A groundbreaking documentary sheds light on the horrific experiences of Palestinian detainees, exposing a decades-long pattern of abuse by Israeli authorities.
Israel stands alone as the only state to have legalized torture through a ruling by its own Supreme Court. An expert who has documented these violations since 1983 asserts that what the world knows today is less than 5% of what has actually occurred.
In the Al Jazeera original investigative documentary Bodies of Evidencewe delve into the use of sexual violence, torture, and degradation against Palestinian detainees, practices that rights groups and experts say have been systematically employed by Israeli military, intelligence, and prison authorities for decades.
The documentary features contributions from Francesca AlbaneseRaji SouraniKifaya KhraimAyed Abu EqtaishBen MarmarelliJudge Cuno Tarfusserand survivors whose identities are protected for their safety.
The Ritual of Humiliation and Abuse
Mohammed Zaki al-Bakri, a survivor of the Israeli genocide in Gaza and a former detainee from Khan Younis, describes being stripped, restrained, and left powerless while Israeli soldiers laughed and filmed.
Al-Bakri, who was held for 20 months and moved through five Israeli prisons, recounts the harrowing experience of being raped by a dog. They stripped us of our clotheshe says, We are handcuffed. our hands were behind our backs and our legs were bound and we were blindfolded.
Al-Bakri’s testimony is not an isolated incident. Across months of reporting, Al Jazeera’s documentary team gathered accounts from former Palestinian detainees who described dogs used not only as instruments of fear but as part of a ritual of sexualized humiliation. Prisoners were stripped, blindfolded, handcuffed, forced to lie on their stomachs, beaten, threatened, filmed, and attacked. These testimonies form the basis of Al Jazeera’s investigative documentary, Bodies of Evidence: Israel’s Darkest Weapon.
The Systemic Nature of Abuse
Since 1967, Palestinian official sources estimate that more than 750,000 Palestinians have been detained by Israel. A United Nations-cited figure states that over 800,000 Palestinians were imprisoned between 1967 and 2006. In, the Addameer Prisoner Support and Human Rights Association reported that 9,600 Palestinian political prisoners were in Israeli custody, including 3,532 held under administrative detention—imprisonment without charge or trial—alongside another 342 children and 84 women.
For Palestinians, prison is not a marginal experience but a generational one. A detainee can be arrested at home, at a checkpoint, inside a hospital, at a shelter, or during a military raid. They may then be moved between soldiers, intelligence officers, military detention sites, police custody, military courts, and prisons run by the Israel Prison Service. The names of the facilities change: Sde Teiman, Ofer, Negev, Ashkelon, interrogation centers, checkpoints, and military camps. The details recur: a name becomes a number, clothes are removed, eyes are covered, hands and legs are tied, food is restricted, sleep is denied, dogs are brought in, prisoners are threatened with rape, many are raped, some say they are filmed, and many say complaints go nowhere.
The Architecture of Abuse
Sde Teiman, the Israeli military detention facility in the Naqab/Negev desert, became a symbol of Israel’s post-October 7 detention regime after reports of blindfolded and shackled Palestinians, medical neglect, torture allegations, and sexual abuse emerged. Five Israeli soldiers were accused of sexually abusing a Palestinian detainee at Sde Teiman. In, Israeli authorities dropped the charges. However, Bodies of Evidence: Israel’s Darkest Weapon shows that Sde Teiman is no exception.
Palestinian detainees can pass through multiple systems: military detention, intelligence interrogation, police custody, military courts, and formal prisons. The Israel Prison Service and police fall under the Ministry of National Security, headed by Itamar Ben-Gvir. Military detention sites such as Sde Teiman fall under the Israeli military chain of command. The Shin Bet, Israel’s internal security agency, operates under the authority of the Prime Minister’s Office. The Ministry of Justice oversees state legal policy, prosecutions, and government legal defense. Responsibility is fragmented.
A prisoner may be arrested by soldiers, interrogated by intelligence officers, held by prison guards, brought before military courts, and processed through civilian legal bodies. If questioned, each institution can point to another part of the chain. But all of it is part of the Israeli state’s detention architecture. That is why Raji Sourani, founder and director of the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights, said the problem is not one prison. We have the crimes. We have the evidence. We have the chain of commandhe says in the film. For Sourani, Sde Teiman is the tip of the iceberg.
The survivors in Bodies of Evidence: Israel’s Darkest Weapon describe different forms of sexual violence. Job from northern Gaza says he was gang-raped and filmed by Israeli soldiers. He describes a female soldier using a strap-on device while others clapped. Shereen, whose identity is concealed for safety, says she was repeatedly stripped. They took me to a roomshe says. They told me to remove my clothes. She goes on to describe how she was violated through invasive and gruesome methods.
Adnan, a pseudonym used to protect his identity, was a 17-year-old schoolboy in Jenin in the occupied West Bank when, on his way to school, he walked into an Israeli military raid. Soldiers threw an explosive device towards him; the blast cost him his right hand. About a week later, while he was still recovering from the amputation, the same military returned and arrested him. He was held for five months. He describes being beaten on sensitive parts of his body and subjected to repeated strip searches, despite the injury that had just taken his hand.
Mohammad Abu Kabash heard the dogs first. It was about 1am on a Friday in Khirbet Hamsa al-Fawqain, the Jordan Valley of the occupied West Bank, and his family was asleep. He took a flashlight and stepped outside to see what had disturbed them. As I shone the flashlight towards the mountain, I was surprised to find that there was a group, people walking alongside the mountain from several directions.
He tried to steady himself. I tried to control myself from the fear and terror that had overcome meMohammad says, but I couldn’t. Moments later, he says, settlers attacked him. Four men attacked me. Settlers grabbed me and tied my handshe says. He was stabbed in the hand and beaten across his body.
His brother, Sohaib Abu Kabash, says the settlers moved through the encampment while people were still asleep. They entered every house here, 20 settlers in each house. One was handcuffing us, the other beating ushe recalls. Sohaib says the settlers stole all of the family’s sheep, beat children, handcuffed him, stripped him, and tied his genitals. They dragged me 100 metres, and they sprinkled water and soil on me.
Mohammad says he saw several settlers surround his brother. Too many of them were attacking himhe says. I don’t know exactly how many, 10, nine or eight. A big number. They stripped and beat him, Mohammad says. Then he pauses in the interview. Can I mention it? he asks. They brought a plastic zip and tied it on his penis.
Later in the interview, Sohaib holds up the plastic ties that he says were used to tie my hands, legs and genitals.
Sohaib Abu Kabash says the family called for help, but it came late. We called the police. then an army vehicle arrived late, we were already beatenhe tells us.
The Israeli military and police have said the incident is under investigation, but as of this date, no one appears to have been punished—and none of the victims who spoke to Al Jazeera have been compensated.
But Mohammad says the family remains on the land—and will not move.
