Committee to Protect Journalists Expresses Concern Over Testimony of Palestinian Journalist Who Was Subjected to Torture and Sexual Violence

The Committee to Protect Journalists expressed deep concern over the horrifying testimony given by the independent Palestinian journalist Sami Al-Sa'i during a public event organized recently by the Palestinian Center for Development and Media Freedoms "Mada", where he described being subjected to torture and sexual violence during his detention in an Israeli prison.

The journalist Al-Sa'i recounted harsh details about being raped during his administrative detention between February 2024 and June 2025, particularly in Majd and Ramon prisons in the north and south of the occupied territories.

Al-Sa'i said that the Israeli guards beat him, blindfolded him, shackled him, humiliated him, sexually assaulted him, and raped him with a stick.

In one incident, he detailed, saying "A group of at least 4 soldiers took me to an area with a foul smell, while they were beating me and humiliating me continuously", adding that he was forced to "sit in a prostration position", and continued "I initially thought it was part of their usual routine for humiliation, until I felt them inserting a hard object into my rectum".

The regional director of the Committee to Protect Journalists, Sarah Kaddah, said "The account given by journalist Al-Sa'i is extremely troubling and tragically aligns with the testimonies received by the Committee to Protect Journalists from his colleagues detained in Israeli prisons".

Kaddah called for urgent and independent investigations to hold accountable all those responsible for these systematic violations.

The treatment of Palestinian prisoners in occupation prisons has resurfaced again after repeated talk of unprecedented torture and horrifying violations faced by prisoners at the hands of Israeli guards.

A leaked video clip showed 5 soldiers brutally assaulting, sexually and physically, a Palestinian prisoner from the Gaza Strip with his hands tied, in the infamous Sde Teiman camp last year.

The leak of the clip led to the dismissal of the Israeli military prosecutor Yafit Tomer Yerushalmi, and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who is wanted by the International Criminal Court, described it as "the biggest public relations attack" Israel has faced since its establishment.

The Committee to Protect Journalists said that Al-Sa'i's account - who noted that what he experienced was accompanied by a threat of a similar fate for all journalists - aligns with what human rights organizations have mentioned regarding the treatment of Palestinians in Israeli prisons.

To this day, about 30 Palestinian journalists are behind bars in Israeli prisons, according to the international committee.

About two weeks ago, the Palestinian Journalists Protection Center revealed that a Palestinian journalist was subjected to rape and sexual torture using a trained dog during his detention in the Israeli Sde Teiman camp, resulting in severe psychological trauma that deprived him of his mental balance for more than two months.

The center conveyed horrific details from the testimony of the journalist who did not disclose his real name to protect the safety of his family members, during his 20-month detention in occupation prisons, including 3 months in Sde Teiman and one month in Ofer prison.

The center detailed in a statement what it considered one of the most serious documented crimes against detained journalists, where the journalist, along with 7 other prisoners, was subjected to group sexual assaults lasting about 3 minutes, after being shackled, blindfolded, and dragged to an isolated area inside the infamous camp.

The journalist in his testimony indicated that what he faced was not an isolated incident, pointing to a systematic torture policy through which Israel sought to break the will of the prisoners and humiliate them psychologically and physically.

Israeli and Palestinian human rights data revealed mid-last month the death of 98 Palestinians during their detention in Israeli prisons and detention centers since October 7, 2023, a figure described by human rights organizations as unprecedented, reflecting a widespread collapse in detention standards and almost complete absence of legal and medical oversight.

According to the data obtained by the organization "Physicians for Human Rights-Israel", and published by the Israeli magazine (972+), a large part of the victims were civilians not suspected of involvement in combat activities.