A former Palestinian prisoner has said that Israeli soldiers poured acid and other chemicals on his body during an interrogation while he was in their custody.
Mohammed Abu Tawila, who was kidnapped from Gaza during the Israeli invasion launched in October 2023, was subjected to severe beatings, which included targeting his eye.
He told local media soldiers kidnapped him from an area near the Civil Affairs office in Gaza City to a home belonging to the al-Yazji family.
There he was tortured with chemical substances, including acid and chlorine.
‘They were ignited on my body for three days,’ the former detainee said.
Once the soldiers saw how his body had reacted to the acid attack and other chemicals, they transferred him to the occupied West Bank.
Marks of the torture he describes can be seen on his back, arms and face in the local news reports.
‘My eye was included [in the torture]. One of them would keep punching me in the eye, while wearing gloves with something tough, that resembled bone,’ he says, adding that he later collapsed on the rubble from the beating.
Abu Tawila explained that the acid and other chemicals reacted with his injured eye.
One soldier then blindfolded him, tying the cloth tightly, which caused the chemicals to continue reacting around the affected area.
‘Of course, there was also torture in the occupied territories, from beatings, to insults and humiliation, not to mention hunger and sitting in the cold.’
He added that he was not provided with clothes or blankets during this detention by the military, which lasted around a month and a half before he was transferred to al-Ramla hospital.
He remained in the hospital for around two to three weeks before his transfer to the notorious Ofer military prison.
Widespread Israeli torture
Israeli authorities have previously been accused of torturing Palestinians, including at Ofer, according to testimonies from current and former prisoners.
This includes being handcuffed and shackled 24 hours a day, seven days a week – even while sleeping, eating and using the restroom.
In a recent post on X, far-right politician Itamar Ben Gvir posted a video showing the abuse and humiliation of Palestinians in the Keziot prison, located in the Negev desert.
In the clip, a detainee can be seen kneeling and painting the prison walls, while an Israeli guard stands over him, pointing a weapon at him.
The former national security minister wrote: ‘Proud of IPS!’ referring to the Israel Prison Service, which he oversaw before resigning from the government last month.
Several other prisoners are shown kneeling and facing the opposite wall.
Testimonies also describe regular beatings by guards, extreme overcrowding, humiliation and inadequate hygiene, with one account alleging a beating resulting in death.
‘They [Israeli prison guards] would release dogs on us, storm in and beat us inside, tie our hands and take us outside to the prison yards. They would also kick us, causing our faces to swell and bleed,’ Abu Tawila recounted.
‘And they wouldn’t treat those injured. Instead, they would just tell us things like, ‘It will heal on its own.”
The ex-prisoner also noted other forms of humiliation, including prison guards spoiling their food by pouring shampoo on it or throwing it in the trash.
In early August last year, the Israeli rights group B’Tselem accused Israeli authorities of systematically abusing Palestinians in ‘torture camps’, subjecting them to severe violence and sexual assault.
Its report, titled ‘Welcome to Hell’, is based on 55 testimonies from former detainees from the Gaza Strip, the occupied West Bank, East Jerusalem and citizens of Israel. The overwhelming majority of these detainees were held without trial.
Torture was recorded in civilian and military detention facilities across Israel, resulting in the deaths of at least 59 known victims since 7 October 2023.
Among them are at least 38 prisoners from Gaza, the highest number in history, making this the ‘bloodiest stage in the history of the prisoner movement,’ according to a joint statement by the Prisoners’ Affairs Authority and the Palestinian Prisoners’ Society on Monday.