'A previous Palestinian inmate declares being instructed to disrobe.' or 'A former Palestinian prison occupant asserts experiencing sexual exploitation in an Israeli detention facility.'
"They instructed me to undress," the Palestinian shared, remembering the ordeal he faced during his eight-month incarceration at the hands of Israel. "That's when I realized I was stepping into a living hell."
On December 8, an Israeli air strike bombarded Salem's residence in Jabalya refugee camp in northern Gaza, claiming eight of his relatives and leaving his wife and two of his children injured. His wife and remaining child were receiving care in the intensive care unit of Kamal Adwan Hospital, Salem shared with CNN. Four days later, during a raid, Israeli troops arrested him from the hospital, he claimed.
"I was dazed. Why was I being apprehended? I had no ties with resistance groups.. There were no accusations made against me," Salem told CNN in an interview at Al-Mawasi's displacement camp in southern Gaza. "I am a barber."
Handcuffed and blindfolded, Salem and other Palestinians were transported like livestock, he recalled.
He was out of touch for eight months.
Israel Defense Forces (IDF) claimed that the hospital was being utilized as a command center by Hamas. Hamas has repeatedly denied utilizing hospitals in its battle against Israel. CNN could not independently confirm IDF's claims.
In May, CNN published an investigation into Sde Teiman, a covert military base situated in Israel's Negev desert near the Gaza border. Detainees were reportedly subjected to inhumane conditions, and among the published images was one of a blindfolded prisoner behind barbed wire, hands raised overhead. Upon the investigation's publication, Salem's twin brother Waseem contacted CNN, identifying the man in the picture as Salem.
On May 23, Saja Mishreqi, a lawyer from the Public Committee Against Torture in Israel (PCATI), who represented Salem, was informed by Israel's Supreme Court that he was detained at Ktzi’ot Prison, a correctional facility in the Negev managed by the Israel Prison Service (IPS). He was eventually freed without charge on August 1.
Speaking with CNN, Salem acknowledged that he was indeed the man in the picture, adding that he was initially held in a facility Palestinians referred to as "Sde," before being transferred to Ktzi'ot.
"We could hear screams. Then followed by a gunshot, followed by silence," Salem shared with CNN. "It was a nightmare."
Ordered to undress completely
During interrogations, Salem claimed, he was inquired: "Where are the hostages? Where are Hamas' weapons? Are you Hamas? Are you Qassam (Hamas' military wing)? Are you Islamic Jihad?"
Salem alleges to have been beaten, verbally abused, had hot water poured on him, and threatened that the rest of his family had been slain.
However, he claimed that the most horrifying ordeal was the sexual abuse.
Salem said that most of his time spent in detention was in his undergarments, but before each interrogation session, soldiers would command him to disrobe completely.
"They would wave the metal detector across our bodies, then hover it over private parts and strike me there," he said. As he kneeled in pain, naked, with several soldiers observing, he claimed that soldiers violated him from behind.
"With the pain, I would lean forward. Then suddenly, they would thrust the baton into my rear end," he said. "Inside."
Following interrogation, he was given only "moments" to re-dress, he said, adding that any perceived delay in doing so would result in more beatings from the soldiers.
The IDF reported that Salem was detained on December 12 on suspicion of involvement in terrorist activities and held at Sde Teiman for "around a month and a half," before being transferred to the prison service, where he spent six of his eight months in captivity.
The IDF also acknowledged that mistreatment during detention is "contrary to the law and IDF orders" and is strictly prohibited.
CNN reached out to the prison service about Salem's detention and his claims of abuse, but was directed to contact the IDF and the Israel Security Agency, known as Shin Bet, for relevant information.
As of yet, the Shin Bet has not responded to CNN's request for comment.
Salem was liberated and returned to the Gaza Strip on August 1, after an assessment concluded that his release would not pose a threat to national security, the IDF said, adding that he was brought before a judge in a district court for a judicial review during his detention.
He also shared that he was not represented by a lawyer in court.
Salem was taunted with images of unburied bodies
Salem claimed that an interrogator showed him a picture of what he believed to be his exhumed relatives' remains from Kamal Adwan Hospital's yard. The interrogator used the picture to torment Salem, making him count six bodies.
"What justification do you have for exhuming and desecrating bodies?" Salem recalled asking the interrogator. "These bodies are ours. We must bury them."
