Reports of Israeli violence on Palestinians have been reported for decades by humanitarian and rights activists. But, this is one of those rare times Israeli authorities have corroborated a report of such an act. An image of a man in his underwear, tied face-down to a pole, blindfolded, had been doing the rounds on social media since the last few days. The social media account that shared the image has now been deleted. The Israeli military has, however, confirmed the authenticity of the photo— a rare such corroboration.
Oneg Ben Dror from the prisoner and detainees department at Physicians for Human Rights Israel (PHRI) has said, “Both abusive treatment of detainees and the public sharing of humiliating or degrading images of them can constitute war crimes.” She has, in the past also condemned similar acts by the Israeli army.
Chair of the United Nations Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, and Israel Justice Srinivasan Muralidhar, on June 23 published a report on Israel systemically making sure Palestinian children are killed. According to the report, Palestinian children were being ‘deliberately’ shot, tortured and sexually abused by Israelis, The Wire reported. The news of a detainee being bound to a pole after being stripped down to only his underwear comes three weeks within this report.
Muralidhar's 94-page report examines allegations against Israel of violations against Palestinian children from the beginning of Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza in October 2023 to October 2025. According to the report, Israel killed at least 20,179 Palestinian children in two years of the war. It resulted in close to 30 percent of all Palestinian deaths.
According to the report, 44,000 children were injured and about 58,000 children orphaned in the duration. The photo of the man bound to a pole is proof that, “Israeli detention facilities are torture camps for Palestinians,” Ben Dror told The Guardian. The identity of the man in the photo is unknown. The image was first posted by an Israeli soldier, which was then reposted by a Palestinian activist.
Coming back to Muralidhar’s report, the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs rejected the report completely and called it a “libellous sham”. And added that the UN commission is a mechanism designed to ‘vilify’ Israel. Though the military confirmed the authenticity of the photo of the man, they said that the incident aligns with the military’s “values and regulations,” and that an inquiry is underway and those found guilty of the act will be dealt with in accordance with its findings.
Knesset Deputy Speaker Nissim Vaturi, in October 2023, made an inflammatory remark regarding Palestinian children. After Hamas-led attacks on southern Israel, he said, “Don’t leave a single child there. Expel all the remaining ones, … so they have no chance of recovery.”
The current situation of the detainee or the events that led to him being detained and tortured remains unclear. Thousands of Palestinians have been detained by Israeli military since the war began in Gaza in 2023 and nearly all of them have been stripped, tortured, humiliated and deprived of proper food and medical care. And a lot of times these detainees have been brought in for initial interrogation. Quite appallingly, soldiers in the Israeli military have posted such self incriminating images.