear diapers. Excessive restraints were said to be common, in some cases causing amputations.
The committee expressed deep concern over Israel’s use of the unlawful combatants law, which has allowed the detention of thousands of Palestinians, including men, women and children, for extended periods without trial. Administrative detention also remains a pervasive issue, with 3,474 Palestinians held without trial as of the end of September, with no legal representation or access to family members. The committee warned that such practices could amount to enforced disappearance.
Particularly disturbing were the findings relating to children. The committee drew attention to the high proportion of children currently held without charge or on remand. Although Israel sets the age of criminal responsibility at 12, children younger than 12 have reportedly been detained. Those classified as security prisoners face severe restrictions on family contact, may be held in solitary confinement and have no access to education, all in violation of international standards. The committee urged Israel to amend its domestic legislation to prohibit solitary confinement for children.
The UN report also highlighted the rising death toll among Palestinians in custody and the broader issue of impunity. According to the committee, detention conditions have markedly deteriorated during the Gaza war, during which 75 Palestinians died in custody. This figure was described as abnormally high and unique to the Palestinian detainee population. To date, no state officials have been held responsible for these deaths. The committee noted a pervasive failure to investigate allegations of abuse. Israeli officials insisted that torture was not used and that detention conditions met legal requirements. Despite these assurances, the inspector responsible for examining interrogation complaints had brought no criminal prosecutions for torture or ill-treatment during the two-year period covered by the report. Israel did cite one conviction in which a soldier received a seven-month sentence for attacking bound and blindfolded detainees, but the committee stated that the punishment did not reflect the gravity of the offence. It called on Israel to ensure independent investigations and to hold not only individual perpetrators but also senior military officers accountable.
The committee situated the allegations within the framework of grave international crimes. According to the UN’s own commission of inquiry, the reported treatment of Palestinian detainees may amount to war crimes and crimes against humanity and forms part of the actus reus of genocide, the term used for the physical elements required to prove the commission of a crime. The committee stressed that although it condemned the Hamas attack of October 2023 and recognised Israel’s security concerns, international law violations by one party never justify violations by another. The prohibition on torture under the convention is absolute.
Israel has rejected the allegations, describing them as disinformation. Under Israeli law, the convention applies only to Israeli territory, although this is contested by international legal scholars. The publication of the report coincided with other incidents that have intensified concerns, including the fatal shooting of two Palestinians who had reportedly surrendered in Jenin, which the UN Human Rights Office said appeared to be a summary execution.
