Category: Testimony

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Settler Kidnappings: Torture, Sexual Abuse and Terrorisation of Palestinian Abductees as Israel Deepens Annexation of West Bank by Al-Haq

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Al-Haq reports that genocidal threats were made to sexual violence victims:

I felt as if my spine was going to break, and that the purpose of these blows was to cause me permanent disability. After that, he started kicking me in the side, towards my kidneys, and said to me: “You know the Jews have gone mad… We will kill you all… and send you to Jordan.” Then he went outside the barracks, and M.N., was next to me. I could hear him being beaten and crying out in pain.

M.M recalls that another man was brought into the sheep pen, he could tell by his voice that he was Bedouin. He heard the settlers saying to each other, “Look at these terrorists, this is a Bedouin youth”. M.M was continuously beaten for five minutes, after which someone poured cold water on his body, and he was then beaten with sticks all over. He could hear M.N and the third person (the Bedouin) crying in pain. The men were subjected to further beatings, smears and insults, and threats to their lives, with the settlers shouting:

“You’re all garbage Arabs, you must die and go to Gaza!” After that, the beating continued in rounds, each lasting about an hour, with a few minutes’ pause in between.

. . . a settler came and urinated on my head and body. I don’t know if he urinated on the other two young men. He kept saying, “You must die.” After that, he left us for about ten minutes. I started screaming from the intense pain in my hands. I felt excruciating pain, as if the blood had stopped flowing in them, and they were swollen and about to break.

… One of them told us in Arabic, “If you stay here, we will return and burn your tents, rape your women, and kill your children.” The whole time, they were hurling insults at us in Arabic (“You son of a whore!” and “You brother of a whore!”) . . .

As soon as we were sure they had fled and we could no longer hear their voices and noise, we went out of the tent. I couldn’t move, so they helped me up, and the restraints on my hands and genitals were removed with a knife by one of my brothers . . .

Continue reading at https://www.alhaq.org/cached_uploads/download/2026/09/25/settler-kidnappings-1790329969.pdf

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Sarah Bseiso: A Gaza survivor’s account of the burns, loss and healing endured during Israel’s genocide by Ibtisam Azem

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  • “I felt something very hot hit me and push me several steps forward. Then the kitchen caught fire completely, and the flames began burning everything,” she explained.
  • She continued, “While I was trying to understand what was happening, I noticed that my leather shoe had burnt, as had my feet and my medical glasses. I don’t know why I forgot that Hamoud was with me and that we were inside the flames.” 
  • In sharing this, Sarah noted that she initially thought Ahmad had pulled Hamoud away, before realising that the fire had come from Ahmad’s side and the missile had left his whole body “riddled with holes.”
  • As she screamed, her father pulled her from the fire, but both of her brothers, Ahmad, 16, and Hamoud, eight, died in the attack, with Ahmad dying immediately and Hamoud succumbing days later to his injuries, fourth-degree burns and smoke inhalation.
  • Sarah recalls hearing Hamoud’s voice and moans from a nearby room while she was suffering from her own burns. No one was able to help him because of the extent of his injuries, the siege and the bombardment.
  • Her father risked his life under bombardment to take her to a nearby hospital, where doctors gave her fluids to replace some of what she had lost, but they were unable to provide the treatment she needed.

Continue reading at https://www.newarab.com/features/sarah-bseiso-gaza-survivors-story-burns-loss-and-healing

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A hot shower, running water, light: In exile, each one returns me to Gaza by Ahmed Dremly

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 I kept turning the switch on and off to truly believe it worked, remembering how much of my life had been spent in the dark because of the occupation – family gatherings, birthday parties, studying, lost job opportunities and video calls held in the dark.

During the genocide, we relied on candles until they vanished from the markets. I then used my father’s car battery to light small LEDs until it died from overuse.

I used to pay for a street generator, but it was cut off for most of the day due to fuel shortages. Often, a phone’s flashlight was my family’s only defence against the dark.

A few days after arriving, I had to change rooms because of a prior reservation. When the hotel owner came to inform me, he apologised profusely, explaining that the bathroom light in the new room was not working and that an electrician would come the next day to fix it.