The interrogator retorted that the bodies "might be hostages" abducted by Hamas on October 7, to which Salem responded, tearfully: "My nephews, are they hostages? Five years old?"
Israel has acknowledges excavating corpses as part of an investigation to locate the remains of hostages taken during the Hamas-led aggressions in southern Israel on October 7, resulting in over 1,200 fatalities and 250 abductions. The IDF confirmed to CNN that bodies not matching the hostages' descriptions are handled with respect and dignity before being returned.
Approximately 40,200 Palestinians have perished and over 92,900 have been wounded in Israel's attacks on Gaza, as reported by Gaza's health ministry.
Surveillance footage leaked last month from Sde Teiman prison provided an uncommon glimpse into the facility.
Channel 12 of Israel obtained CCTV footage showing Israeli soldiers choosing from over two dozen Palestinian detainees lying on the ground. Behind a wall obscuring the view of security cameras, soldiers are alleged to have sexually assaulted the detainee with a shield. The detainee was taken to a hospital with rectal injuries, as stated by Israeli human rights organization Physicians for Human Rights Israel. The Israeli military has yet to comment on the video.
Following the incident, 10 Israeli military personnel were detained for alleged mistreatment of a Palestinian detainee, according to the IDF. As of now, five have been released, and five remain under house arrest.
Mishreqi mentioned that Salem was detained under Israel's controversial Unlawful Combatants Law, a regulation that Human Rights Watch has criticized for eliminating fundamental judicial review and due process rights.
The law allows the military to detain people for up to 30 days without a court order, and then they must be transferred to prison, as per PCATI, a Jerusalem-based NGO working against torture. Since the conflict began, over 4,000 Palestinian Gaza Strip residents have been detained by Israel, according to PCATI in a report released last month. The law reportedly denies detainees their rights as prisoners of war and the protections afforded to civilian populations under humanitarian law in occupied territories.
As of April, more than 9,500 Palestinians were incarcerated in Israeli prisons, including over 3,500 without charge, as per Addameer Prisoners' Support and Human Rights Association, a Palestinian NGO. The figure excludes detainees from Gaza, according to the group.
Salem is one of many ex-detainees who have shared harrowing stories of their time in Israeli prisons with human rights organizations and the media, leading to demands for reform across all Israeli prisons.
Following thepublic outcry, the number of people being held at Sde Teiman has significantly decreased. In June, a state prosecutor informed Israel's Supreme Court that numerous Palestinian detainees had been transferred out of the facility.
Mishreqi emphasized that there is a problem not only with Sde Teiman, but with the systematic policies and abuses taking place there without any external oversight. Even if the facility is closed, the harmful policies may simply be transferred to other prisons, she warned.
Israeli human rights organization B’Tselem published a report this month detailing "abuse and inhumane treatment of Palestinians in Israeli custody since October 7." The report, which gathered testimonies from 55 Palestinians, illustrated "the hurried transformation of over a dozen Israeli prison facilities into a network of detention camps dedicated to mistreating prisoners as a matter of policy." The IDF has repeatedly denied allegations of systematic abuse.
B’Tselem's executive director Yuli Novak told CNN's Christiane Amanpour that Sde Teiman was merely "the tip of the iceberg" in Israel's mistreatment of Palestinian detainees, stating that it is "organized and systematic" and has only worsened since October 7.
Salem claimed that there were around 150 detainees with him in the second facility where he was held.
On his release day, Salem was informed by the IDF that he could not return to his home in Jabalya, in northern Gaza. He now resides in a displacement camp in Khan Younis, in southern Gaza.
He has moved from detention tents to displacement tents throughout his ordeal and continues to deal with the memories of the alleged abuse he suffered.
"They expose your body to male and female soldiers who harass you and touch you with objects on your sensitive parts," he told CNN. "They hit you on the butt, pull your hair, and use foul language... It's humiliating."
He has yet to reunite with his wife and children, who remain in northern Gaza, and can only communicate with them by phone. Two of his children require surgeries for injuries sustained during the Israeli airstrike, he claimed.
CNN's Dana Karni in Tel Aviv contributes reporting.
After his release from Ktzi'oot Prison, Salem shared with CNN that he was aware of the global attention his case had received, stating, "My story reached the middleeast and the world."
During his detention, Salem claimed that Israeli soldiers would taunt him with the image of his exhumed relatives from Kamal Adwan Hospital's yard, reminding him of the ongoing conflict between Palestinians and Israel in the broader context of the Middle East.
