UN Urges Israel to Set Up Independent Torture Inquiry Amid Rising Abuse Claims

A United Nations committee on Friday called on Israel to create an independent commission to investigate allegations of torture and ill-treatment of Palestinians, warning that the situation has “gravely intensified” since the start of the Gaza war.

The UN Committee Against Torture said it was “deeply concerned” by reports suggesting a “de facto state policy of organized and widespread torture and ill-treatment” in Israel. The panel of 10 independent experts, which monitors compliance with the UN Convention Against Torture, stressed that it “unequivocally condemned” the October 7, 2023 Hamas-led attack on Israel.

However, in a report released after its regular review of Israel, the committee also voiced “deep concern over the disproportionate nature of Israel’s response” and criticised “a range of policies” tied to what it described as Israel’s continued unlawful presence in the occupied Palestinian territories. These policies, it warned, risk creating “cruel, inhuman or degrading living conditions for the Palestinian population.”

The experts urged Israel to establish “an independent, impartial and effective” investigatory body to examine all allegations of torture during the current conflict, prosecute those responsible — including senior officers — and allow the immediate entry of humanitarian aid and aid workers into Gaza.

During the Geneva review earlier this month, committee rapporteur Peter Vedel Kessing told Israel’s delegation that experts had been “deeply appalled” by accounts pointing to “systematic and widespread torture and ill-treatment of Palestinians, including children.” He said claims indicated that torture had become “a deliberate and widespread tool of state policy… from arrest to interrogation to imprisonment.”

The report cited allegations of severe beatings, dog attacks, electrocution, waterboarding, prolonged stress positions and sexual violence.

Israel’s ambassador to the UN in Geneva, Daniel Meron, rejected the accusations as “disinformation,” insisting Israel remains “committed to upholding its obligations in line with our moral values and principles, even in the face of the challenges posed by a terrorist organization.”