A bittersweet smile crossed my face. I was touched by his kindness, but struck by the tragic fate of my people in Gaza, who now consider a private toilet, let alone a working light, a luxury. I still try to call my family during daylight hours just so I can see their faces, though no one mentions the lack of electricity anymore. It has simply become a normalised part of daily survival.

Continue reading at https://www.middleeasteye.net/opinion/hot-shower-running-water-light-exile-each-one-returns-me-gaza

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Safety Is When There’s No One Dying by Mary Turfah

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While I was in Beirut another doctor told me the story of a child from Gaza who, after coming to Lebanon, learned that a man had died a natural death. The child did not understand. He did not know that death could come this way. It had to be explained to him, that people die of old age. The only cause of death the child knew was Israel. And he knew it well.

Continue reading at https://archive.md/sfayI#selection-1157.0-1167.11

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‘Why Don’t You Just Die?’ by Nasser Abu Srour

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I have decided to write because things do not find existence outside the borders of language, not even genocide. I must write about the slaughter in Gaza; about its famished men, women and children; about its drowned sea and about its ability to rise again; about the world’s indifference to what has happened there and what is still happening there; about how the major powers barely even acknowledge this crime. I must write about Palestinian prisoners, because a war is still being waged against them; the Israeli prison authorities have not yet declared a ‘ceasefire’.

I must write to confess my desire to stop apologising to Gaza and to the Palestinian prisoners for every breath I take, for every thread of light that touches my face, and for all the space that has opened up to me. That is what I’ve been doing for the past seven months. I have never stopped apologising to Gaza and to the Palestinian prisoners for my survival.

Continue reading at https://archive.md/NFKNG#selection-163.0-167.16

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Israel’s restriction of aid into Gaza leads to critical shortages in bread, baby formula, and water by Tareq S. Hajjaj

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The baby formula crisis comes amid a cluster of interconnected shortages that have hit Gaza over the past several weeks, with Israel continuing to enforce heavy restrictions on the entry of humanitarian aid and essential supplies into the Strip since launching its war with Iran alongside the U.S. The shortages have stoked fears among Gazans of a return to the same famine conditions that devastated the Strip last year.

Bakeries have warned of a 50% drop in bread production after residents in displacement camps in the Mawasi area of Khan Younis protested last week over cuts to water deliveries by international organizations. The blockade takes place alongside Israel’s daily bombardment and killing of Palestinians across the Strip, most recently leading to the killing of Al Jazeera journalist, Muhammad Wishah, on Wednesday.

… Inside hospitals, doctors are seeing a surge in infant malnutrition cases, which they attribute directly to the formula shortage. Dr. Ahmad al-Farra, head of the pediatrics department at Nasser Hospital, warned that medical supplies for treating children are either critically low or already depleted. “There is a severe shortage of infant formula and the necessary supplies to treat children suffering from malnutrition,” he told Mondoweiss.

Continue reading at https://mondoweiss.net/2026/04/gaza-health-officials-warn-of-irreversible-harm-to-entire-generation-of-children-amid-shortages-in-baby-formula-bread/

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“Another genocide behind walls”: Sexual violence in Israeli prisons and detention centres and engineered impunity (October 2023 – October 2025) by Euromed Human Rights Monitor

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Once transferred to detention and interrogation centres, prisoners and detainees encounter a system that functions as state-run torture camps, where they face severe violations that include systematic sexual violence as a means of subjugation and destruction. Based on corroborating testimonies supporting this report, these violations extend beyond sexual harassment to include rape, rape with objects, the use of police dogs in sexual assaults, and ongoing forced nudity. These abuses are accompanied by deliberate starvation and medical neglect, which have, in some cases, caused permanent injuries such as amputation and death under torture. These acts are classified as war crimes and crimes against humanity and are central to ongoing genocide, as they serve to inflict serious physical or mental harm on members of the Palestinian community in the Gaza Strip.

…According to the findings of the International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, and Israel, sexual and other forms of gender-based violence, whether targeting women, men, boys or girls, were not only committed to humiliate the immediate victims and profoundly demean their dignity, but also to punish and destroy the entire Palestinian people, in flagrant violation of the Genocide Convention.[4]

This report aims to systematically document crimes of sexual violence and torture committed during detention, including related acts that, depending on their context and elements, qualify as serious international crimes such as war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocide. It tracks the patterns of violations and their physical and psychological impacts on victims, families, and communities. Moreover, it delves into the ‘structure of institutional collusion,’ emphasising the medical system’s role in ‘legitimising torture’ and erasing criminal evidence, alongside the judicial system’s role in eroding accountability and blocking redress. The report concludes with targeted recommendations for urgent actions and accountability measures at both national and international levels, including avenues before the International Criminal Court, to halt abuses and secure justice for victims.

