A United Nations expert spoke out on Tuesday, May 19, about the alleged "torture" of Palestinian prisoners and "potentially unlawful deaths" in Israeli prisons since October 2023.
The comments come as Israel faces growing scrutiny over detention conditions following Hamas's October 7, 2023, attack inside Israel that sparked the Gaza war.
"Emergency measures introduced after 7 October 2023 exposed Palestinian detainees to torture, potentially unlawful deaths, incommunicado detention, and degrading conditions," said Alice Jill Edwards, the UN special rapporteur on torture. Quoted in a UN statement seen by Agence France-Presse (AFP), she argued the "number and cruelty of allegations" point to a "gross disregard by Israel of its duty to treat all detainees humanely."
Edwards said she had gathered information on 52 cases involving various forms of torture or ill-treatment, as well as 33 cases of sexual torture and other forms of sexual abuse. Reported abuses include "severe beatings, stress positions, excessive restraints, electrocution, sleep deprivation, malnutrition, and starvation" among many others.
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UN Expert Says Palestinian Detainees in Israel Face Torture, Sexual Violence and Mistreatment
05/19/2026
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