Sexual violence is among the most destructive and harmful tools employed in situations of armed conflict and genocide. Far from being an incidental consequence of war, it is now widely recognized under international law and human rights frameworks as a deliberate and systematic weapon used to achieve military and political objectives. Through the targeting of bodies, sexual violence functions as a means of domination, punishment, and control, aimed at subjugating individuals and communities, dismantling social and cultural structures, and asserting power over targeted populations.

Since October 7, reports of sexual violence against Palestinian prisoners have increased significantly. Documented violations include rape, sexual harassment, forced strip searches, verbal sexual abuse, threats of rape, and targeted physical assaults on sensitive parts of the body. These acts cannot be understood as isolated incidents or individual misconduct; rather, they reflect broader patterns of punishment, humiliation, and domination. Importantly, sexual violence within Israeli prisons did not emerge after October 7. It constitutes a longstanding and deeply embedded practice that has developed alongside the detention system itself, revealing a persistent pattern in which violence—particularly sexual violence—is employed as a mechanism of control, oppression, and the breaking of prisoners’ physical and psychological resilience.

Within this context, assaults on prisoners’ bodies and the systematic violation of their physical and human dignity can be understood as part of a broader genocidal framework. Such practices are consistent with the logic of settler colonialism, which seeks not only the displacement and elimination of Indigenous populations but also the destruction of their capacity to endure as individuals and as a collective. This process operates through physical harm, psychological devastation, and the transformation of the body into a site of domination, punishment, and erasure.

This paper examines the use of sexual violence by the Israeli occupation as a systematic instrument of repression and retaliation within the broader context of genocide. Through the analysis of documented cases, it seeks to demonstrate the organized and recurring nature of these violations, as well as their profound consequences for survivors and for the Palestinian community as a whole.

It is important to emphasize that the cases presented in this paper represent only a fraction of the sexual violence committed against Palestinian prisoners and detainees. The analysis is based on 37 cases documented by Addameer, selected from among hundreds of cases recorded by Addameer and other human rights organizations. These cases were chosen because they illustrate recurring patterns and methods in the perpetration of sexual violence, making further repetition unnecessary. The true scale of these crimes is likely far greater. Ongoing detention has prevented the documentation of many abuses, while numerous survivors remain unwilling or unable to disclose their experiences due to stigma, fear of retaliation, and the conditions of their imprisonment. As a result, much of this violence remains concealed, and the documented cases should be understood as indicative of a much broader pattern of abuse.