Continue reading at https://www.euromedmonitor.org/en/article/7023/

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Between Ruins and Imagination: Wasim Said’s firsthand account of resistance and survival in Gaza by Mary Turfah

PLEASE TAKE ACTION RIGHT NOW AND SEND YOUR LETTER TO THE UN OFFICE OF THE SPECIAL ADVISER ON THE PREVENTION OF GENOCIDE AND THE INTERNATIONAL CRIMINAL COURT PROSECUTOR.

The final section, called “My Psychological Torment: Between Ruins and Imagination,” is not quite an ending. The genocide has “shattered the stability of my mind and infected me with a strange psychological syndrome,” he writes, one that he believes “haunts every soul in Gaza.” He sees his own crushed skull scattered, his blood saturating the pages of his books. He sees in a flash thousands of dismembered bodies outside a bakery, “their blood soaking the bread.” He sees a friend walking toward him, very much alive, and then his friend is “body parts exploding in my face,” even as his friend embraces him and asks, “Why are you crying?” He sees his mother headless. At night, the nightmares persist, and every day he is no longer sure whether he is alive, because awake, asleep, trapped in his mind, “all are the same.” The last three lines of Witness to the Hellfire of Genocide read,

If I stay alive, I will finish the story . . .

This is all I could write . . . 

The rest is being written now . . . in

blood.

Continue reading at https://www.bookforum.com/print/3203/between-ruins-and-imagination-62572

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Blindfolded, beaten, humiliated: How Israeli forces abused Palestinians returning to Gaza by Maha Hussaini

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Under the ceasefire agreement signed in October, Israel was required to reopen the Rafah border during the first phase. 

However, Israeli officials said the border would only reopen after the return of the body of the last captive held in Gaza, which was recovered last week.

Israel eventually agreed to reopen the crossing but imposed a strict daily quota: only 50 Palestinian patients could leave Gaza, each accompanied by two people, while another 50 were allowed to return to the Strip.

Returnees were limited to Palestinians who had fled Gaza during the genocide. 

Those who left before 7 October 2023 and remained stranded abroad are still barred from returning.

As of late January, at least 30,000 Palestinians had registered with the Palestinian Embassy in Cairo to return to Gaza, according to an embassy official.

Under Israel’s quota, even if the border operated six days a week, allowing 50 people per day, it would take just short of two years for those in Cairo alone to return. Tens of thousands more remain stranded in other countries.

On the first day of the reopening, 42 people were supposed to return. 

However, 30 of them were turned back, but it remains unclear who sent them back or where they are now.

Continue reading at https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/blindfolded-beaten-humiliated-how-israeli-forces-abused-palestinians-returning-gaza

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A Day for Gaza on The Nation ft. Mohammed R. Mhawish, Ali Skaik, Deema Hattab, Asmaa Dwaima, Huda Skaik, Rasha Abou Jalal, Alaa Alqaisi, Ismail Nofal, Engy Abdelal, Ola Al Asi

PLEASE TAKE ACTION RIGHT NOW AND SEND YOUR LETTER TO THE UN OFFICE OF THE SPECIAL ADVISER ON THE PREVENTION OF GENOCIDE AND THE INTERNATIONAL CRIMINAL COURT PROSECUTOR.

The ceasefire has bred apathy among us—and disinterest from a press that was already turning away. According to a recent study by the media watch group FAIR, US media coverage of Gaza has fallen to its lowest three-month average since the genocide began two-and-a-half years ago. The message is clear: There’s nothing to see here.

The Nation disagrees. We believe the story of Gaza remains as essential as it was on October 9, 2025, and that those who live in its ruins are the best ones to tell it. So today, February 3, we are turning our website over to Gaza and its people in an initiative we are calling “A Day for Gaza.” There will be no work shared that is not about Gaza, and no pieces published that are not written by people who are in or from Gaza.

Continue reading at https://www.thenation.com/article/world/a-day-for-gaza-intro-explainer/