<\/p>\n
23 March 2026<\/p>\n
Israel\u2019s systematic torture of Palestinians, long shielded by decades of impunity and political cover, has become a defining instrument of ongoing genocide in the occupied Palestinian territory, a UN expert warned today.<\/p>\n
\u201cSince the onset of the genocide, the Israeli prison system has degenerated into a laboratory of calculated cruelty,\u201d said Francesca Albanese, the UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territory occupied since 1967, in her\u00a0new report<\/a>\u00a0to the UN Human Rights Council.<\/p>\n \u201cWhat once operated in the shadows is now practiced openly: a regime of organised humiliation, pain and degradation, sanctioned at the highest political levels.\u201d<\/p>\n Albanese said policies imposed by senior officials, including the Minister of National Security Itamar Ben-Gvir, have institutionalised torture, collective punishment and manifestly dehumanising conditions of detention.<\/p>\n \u201cThose responsible for these heinous violations of human rights, from which no derogation is possible even in times of war, must face investigation and justice, including before the International Criminal Court,\u201d the Special Rapporteur said.<\/p>\n Albanese\u2019s report warns that since October 2023, more than 18,500 Palestinians have been detained across the occupied Palestinian territory, including at least 1,500 children. Thousands remain in detention without charge or trial. Many have been forcibly disappeared. Nearly 100 detainees have died in custody. Detainees have been abused in unfathomable ways, including rape with bottles, metal rods and knives, starvation, breaking of bones and teeth, burning, being spat upon, and being attacked and urinated upon by dogs.<\/p>\n