The testimony is so graphic, so systematic, and so corroborated by international human rights organizations and the United Nations that it forces a single, devastating conclusion: Israel is operating a network of torture camps where Palestinian detainees—including doctors, children, and the elderly—face rape, electrocution, starvation, and death.
Dr. Nick Maynard, a consultant upper GI surgeon at Oxford University Hospitals who has led multiple emergency medical missions to Gaza, has spent months documenting these atrocities through interviews with survivors. His account is not based on hearsay. It comes from the bodies he treated, the patients he operated on, and the colleagues he watched return from Israeli detention shattered beyond recognition.
“They are tortured to death,” Maynard said. “What I have documented is not random abuse. It is a system. A deliberate, organized system of pure cruelty designed to destroy people physically and psychologically.”
‘Graves for the Living’: At Least 84 Dead in Israeli Custody
The scale of the abuse is staggering. According to a January 2026 report by B’Tselem, the Israeli Information Center for Human Rights, at least 84 Palestinian detainees have died in Israeli custody since October 2023—50 from Gaza, 31 from the West Bank, and three citizens of Israel . As of the report’s publication, Israel was still holding 80 of the bodies, refusing to return them to their families .
“The Israeli regime has turned its prisons into a network of torture camps for Palestinians,” said Yuli Novak, B’Tselem’s Executive Director. “The genocide in Gaza and the ethnic cleansing in the West Bank are the most blatant manifestations of this policy” .
The dead include 17-year-old Walid Ahmad from Silwad, near Ramallah, who reportedly perished due to prolonged starvation during detention . They include elderly detainees over 60, and countless others whose names will never make international headlines.
Released prisoners have described detention centers as “graves for the living” . One freed detainee, speaking to Al Jazeera after three months in the Sde Teiman detention camp in the Negev, opened his mouth to show several missing and broken teeth—the result of systematic beatings by Israeli guards . He said the three months felt like decades because of the torture he endured.
‘Beaten Non-Stop for 12 Hours at a Time’: Maynard’s Testimony
Maynard has collected video and audio testimonies from multiple survivors. The patterns are unmistakable.
“A close friend of mine, a senior dean at a medical school in his late 50s, was abducted,” Maynard said. “Another colleague was held for 60 days. He was put in a big pit, an underground pit with no covering. He was stripped naked down to his underwear, blindfolded, handcuffed. He was left in a pit in the ground for two to three days, then taken off to an Israeli prison. He was beaten non-stop for 12 hours at a time.”
But the physical beatings are only part of the horror. Maynard said survivors described their genitals being repeatedly attacked, being electrocuted through their genitals, and being kept blindfolded and handcuffed for 60 days without being allowed to lie down.
“These are healthcare workers,” Maynard emphasized. “None of them have been charged with any crime. Completely lawless. Administrative detention without charge, renewed every six months. They are simply disappeared.”
UN Verifies Rape, Gang Rape, and Genital Torture
Maynard’s testimony is now backed by the highest international authority. On May 28, 2026, the United Nations released its 17th annual report on conflict-related sexual violence, presented by Pramila Patten, the UN Special Representative on Sexual Violence in Conflict .
The report accused Israeli military, prison, and security personnel—including the Israel Defense Forces, the Israel Prison Service, the Keter initial response force, and the police counter-terrorism unit Yamam—of committing widespread sexual violence against Palestinian detainees .
The UN verified 31 cases involving Palestinians from Gaza and the West Bank. The victims included 14 men, seven women, nine boys, and one girl .
The verified abuses, described in graphic detail by Patten, included “rape, including rape with objects, gang rape, attempted rape, physical violence to the genitals, instances of targeted shooting of the genitals, touching of breasts and genitals, strip and cavity searches conducted without apparent security justification, forced nudity, and threats of rape and gang rape” .
Rape and gang rape were reportedly perpetrated against nine victims, while four victims suffered repeated rape on multiple occasions. The abuses occurred across 12 sites, including military camps, prison service facilities, and a police station .
Patten was unequivocal about the nature of the crimes. “These violations occurred in a climate of total impunity,” she said .
