RAMALLAH, Palestine/ISTANBUL

A former Palestinian detainee revealed that Israeli soldiers ordered a police dog to sexually assault him during a raid in 2024 inside Israel’s Ofer Prison, describing the experience as “the most painful moments of my life.”

The 50-year-old man, identified by the pseudonym “Nihad,” said Israeli forces stormed his cell before dawn on Jan. 14, 2024 – one day before the start of the first Gaza ceasefire – firing live rounds and stun grenades before being sexually assaulted.

Nihad said the attack left deep physical wounds and long-lasting psychological trauma.

After the assault, he said guards forced him to remain outside with other detainees on freezing concrete.

“Living with people who do this is impossible. They are animalistic monsters.”

Systemic torture

Nihad said he had avoided speaking publicly about the sexual abuse because “institutions don’t care,” and because survivors often speak “too late.”

He said he has been arrested five times since the 1990s, serving a total of six years in Israeli prisons.

An earlier detention during the First Intifada (1987-1993) left him with temporary paralysis after a military interrogation.

But he said the detention in 2024 was “the harshest by far.”

“Every moment feels like a military interrogation, … killing is permissible, and nothing protects you.”

Nihad said the sexual abuse inside Israeli prisons was systemic.

“This wasn’t an individual incident – it is part of the arrest procedures,” he said.

He said he was denied basic clothing for months, kept naked in cold weather, and was later given only an ill-fitting shirt and underwear.

Showers, he said, lasted five minutes, without doors, curtains, hot water, or proper hygiene supplies.

The lack of hygiene caused severe skin diseases: scabies, nail loss, skin deterioration, and temporary loss of hand function.

“If not for God’s mercy, I might have lost my hand,” he said.

Smell blood and burnt flesh

He described repeated violent raids by special Israeli units. On Sept. 7, 2024, the day Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir visited Ofer Prison, guards stormed sections and stripped prisoners.

“One soldier pointed at me and told them, ‘Kill this one.’ They beat me near the heart, tried to break my ribs, lifted me in the air and slammed me down,” he said.

He recalled an Oct. 1, 2024 raid in which Israeli forces fired gas and grenades inside the prison, causing injuries.

“You could smell blood and burnt flesh,” he recalled. One detainee from Hebron suffered severe ear injuries and was “close to death.”

“Leaving prison walking on your feet – that is an achievement,” Nihad said.

He was arrested in the northern West Bank city of Qalqilya and released after completing an administrative detention term – imprisonment without charge or trial.

Anadolu was unable to obtain a comment from Israeli authorities regarding Nihad's case, but testimonies from other prisoners confirm that some were subjected to sexual assault.

Earlier this year, a leaked video from the Sde Teiman military detention center in southern Israel documented a Palestinian prisoner being subjected to sexual and physical assaults by soldiers in 2024.

Rape, starvation

Israeli lawyer Ben Marmareli, who represents a Palestinian detainee, told Anadolu that abuse worsened after Ben-Gvir took office in late 2022. He said guards stripped detainees of all clothing and supplies after Oct. 7, 2023.

“Today, my client still wears the same underwear he had on Oct. 7 – his only piece of clothing,” the lawyer said.

“When he needs to shower, he has to do so without underwear. They are not allowed out into the yard, and they don’t see sunlight,” he added.

Marmareli also said that Palestinian prisoners are not receiving enough food.

The lawyer said prisoners are beaten and raped to force them to give up their right to meet lawyers.

“They beat him and raped him while he was blindfolded,” he said. Since the detainee could not see his attacker, he could not file a complaint. “Rape is only part of a bigger picture – systematic torture,” he said.

The Israeli lawyer said detainees are denied sunlight, exercise yards, and adequate food. When he visited his client in April 2024, he said, “he looked like a Holocaust skeleton.” He remains extremely thin, he added.

More than 10,000 Palestinians, including children and women, are held in Israeli prisons amid accounts of torture, starvation, and medical neglect, which caused many deaths among detainees, according to Palestinian, Israeli, and international rights groups.

Israel denies systematic abuse, while rights groups continue to call for urgent international investigations and action to stop what they describe as “systematic crimes” against Palestinian prisoners.