Extract from ABC News
On a thin mattress in a tent in Rafah, with the constant drone of war above him, Mustafa Jamal Kahlout feels lucky to be alive.
He's still recovering from surgery in January for internal bleeding and broken ribs that he says were the result of relentless beatings inside an Israeli detention centre.
WARNING: Readers might find some of the details in this story distressing.
Mustafa told the ABC he's not sure why the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) picked him up, but he says their questions suggested they were suspicious he and his family did not follow orders to evacuate to Gaza's south.
"They asked me why I did not travel to the south. I told them my mother is old and my father died, she cannot walk. They would reply that is not enough," he said.
By the time he was returned to Gaza after 26 days of interrogations, which ultimately found he had no terrorism links, he says he was close to death.
"They did a surgery and opened my chest to suck the blood out. I spent 12 days in ICU," he said.
He says the treatment by Israeli forces was degrading and inhumane.
"They would come with dogs on [a] leash and let them pee on us," he said.
"There are things I feel ashamed to talk about such as they would stick something into men's [anus] … It was humiliating, they wanted to break our morale, they did everything they wanted without any hesitation."
The poor conditions at the refugee camp in Gaza are still better than what he says he endured at a detention facility in Israel.
"They would feed us with rotten bread, it was rotten bread, sometimes a rotten tomato. For lunch and dinner, it was bread only. I was so drained; I could not eat anything.
"They gave us salted water. We were begging for fresh water."
Mustafa is not alone.
Since the October 7 attack, an increasing number of Palestinian men — and the doctors who treat them — have alleged abuse at the hands of Israeli authorities.
Israel denies allegations of abuse
In October last year, Hamas-led militants stormed across the border into southern Israel, killing hundreds of civilians and taking 253 hostages back into Gaza.
Israel's government swiftly launched a retaliatory military campaign, which it said was aimed at eliminating Hamas from the coastal enclave.
Since then, more than 33,000 people in Gaza have been killed, according to the local healthy ministry.
Israel has also detained thousands of Gazans under special national security laws that allow them to be held and questioned without charge, access to a lawyer or seeing a judge for weeks.
The temporary amendment to existing security laws was passed last December in response to the Hamas-led attack, extending the period during which a detainee must be brought before a judge from 14 to 75 days.
Israel's detention law means they are not classified as prisoners of war under the Geneva Convention, and therefore the Red Cross does not have access to them.
As well as the reports of beatings, sleep deprivation and sexual abuse, at least 27 detainees have reportedly died in custody.
The ABC repeatedly asked the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) how many detainees from Gaza have died in custody in Israel since the war began, but they declined to comment.
In a statement to the ABC, the IDF said "mistreatment of detainees … is absolutely prohibited."
The IDF also denied "unsubstantiated claims of sexual abuse and sleep deprivation…" and said that the IDF "acts in accordance with Israeli and international law".
They also said that any concrete complaints of inappropriate behaviour are forwarded to the relevant authorities for investigation.
The United Nations Special Rapporteur on Torture has launched an investigation into the allegations of mistreatment of Palestinian detainees in Israel.
Detainee alleges 'torture' in Israeli custody
Mustafa is not the only man at the refugee camp in Rafah with serious claims of abuse while in Israeli detention.
Jibril Ghatab El-Kahlout, 44, shows photos of himself before the 60 days he says he spent in an Israel prison.
He says he was detained by the IDF after he deviated from the safe corridor set up in November for Gazans to evacuate from the north of the strip — something he claims he was "tricked" into doing.
"The army tricked me and took me from the safe route … They treat you as if you were a fighter and you had taken part in the attacks of October 7," he said.
Now free from detention, Jibril is a shadow of his former self.
"It was the most difficult prison, Al-Naqab prison," he said.
"I am an athlete and I used to weigh 95 kilos. When I was released after torture, I went down to 58 kilos and I lost my hearing in the right-side ear.
"There are traces of torture on my legs where they would tie us and do electric shocks.
"The electric shocks were terrible and violent. Some of my teeth cracked due to torture.
"In the prison, my shoulder and my chest started aching and until now I suffer from chest pain."
It's hard to verify all of these claims given the secrecy Israel maintains around its detention regime, but they add to a growing number of similar stories from detainees who have been released from detention in Israel.
Doctor voices concern for detainees
Doctors on both sides of the border say they have seen signs of physical abuse on former detainees who came in for medical attention.
Dr Marwan Shafiq Alhamss from the Al Najar Hospital in Rafah said he's treated many of the patients released after detention is Israel.
"They had head and body injuries due to beating with weapons and arms," he said.
"Some suffered serious foot inflammation due to torture as if they had heart or kidney failure."
He recalls one patient – a doctor – who arrived close to death after he was released from Israeli detention.
"The patient was in a terrible condition but we treated him as much as we can," said Dr Marwan.
"However, despite all our efforts, he was paralysed on one side of his body.
"We put a lot of effort to stabilise his condition and had we not done so, he would have certainly died at Al Najar hospital."
The ABC also interviewed a doctor who treated detainees at the Sde Teiman military base, which was turned into a secretive detention centre where most of the Gazans have been held since October 7.
He didn't want to be identified due to fear of repercussions.
"What I witnessed when I visited Sde Teiman I think were obvious infractions of human rights and a system that perpetrates harm to these patients by limiting their access to proper medical care," he said.
"Every patient is restrained, every arm, each leg on the sides of the bed.
"All of them at all times they had eye coverage as well. From what I recall, in my experience, they were basically naked besides diapers and being covered with just a mere blanket while staying in the desert."
He said while he didn't see how the interrogations took place, he believed even the medical treatment at the base amounted to torture.
"It is my belief that, keeping patients restrained, keeping them naked and exposed to the outside environment and definitely keeping the eyes covered, I see that as a form of torture."
Israeli facility likened to Guantanamo Bay
According to local left-leaning media outlet Haaretz, a separate doctor at the facility wrote to Israel's attorney general, defence and health ministers describing "deplorable conditions" and "routine" amputations due to handcuff injuries.
He wrote that inappropriate care at the detention facility had led to "complications and sometimes even in the patient's death" according to the Haaretz report.
"This makes all of us – the medical teams and you, those in charge of us in the health and defence ministries — complicit in the violation of Israeli law."
That facility has been likened to the notorious Guantanamo Bay by Haaretz and rights group Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor.
There are also calls for it to be shut down immediately — a call echoed by the doctor who spoke to the ABC.
"It's extremely easy for us to condemn whenever the other side is infringing human rights. But, even as an Israeli, I think that the biggest risk would be to dehumanise the other side too," he said.
"In my opinion, Sde Teiman has no reason to exist in a country such as Israel. It should be closed down."
A report by Physicians for Human Rights described the conditions at the facility as "a low point for medical ethics and professionalism."
"Every physician and healthcare professional has a responsibility to oppose the continued existence of this facility, vigorously advocate for its closure, and demand the transfer of detained Gazans requiring medical attention to a civilian medical facility," the report said.
A separate report by the organisation details further evidence of abuse and neglect.
"Our physicians participated in five autopsies of people who died in the Israeli Prison Services," it said.
"In two of the cases, the autopsies found severe signs of violence and assault; four had suffered from medical issues and in at least one autopsy, our doctor found that the specific cause of death is medical neglect."
Father of five Jibril is now on daily medication to treat a variety of injuries he said he sustained during his time in Israeli detention.
He is grateful to be back with his wife and children but is still haunted by what he says he endured.
"I wish that no one lives what I've been through in 60 days. It was a dire situation," he said.
"I wish that no one sees what I've seen."
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