Torture and shameful searches of female prisoners from Gaza in Israeli prisons

Gaza: Two Palestinians from the Gaza Strip, who were released a few days ago, recount shocking details of the conditions of detention and the methods of investigation used by the Israeli army, including torture and intimidation, starting from the moment of arrest until release.

The two men, who spent more than 50 days in detention, said in two separate interviews with Anadolu that the Palestinian women who were arrested by the army were not spared from shameful, repeated and harmful searches.

In addition, the Israeli army follows a policy of “intimidating female detainees and mocking them with death from the first moment of arrest.”

The detainees are also subjected to “multiple forms of torture, including severe beatings, collective punishment, and the shooting of ferocious dogs at them,” according to what they said.

On October 27, the Israeli army began a ground operation in the Gaza Strip. Since mid-December 2023, it began gradually withdrawing from areas in the northern Gaza Governorate, followed by, at the beginning of last January, partial withdrawals from neighborhoods and areas in the Gaza Governorate.

A prisoner from Gaza: I was walking and I knew that I was heading towards death and execution, as the sound of gunfire was heard after the Palestinians headed there, suggesting that they were being executed.

The army resumed its incursion into some areas in the Gaza and North governorates in mid-January to carry out rapid operations, changing the locations of the incursion from time to time, while retreating after the end of its operations to its locations near the eastern and northern outskirts of the North governorate, and the eastern and western parts of Gaza.

Shame search

Abeer Ghaben, who was arrested from the town of Beit Lahia (north), says that her arrest came after a bombing on the school where she was sheltering with her children.

Ghaben (a mother of three children, ages 9, 7, and 5 years old) adds: “We decided to leave the town after the army stormed it, and head towards the city of Rafah through the corridor that the occupation claimed was safe.”

She explains that during her displacement trip and passing through an Israeli military checkpoint, the army ordered her to go there alone, while the three children were asked to continue their walk alone.

After she headed towards the army, the soldiers asked her “her name and identification number,” and she was then asked to go behind piles of sand, according to what she said.

She added: “I was walking and knew that I was heading towards death and execution, as the sound of gunfire would be heard after the Palestinians headed there, suggesting that they were being executed.”

But when she arrived at Sand Hill, she was surprised that the army played an audio recording that included shooting in order to intimidate the detainees.

Ghaben: For all the female prisoners who were arrested and are still inside, their lives are difficult to an extent that cannot be imagined, especially amid their fear for their children abroad.

She continued, saying: “There was an open tent. The army asked us to completely remove our clothes and submit to searches,” and whoever refused to do so, the soldiers threatened him with immediate death, she said.

Frequent inspection

She says that she was subjected to several times of strip searches that included physical harm. She explains: “The first time I took off my clothes and was handcuffed and blindfolded and then searched, only to be asked to put my clothes back on.”

At first, they placed the detainees in a place that was presumed to be a tent, and the army began asking them questions related to their affiliation with the Hamas movement.

She continues: “After the investigation, the army threw me outside the place we were in, and I spent a very long time, and then they loaded me with something I don’t know what it was, and they moved me from that place.”

Ghaben recalled that she and the detainees slept for an entire night outdoors in a very cold atmosphere, on a floor covered with pebbles.

The next morning, the detainees were taken to another place where their clothes were removed and they were searched with a body scanning machine in addition to a manual search, she said.

They were also subjected for the third time, and in a third (unknown) location, to a strip search, after which the detainees were asked to wear clothes brought by the army.

At the last stop, the detainees arrived at a place that Ghaben believes was a “chicken coop,” where they were forced to enter, and then asked to remove their clothes again.

This time, the detainees were subjected to a physical and manual search, which affected the skin and flesh in a harsh and painful manner, she said.

Moment of release

Despite the passage of 53 days in detention , Ghaben's joy at her release was not complete, especially since she was unaware of the fate and whereabouts of her three children.

The fate of her children was her main concern inside the prison, as she developed high blood pressure because she did not know their condition.

She added: “My blood pressure was very high, and I was dying every day from my fear for my children and not knowing their fate.”

Abu Mahadi: Great suffering after the arrest. We do not know anything about our families. Are they alive or dead? Where are they in the north or south? Their fate is completely unknown.

Shortly after her release, Ghaben met her three children, who were staying with their relatives in a shelter center.

