New Delhi: When 16-year-old Faris was searching for aid with his father in Gaza’s Morag Corridor, he was allegedly abducted by Israeli forces. After being interrogated and beaten severely, he says he was transferred to a “Disco room”: a concrete room with speakers that blare music in Hebrew. “They positioned my head right next to the speakers,” he said. Later, Faris’s forehead was allegedly hit so hard by an Israeli soldier that it split open and required stitches.Disco rooms are one of the many methods of systematic torture unleashed upon Palestinian people, including children, by Israel, according to a recent report released by UN Special Rapporteur Francesca Albanese. The report examines the systemic use of torture against Palestinians in the occupied Palestinian territory since October 7, 2023. Over 300 testimonies collected by various organisations, consultations with legal experts and accounts by survivors and Israeli whistleblowers form the basis of this report. Tracing patterns of torture inflicted upon Palestinians historically, since the colonial era till modern-day detention centres, the report argues that torture is not merely misconduct by certain individuals, but “a structural feature of the ongoing genocide and broader settler-colonial apartheid” and “has always been a central feature of the dispossession of Palestinians by Israel”.Law and torture“My hands were tied with handcuffs and I was kept blindfolded all the 55 days I stayed in this detention. You could imagine how difficult it would be to eat, sleep or even move. The amount of pain I felt in my hands and back was unbearable… throughout this period I had no shower,” one interviewee shared with the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights. Pepper spray, tear gas, electric shocks and assault dogs are also used in some cases, resulting in attacks and bites, the report says.Under international law, torture and other cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment and punishment is prohibited. No exceptional circumstances may be invoked to justify these acts, and yet Palestinians prisoners have been subjected to exceptionally ruthless physical and psychological abuse, the report notes. Brutal beatings, sexual violence, rape, lethal mistreatment, stravation and systematic deprivation of the most basic human rights are all methods followed by Israeli soldiers. Despite torture being a grave breach of international law, it has been normalised with impunity and Israeli soldiers face no consequences.This atmosphere of impunity is not limited to the military. Groups of Israeli citizens residing in the colonies in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, operate as paramilitary gangs enjoying legal impunity, institutional protection and widespread praise for attacking or killing Palestinians. “Israeli forces and settler militias together function as an intentional system of terror, which constitutes torture, targeting the social, economic and psychological fabric of Palestinian life,” the report says.‘Unchilding’Another report published by Francesca Albanese highlights the coercive environment created by the Israeli forces that violates the rights of Palestinian children “preventing them from exercising the right of every child to grow up in safety and dignity.” Every year Israeli forces kill, maim, orphan and detain hundreds of children of all ages, she adds. She defines this experience as “unchilding”, which means depriving children of the normalcy, lightness and innocence of childhood.Since October 7, 2023, Israel has arrested nearly 18,500 Palestinians including 1,500 children, most of whom are detained without charge or trial. “It is clear that Israel’s practice of child detention has nothing to do with the rule of law, justice, or security. It is an arbitrary system designed to physically remove, suppress and stifle the development of Palestinian children, instilling a permanent sense of fear and insecurity,” said Ayed Abu Eqtaish, accountability program director at Defence for children Palestine.In Israeli prisons like Ofer and Megiddo, children are subjected to the same punitive regime as adults. Testimonies describe “shackling until bleeding, beatings, dragging, starvation, exposure to cold, denial of medical care, attacks by dogs, solitary confinement, sexual abuse, forced stripping, and threats to rape and kill family members.”The state narrativeThe legitimacy for torturing Palestinians is rooted in a narrative advanced by Israeli officials and state actors, which frames the destruction of Palestinians as necessary for Israel’s security. The President of Israel, Isaac Herzog, stated that “it is an entire nation out there that is responsible,” making the political objective of normalising cruelty against Palestinians clear.Itamar Ben-Gvir, Israel’s national security minister, has also pushed for harsher measures, including advocating the death penalty for convicted “terrorists”. On November 14, 2023, he ordered that Palestinian detainees labelled ‘terrorists’ be kept handcuffed in dark cells with iron beds and pit toilets, while being subjected to the Israeli national anthem played continuously.Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has declared that the long-term objective of the operation is to turn Gaza into cities of “ruins”, with effects that would “reverberate with them for generations.”Recommendations of the reportFrancesca Albanese has recommended that Israel should immediately cease all acts of torture and ill treatment of Palestinians – custodial and non custodial – that the International Court of Justice found, and the General Assembly deemed to be in breach of Palestinian people rights to self determination.She has also recommended that Israel should give the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, United Nations experts and lawyers the access needed to monitor violations and investigate all crimes committed, including torture and other ill-treatment.She further urged the international community to take concrete measures, including sanctions and support for legal proceedings, to prevent further violations and ensure justice, while emphasising the need to address the structural root causes of the crisis, including occupation and systemic discrimination and to do everything in power to stop the destruction of what remains of Palestine.