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UN Expert Presents Shocking Allegations of Israeli Torture, Sexual Abuse of Palestinian Detainees
"The number and cruelty of allegations compiled portray gross disregard by Israel of its duty to treat all detainees humanely."
May 19, 2026
A United Nations expert on Tuesday delivered a report offering evidence of systemic torture, brutality, and sexual abuse of Palestinian prisoners held in Israeli captivity.
Alice Jill Edwards, the UN special rapporteur on torture, said she had gathered substantial evidence of torture and sexual violence committed by Israeli authorities against Arab citizens of Israel as well as Palestinian detainees from Gaza and the West Bank.
After Hamas’ attack on October 7, 2023, Israel not only launched a military assault on Gaza but also introduced emergency detention measures that Edwards argued “exposed Palestinian detainees to torture, potentially unlawful deaths, incommunicado detention, and degrading conditions.”
Among other things, Edwards' report documents nine allegations of "rape, attempted rape, and threats of rape"; eleven allegations of "beatings, grabbing, electrocution, or mauling by dogs" of male detainees' genitals; 23 allegations of "beatings with weapons or other objects, kicking, and punching"; five allegations of electrocution by electric batons or other devices; and four allegations of forced kneeling for periods lasting up to a full day.
The report also notes that 94 Palestinians died in custody from October 2023 through August 2025, although it acknowledges that "a lack of transparency into the cause of these deaths makes it unclear which deaths are attributed to natural causes or unlawful conduct."
However, the report cites a review of 10 postmortem examinations of detainees who died in Israeli custody which found signs of physical abuse in five cases, and signs of bruising "consistent with beatings and use of restraints" in two cases.
"Findings also included multiple rib fractures, hemorrhages on the skin and near internal organs, and lacerations of intra-abdominal organs," the report adds. "One case documented intracranial hemorrhage resulting from a head injury apparently sustained during arrest."
Edwards said that the sheer volume of torture and abuse allegations documented in the report cannot be written off as the work of rogue actors.
"It is my view that the number and cruelty of allegations compiled portray gross disregard by Israel of its duty to treat all detainees humanely and without discrimination," she said, "and this has encouraged, tolerated, and condoned torture and ill-treatment, at times with support at ministerial and functional levels."
The descriptions of torture in Edwards' report echo recent reporting by New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof, who wrote that his interviews with Palestinian detainees revealed "a pattern of widespread Israeli sexual violence against men, woman, and even children—by soldiers, settlers, interrogators in the Shin Bet internal security agency and, above all, prison guards."
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GOP Spends Big Against Working-Class Progressive Leading Democratic Primary in PA
"I think they're afraid of a working-class person," said firefighters union president Bob Brooks after a Republican PAC dumped $1 million to blunt his momentum in the Democratic Primary for Pennsylvania's 7th Congressional District.
May 19, 2026
Republicans are pulling out all the stops to prevent a working-class populist from snatching the Democratic nomination in the heart of Pennsylvania coal country on Tuesday and earning the right to challenge one of the GOP's most vulnerable incumbents, Congressman Ryan Mackenzie.
In the waning days of the Democratic primary for Pennsylvania's 7th congressional district, a deceptively named Republican-aligned political action committee (PAC) called Lead Left—created just weeks before—dumped $1 million into the race to run ads against Bob Brooks, a retired firefighter from Bethlehem and president of the largest firefighters' union in Pennsylvania.
Even in the GOP wave of 2024, the freshman congressman barely edged out the former Democratic Rep. Susan Wild, by about 4,000 votes. With Republicans' approval ratings collapsing nationwide, his seat in the Lehigh Valley has become one of the juiciest targets for Democrats in November.
“I think they’re afraid of a working-class person,” Brooks said of Republicans’ decision to spend against him in the primary during a speech in Allentown on Sunday. “I think they’ve been voting against us for years, and they’re gonna continue to do that. They don’t want to see a working-class guy run against their boy in the general."
"I've worked every job this side of the Mississippi—most of them two, three jobs at a time," said Brooks, who worked as a bartender, dishwasher, snowplow driver, landscaper, and many other jobs before the age of 30, according to his campaign website. "Ryan Mackenzie's never had one. He's gone from Harvard to the state House, straight to Washington. It's about time he fills out an application."
Brooks—who advocates a progressive platform that includes Medicare for All, a repeal of Citizens United, an increased minimum wage, and policies to strengthen unions—has pulled into a comfortable lead in the four-way primary, with help from a broad coalition of backers that spans the ideological field of the Democratic Party.
He's attracted the expected progressive support, including from Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), who has described him as someone with "the guts to stand up to corporate greed and a corrupt political system," and the Working Families Party, which praised him as an exemplar of "real working-class leadership," noting that he “spent time in dozens of jobs before becoming a firefighter and running into burning buildings.”