What Ghaben was subjected to inside the Israeli prison is similar to what dozens of Palestinian women were subjected to, some of whom have not yet been released, according to her.

She concluded by saying: “For all the female prisoners who were arrested and are still inside, their lives are unimaginably difficult, especially amid their fear for their children outside.”

Release ferocious dogs

In turn, Palestinian Saber Abu Mahadi from the town of Beit Lahia says that he was arrested on December 10, and that he spent 52 days.

He added: “The arrest took place after the shelter school in which we were present was besieged, and 5 of the displaced people were killed inside.”

The men, as well as the women, were subjected to a strip search except for their underwear, and they spent a night outdoors in the bitter cold and were handcuffed until they were transported into Israel.

Abu Mahadi and the rest of the detainees at that time were beaten, insulted, and ferocious dogs were released to attack them at night, according to his statement.

Cut off from family

Although Abu Mahadi was released a few days ago, he still does not know the fate and whereabouts of his family, from whom his arrest separated him.

He says: “There is great suffering after the arrest. We do not know anything about our families. Are they alive or dead? Where are they in the north or south? Their fate is completely unknown.”

On the other hand, Abu Mahadi’s family does not know that their son, “Saber,” is still alive, he said.

He added: “One of our friends in detention, his family believed that he was martyred, because we heard gunfire at the same time as he was arrested.”

Governmental and human rights institutions say that the army arrested hundreds of Palestinians during its ground operation in the Gaza Strip, whose fate is unknown.

Since October 7, the Israeli army has been waging a devastating war on the Gaza Strip, which as of Wednesday left “27,19 martyrs and 66,139 injured, most of them children and women,” according to the Palestinian authorities, and caused “massive destruction and an unprecedented humanitarian catastrophe,” according to the United Nations.

According to investigations, the suspects were selling information through private investigators to the Israeli intelligence service.

On Friday, the Turkish authorities arrested 7 people on suspicion of selling information to the Israeli intelligence service, Mossad.

Security sources told Anadolu Agency that the Turkish intelligence service knew that the Mossad was tracking its targets in Turkey through private investigators.

The sources stated that investigations monitored the Mossad carrying out activities such as collecting biographical information about people, reconnaissance, photo and video documentation, surveillance, and placing tracking devices against its targets through private investigators associated with it.

Investigations conducted by the Public Prosecution in Istanbul confirmed that 9 people are suspected of having sold information obtained to the Mossad by private investigators.

Based on these investigations, members of the Intelligence and Counter-Terrorism Branches of the Istanbul Security Directorate carried out a simultaneous security operation in the states of Istanbul and Izmir, which led to the arrest of 7 suspects, while it turned out that the other two individuals were previously detained as part of the same investigations.

The Turkish intelligence service carried out an operation against private investigators affiliated with the Mossad in December 2022, resulting in the arrest of 68 people.

It was on its way to the ports of "occupied Palestine," according to the military spokesman for the Houthi forces.

The Yemeni Houthi group announced, on Thursday evening, that it had targeted a British commercial ship in the Red Sea that was heading to the ports of “occupied Palestine” with naval missiles.

This came in a statement published by the military spokesman for the Houthi forces, Yahya Saree, through his official account on the “X” platform.

Saree said: “In victory for the oppression of the Palestinian people and as part of a response to the American-British aggression against our country, the (group’s) naval forces targeted a British commercial ship in the Red Sea with appropriate naval missiles.”

He explained that "the ship was heading to the ports of occupied Palestine."

He stressed that "the operations of the armed forces in the Red and Arab Bahrain against Israeli navigation or ships heading to the ports of occupied Palestine will continue until the aggression stops and the siege on the Gaza Strip is lifted."

There was no immediate comment from the British side regarding the Houthi statement until 20:00 GMT.

In "solidarity with the Gaza Strip", which has been exposed since October 7, 2023 to a devastating Israeli war with American support, the Houthis are targeting, with missiles and drones, cargo ships in the Red Sea that are owned or operated by Israeli companies, or that transport goods to and from Israel.

With the intervention of Washington and London and the tensions taking a noticeable escalation last January, Al-Houthi announced that it now considered all American and British ships among its military targets.

At an intermittent pace since last January 12, a US-led coalition has launched raids that it says target “Houthi sites” in various regions of Yemen, in response to its attacks in the Red Sea, which has been met with a response from the group from time to time.