Scenes of torture of Palestinians taken hostage are recorded by Israeli soldiers, and shocking videos end up on social networks. Haaretz reports.
Outrage is caused by the released video recordings, which show how Israeli soldiers beat and humiliate Palestinian prisoners, some of whom were released immediately after the abuse. Since the start of the war between Israel and Hamas, more and more soldiers have been filming and then posting these disgusting videos on their social media accounts.
According to Haaretz, the phenomenon of recording the torture of Palestinian prisoners existed before the new conflict in the Middle East, but sharply intensified after the Hamas attack on Israel and the bloodshed in the Gaza Strip. The Israeli newspaper collected 15 such videos uploaded over the past month. The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) has confirmed that at least five of them have been removed since the start of the current conflict. The rest are still under investigation and they are working to resolve the problem, the spokeswoman said.
The IDF punished those responsible in some cases, saying such behavior violated the army’s values.
The Palestinians shown in the videos are handcuffed and blindfolded, and in some cases appear naked or partially clothed. Some videos show soldiers beating and cursing detainees, while others force them to speak or behave in humiliating ways.
As Haaretz writes in its article, it is also unclear where the videos were filmed and who the Palestinians appearing in them are. But most of them appear to have been filmed in the West Bank, rather than in the Gaza war zone. Some of the Palestinians were soon released without investigation.
One video, filmed near Yatta in the hills of South Hebron in the West Bank, showed seven Palestinians sitting on the ground, handcuffed and blindfolded. The pants of one of them, apparently wounded, are pulled down.
Haaretz even cites the testimony of Mohammad, who told the publication that soldiers came to his house in the middle of the night and arrested him and his son. “Then they threw us to the ground and tied our hands and feet,” said Mohammad, 55. “They beat us and cursed us. They hit me with something that seemed electric. They hit me on the left and right side of my head, and I “Bleeding began. They hit me the least of all.”
Soldiers recorded the incident on video and posted it on social media, where Mohammad could be identified. “In the end, I was released, but my son remained in custody,” he said, adding that the detainee whose pants were pulled down was released without further proceedings.
In another similar video, Palestinians are naked, with their eyes closed and their hands tied, as soldiers beat them and drag them along the ground. One of the soldiers kicks the detainee in the head.
Disgusting videos controversy
The videos are causing controversy between Israel and Palestine as, on the one hand, Palestinian social media reports that they were filmed in the West Bank, while the IDF press office denies this. The Israeli army claims that the Palestinians captured in the video are terrorists involved in the October 7 massacre, and that the video was filmed in the Gaza border area in the days after the Hamas attack. However, the fact that the soldiers’ act was unacceptable is not disputed. “The behavior of the soldiers shown in the video is serious and does not comply with army orders. The circumstances of the case are being investigated,” an IDF spokesman said.
One of the videos, filmed in the Bethlehem area, shows a blindfolded Palestinian hitting and berating a soldier. He calls him “whore” and “sheep” in Arabic, spits on him and kicks him, and the prisoner screams in pain. The IDF press service reported that the case was a reservist soldier who was sentenced to 10 days in prison and dismissed from the army.
Videos of Palestinian prisoners are posted in Telegram groups with thousands of members, as well as on popular Instagram and YouTube profiles. One of them belongs to a young man, Yedidya Epstien, who is active on social networks. His Instagram page, where some of the videos were posted, has 600,000 followers, according to Haaretz.
Similar claims have been made against Israeli border police officers: two Palestinians reported that they attacked them and filmed one of them being forced to swear at Palestinians. They don’t know if the video was circulated. “The policeman asked me, ‘Where are you from?’ I replied, ‘Bethlehem.’ He asked where Bethlehem was, I replied, ‘It’s in Israel,’” the Palestinian said. “He hit me while I was in the car. and slapped me. He asked me to turn on the phone, then he started swearing at me, told me to get out of the car, and hit me hard in the neck.”
The Palestinian said the officer took him to a room where he was accompanied by other police officers. “He told me to put my hands on the wall and spread my legs. Then they started hitting me on the shoulders, neck and arms,” he said. He was then given an Israeli flag and ordered to curse the Palestinians and Hamas while filming the actions.
However, this phenomenon is not limited to the West Bank. Palestinians in East Jerusalem have also complained of increased abuses by police and soldiers since the war began. According to the Jewish newspaper Haaretz, eyewitness accounts and video footage show young people in East Jerusalem being subjected to severe beatings by police and prison guards.
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