But Pennsylvania's centrist Democratic Gov. Josh Shapiro was also among his earliest big-name supporters, even though his opponents boasted deeper institutional ties to the state's Democratic Party. At a rally for Brooks on Sunday, Shapiro described him as someone who "understands what real people are dealing with, isn’t afraid of anybody, and... can bring people together to get stuff done.”
His roster of prominent supporters runs deep and wide. He has the backing of a slew of local unions and local politicians. He's secured both left-wing stalwarts like Justice Democrats and the Congressional Progressive Caucus and conservative Democrats in the Blue Dog PAC. And he's being cheered by big-name Democrats ranging from Sen. Ruben Gallego (Ariz.) to Sen. Elizabeth Warren (Mass.).
Brooks' broad appeal stands out at a time when Democrats have an opportunity to win back Rust Belt voters disillusioned as Trumpism decays into something without the barest figment of populist appeal.
Where Democrats would have once pushed for a reactionary Blue Dog or highly educated party lifer to run in a district like PA-07, Dustin Guastella, a research associate at the Center for Working Class Politics and the director of operations for Teamsters Local 623, described Brooks' surge toward the nomination over a trio of more credentialed insiders as a sign of a welcome shift in strategy.
"Working-class voters simply prefer blue-collar candidates. They like electricians and schoolteachers more than attorneys and executives. That’s because working-class candidates better speak to the economic challenges most workers face, and they do so in plain language," Guastella wrote in The Guardian on Tuesday.
"Brooks hasn’t had the privilege of a college education. He’s a veteran firefighter and now the head of the statewide firefighters union. His grandfather was a Teamster truck driver. He was raised by a single mother who worked as a bartender. He’s a varsity baseball coach at Nazareth High School," he said.
But Guastella noted that Brooks' appeal goes far beyond aesthetics. "How can progressives win back the working class? For those concerned with this question, populism has proven the obvious answer," he argued. He noted the success of other candidates in traditionally red constituencies like Nebraska, where independent Dan Osborn, a former union leader, looks poised to unseat Republican Sen. Pete Ricketts on the back of a similar worker-focused platform.
"He’s got what it takes to flip this district," Guastella said of Brooks. "Which is why the Republican Party is already spending big money to influence the election. That’s frustrating, but it’s also a sign that Brooks is a real threat."
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Citing 'Callous Disregard' of Hegseth, Top House Dem Does Not 'Trust' Pentagon Answers on Iran School Massacre
"Eighty days on, we have not taken responsibility for that attack," said Rep. Adam Smith, ranking member of the House Armed Services Committee.
May 19, 2026
The top Democrat on the House Armed Services Committee delivered a scathing rebuke to US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth's leadership on Tuesday while asking questions about a February US military strike on an Iranian primary school in the city of Minab.
Rep. Adam Smith (D-Wash.), the ranking member of the mommittee, confronted Adm. Brad Cooper about the fact that the US still hasn't taken responsibility for the attack on the school, which killed more than 100 children, even though "it's really pretty clear what happened there."
"Eighty days on, we have not taken responsibility for that attack," Smith said. "The endless stalling—'It's being investigated, it's being investigated, it's being investigated.' In the past, when we've had these type of mistakes, they've been quickly acknowledged, even if a further investigation is necessary to figure out prevention methods. So can you, at this moment, acknowledge that that mistake was made?"
Cooper responded by emphasizing that the US "does not deliberately target civilians," while stating that the Iranian people are not "our enemy."
The first day of the Iran war saw the devastating bombing of an elementary school in Minab, killing 156 including 120 young children. The U.S. has not taken responsibility, even though an ongoing investigation implicated the U.S. months ago. This horrific crime cannot be swept… pic.twitter.com/OVEyNmNTzb
— NIAC (@NIACouncil) May 19, 2026
Smith was not satisfied with this, however, and pressed Cooper to answer whether the US takes responsibility for the attack on the school.
"The investigation is ongoing," Cooper said. "As soon as it's complete, I'm happy to..."
"So that's a no," Smith interjected. "We will not take responsibility for something we very obviously did."
"It's a complex investigation," Cooper replied. "The school itself is located on an active [Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps] cruise missile base. It's more complex than the average strike. As soon as we're complete, I'm fully committed to transparency."
Smith did not buy this explanation.
"I have an enormous amount of respect for you and an enormous amount of respect for the Pentagon," said Smith. "I do not trust that answer. What we've seen from this secretary of defense and his callous disregard for any sort of rules of engagement or protecting of civilian life, they make us suspicious."
Smith's grilling of Cooper earned praise from the National Iranian American Council (NIAC), which said the bombing of the school "cannot be swept under the rug" by Hegseth and the Pentagon brass.
Hegseth during his tenure leading the US Department of Defense has repeatedly attacked rule of engagement as "stupid," while also authorizing a series of military strikes on purported drug-smuggling boats in international waters that many legal experts consider acts of murder.
During President Donald Trump's first term, when Hegseth was a Fox News host, he successfully lobbied the president to pardon members of the US armed forces accused or convicted of killing civilians in Iraq and Afghanistan.
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