Israel quizzed at UN over torture allegations

Israel was questioned at the United Nations on Tuesday and Wednesday over multiple reports alleging the torture of Palestinian detainees, in particular since the Hamas attacks of 7 October, 2023.

Israel was undergoing its periodic review before the UN Committee against Torture.

"The committee has been deeply appalled by the description we have received in a large number of alternative reports of what appears to be systematic and widespread torture and ill-treatment of Palestinians, including children and vulnerable groups," the body's rapporteur Peter Vedel Kessing said.

"It is claimed that torture has become a deliberate and widespread tool of state policy employed across all legal, administrative and operational systems, from arrest to interrogation to imprisonment."

The Committee against Torture comprises 10 independent experts who monitor the implementation of the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment by its states parties.

Its 83rd session, running from 10 to 28 November, is conducting periodic reviews of Albania, Argentina, Bahrain and Israel's efforts to implement the convention's provisions.

Citing reports before the committee, Kessing said that since Hamas's 7 October, 2023 attack on Israel, which sparked the retaliatory war in Gaza, torture and ill-treatment has escalated, reaching "unprecedented levels" and carried out with impunity.

Those reports, he said, came from various UN bodies, Israeli, Palestinian and international non-governmental organisations, and other sources.

"Many of those detained and subsequently released have reportedly been subject to torture and other ill-treatment," said Kessing.

"Severe beatings, including on the genitals; electric shocks; being forced to remain in stress positions in prolonged periods; deliberate inhuman conditions and starvation; waterboarding; and widespread sexual insults and threats of rape," he said, giving examples.

Israel's ambassador to the UN in Geneva, Daniel Meron, rejected the allegations, branding them "disinformation".

He said Israel was "committed to upholding its obligations in line with our moral values and principles, even in the face of the challenges posed by a terrorist organisation".