The Case of Dr. Hussam Abu Safiya: A Doctor Tortured
Perhaps the most harrowing individual case documented is that of Dr. Hussam Abu Safiya, 51, a paediatrician and director of Kamal Adwan Hospital in northern Gaza. Israeli forces abducted him on December 27, 2024, during a deadly raid on the hospital—the last functioning hospital in northern Gaza at the time .
Even after an Israeli airstrike killed his own son, Dr. Abu Safiya had refused to abandon his post and his patients . His reward was systematic torture.
Former detainees who were held alongside him have come forward with disturbing firsthand accounts. Rami Abu Amira, a former prisoner, described how interrogators stripped Dr. Abu Safiya naked and set police dogs on his frail body, leaving deep wounds and scratches .
Ahmad Qaddas recounted that the prison cells echoed with the doctor’s screams as he endured severe beatings. He said he could no longer recognize Abu Safiya due to extreme weight loss and his dazed, barely conscious state .
“He was physically shattered,” Qaddas said .
Another former detainee, Hamza Abu Amira, spoke of the “relentless humiliation” and combined physical and psychological torture carried out by specialized Israeli prison units. Guards reportedly forced Dr. Abu Safiya to repeat degrading phrases while inflicting extreme pain in an apparent effort to break him .
Amnesty International has demanded Dr. Abu Safiya’s immediate release, warning that “testimonies collected by Amnesty International and other human rights groups reveal a dreadful reality inside Israeli prisons and detention centres, where Palestinian detainees, including health workers, face systematic torture and other ill-treatment and are denied their right to a fair trial and due process” .
The UK-based human rights organization described his arrest as part of Israel’s broader policy of systematically targeting Palestinian health workers—an action it said was “intended to create conditions calculated to bring about the physical destruction of the Palestinian people” .
As of May 2026, Dr. Abu Safiya remains in detention. The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) has called on the American Medical Association to demand the release of some 75 doctors and medical workers from Gaza still held in Israeli prisons, most of them for between 500 and 900 days without charge or trial, in what a new investigation described as “deeply inhumane conditions involving torture, starvation and medical neglect” .
Dogs as Weapons: Technology of Torture
Maynard described one element of the detention system that stunned him: the use of trained dogs as assault weapons inside hospitals.
“They have dogs who are trained to go into the hospitals with cameras and guns on their backs, attacking people,” he said. “Living dogs who are trained to go into hospitals and shoot people.”
The use of dogs is not limited to hospitals. Detainees have repeatedly described being attacked by trained dogs during arrest, interrogation, and imprisonment. B’Tselem’s report documented attacks by trained dogs among the brutal methods used in military-run detention centres, alongside electric shocks, beatings, exposure to extreme cold while unclothed, and persistent medical neglect .
Sexual Violence as Standard Operating Procedure
The UN report made clear that these abuses are not isolated incidents but follow established patterns. Patten devoted a substantial portion of her briefing to describing exchanges between the UN and Israeli authorities over the past year, noting that Secretary-General Antonio Guterres formally communicated preventive measures to Israel in a letter dated August 11, 2025 .
Israel’s response was rejection. The government submitted documentation outlining existing laws and detention procedures, but Patten said the submission did not include evidence of “fully fledged investigation, prosecution, or conviction for sexual violence cases” .
Patten specifically referenced the emblematic Sde Teiman detention facility case, which had drawn international attention after allegations of severe abuse against Palestinian detainees.
“With regard to the emblematic Sde Teiman case, not only was sexual violence not in the indictment, but the charges were even dropped altogether by the military advocate general,” she said .
She recalled that the case had sparked demonstrations by some Israeli ministers and supporters—protesting the arrest of soldiers accused in the incident. “These demonstrations included attacks on the Sde Teiman camp and on those investigating the case,” she said .
The UN also criticized Israel’s continued refusal to grant human rights monitors access to detention facilities. Patten said Israel had confirmed the International Committee of the Red Cross had also been denied access to detention facilities since October 7, 2023, citing security concerns .
“The government of Israel maintains that it will not provide access on account of what it alleges to be institutional bias in UN bodies and mechanisms,” Patten said .
