Khaberni - Israel underwent interrogation at the United Nations, on Tuesday and Wednesday, about several reports of Palestinian prisoners' torture, particularly since the beginning of the genocide war on October 7, 2023.
This occurred during the periodic review of Israel's record before the United Nations Committee Against Torture.
Committee rapporteur Peter Fidel Kessing said, "The committee is extremely alarmed by the description in a large number of reports from various sources of what appears to be systematic and widespread torture and mistreatment of Palestinians, including children and vulnerable groups."
He added, "Torture has been reported as a deliberate and widespread tool in state policy, used across all legal, administrative, and operational regimes, from arrest to interrogation to imprisonment."
The Committee Against Torture includes 10 independent experts who monitor state parties' compliance with the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment.
The eighty-third session of the committee runs from October 10 to 28, including periodic reviews of the efforts made by Albania, Argentina, Bahrain, and Israel to implement the provisions of the convention.
Citing reports to the committee, Kessing said that since the beginning of the genocide war in October 2023, torture and ill-treatment have escalated to "unprecedented levels" and are practiced without punishment.
He added that the sources of these reports are various United Nations bodies, Israeli and Palestinian non-governmental organizations, international organizations, and other sources.
Kessing continued, "Many prisoners who were later released had been subjected to torture and other forms of ill-treatment."
He mentioned "severe beating, including of the genitals; electric shocks; forcing to remain in stressful positions for long periods; deliberately inhumane conditions and starvation; water torture; widespread sexual insults and rape threats", providing examples of such practices.
For his part, the Israeli ambassador to the United Nations in Geneva, Daniel Miron, rejected these accusations and described them as "misleading information".
