RAMALLAH, (Palestine Foundation Information Center), A Palestinian journalist who was formerly detained in Israeli prisons has revealed harrowing details of being raped by a group of Israeli prison guards during his detention.
The testimony was given by journalist Sami Al‑Sa’i, who spoke about his ordeal during an event held at the MADA Center for Media Freedoms in Ramallah, in the central West Bank. Al‑Sa’i was held under administrative detention from February 2024 until June 2025.
Al‑Sa’i stated that he was raped in Megiddo Prison in northern occupied territory, where a group of guards assaulted him with a baton after subjecting him to severe beatings while he was handcuffed and blindfolded.
The journalist, who is from the northern West Bank city of Tulkarem, said the guards dragged him while beating and threatening him, forced him into a corner of the prison, stripped him of his clothes, and compelled him to kneel in a prostration position. He then felt a hard object forcibly inserted into his body, causing what he described as unbearable pain.
He added that the assault included violent blows to sensitive parts of his body, while one guard stood on his head and neck.
In his testimony, Al‑Sa’i described the conditions faced by Palestinian detainees in Israeli prisons as “catastrophic,” citing systematic beatings, starvation, threats, and medical neglect.
According to Palestinian prisoners’ rights organizations, since the start of the war on Gaza, dozens of testimonies have been documented describing an escalation in torture practices, from the moment of arrest, through interrogation, and throughout imprisonment.
The rights groups have previously said that torture is no longer limited to interrogation for the purpose of extracting confessions. Instead, Israeli authorities have developed methods and tools that entrench torture into the daily lives of detainees, a trend that has intensified unprecedentedly since the start of the war.
Abuses against Palestinian prisoners have escalated in parallel with the genocide waged on Gaza with US support over the past two years.
More than 9,300 Palestinian prisoners, including children and women, are currently held in Israeli prisons, where they are subjected to torture, starvation, and medical neglect, conditions that have led to the deaths of multiple detainees, according to human rights organizations.