Female Detainees and Children
The UN report documented sexual violence against women and girls as well, including seven women and one girl among the verified cases . Former female abductee Reem Abu Jazar, from the West Bank, described being forced to leave behind her sick daughter and ill husband in Ramallah after Israeli authorities deported her to Gaza .
She said guards subjected her to strip searches, interrogated her during the night, and deprived her of sleep. The 20 days she spent there felt like years due to constant humiliation and beatings by both male and female guards, along with continuous surveillance by cameras .
She also revealed that Israeli prisons hold a large number of abducted little girls who were kidnapped over social media posts related to Gaza during the genocide. “These girls suffer severely inside detention centers,” she said .
Female abductees face degrading treatment, verbal abuse, and physical assault, she said, adding that denial of food and water becomes “minor compared to the daily humiliation” .
‘They Are Being Controlled’: Media Blackout and Western Complicity
Maynard has not kept his observations secret. He has presented evidence to the UK Prime Minister, to cabinet ministers, and to members of the Biden administration in Washington, D.C.
“We took enlarged, laminated color photographs of babies who’d been shot in the head, of children who had lost their limbs, of children who had been starved to death, literally,” he said.
He met with Samantha Power, the then-administrator of USAID, who famously wrote a Pulitzer Prize-winning book on genocide titled “A Problem from Hell.”
“We got a very good reception and a very sympathetic reception,” Maynard said. “But of course, it had no impact whatsoever.”
He expressed profound anger at Western media for what he sees as a failure to report the truth.
“There are some wonderful journalists who have been desperately trying to get this out and have been thwarted,” he said. “They are being controlled and not allowed to by their senior editorial boards. There is a clear agenda to try and shut this all up so that the truth doesn’t get out.”
A report by The New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof, based on interviews with released Palestinian detainees, documented multiple cases of torture, sexual abuse, and systemic violence against men, women, and children . One released detainee, Palestinian freelance journalist Sami al-Sa’di, described being pressured to collaborate as an informant while also detailing alleged abuse during his detention. Former detainees claim they are warned after release to remain silent about their prison experiences .
Acknowledging the Genocide
On December 2024, Amnesty International concluded Israel was committing genocide in Gaza by three of the five acts defined in the 1948 UN Genocide Convention—including deliberately inflicting on Palestinians conditions of life calculated to bring about their physical destruction .
Last month, Amnesty warned: “Israel continues to severely restrict the entry of supplies and the restoration of services essential for the survival of the civilian population. Despite a reduction in scale of attacks, and some limited improvements, there has been no meaningful change in the conditions Israel is inflicting on Palestinians in Gaza and no evidence to indicate that Israel’s intent has changed” .
Maynard concurred with this assessment. “The so-called ceasefire is not really a ceasefire,” he said. “There are still aerial bombardments most days, with the Israeli spokespeople finding some excuse. They are still restricting food and aid going in. They are not upholding the terms of the proposed ceasefire, and the US government is allowing them to get away with it yet again” .
Describing conditions in Gaza, he said: “If you ever saw the Mad Max films of yesteryear, the post-apocalyptic landscape in those areas, it is exactly like that. As far as you can see, it’s just rubble, mass destruction” .
‘I Will Keep Trying’
Despite the danger—he has been injured by a bomb and acknowledges that his outspokenness may lead to him being denied entry by Israel—Maynard is determined to return to Gaza.
“Statistically, there has not yet been a single foreign doctor killed there,” he said. “But the dominant emotion is not fear. It is a desire to be there helping my friends. What is being done to the Gazans is so fundamentally wrong that those of us who have had the great privilege of knowing them have an absolute obligation to go out there and help them.”
He added: “I know that because I have spoken out so much, the chance of Israel refusing me entry is very high. But I will keep going. I will keep trying.”
The Israeli foreign ministry has consistently rejected allegations of genocide and torture, describing them as “entirely false,” “fabricated,” and “based on lies” . But the weight of evidence—from UN investigators, human rights organizations, medical professionals, and the survivors themselves—tells a different story.
As B’Tselem concluded: “The Israeli regime has turned its prisons into a network of torture camps for Palestinians, as part of a coordinated onslaught on Palestinian society intended to destroy their existence as a collective” .
