Israel likely tortured Palestinian to record rape confession, say rights groups 

Human rights groups have questioned the credibility of an Israeli forces interrogation video, in which an alleged member of Islamic Jihad confesses to raping an Israeli woman during the Hamas-led attack on southern Israel on 7 October.

The video, posted online by the Israeli forces on Thursday, shows the man, named as Manar Mahmoud Muhammad Qasem, allegedly a member of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad’s naval force, appearing to admit to the rape during an interrogation by the Israei Intelligence Division.

But human rights groups and commentators have questioned the credibility of the confession, saying it was likely produced under torture. They cited the surge in arbitary arrests and "inhuman and degrading treatment" of Palestinian detainees by Israeli forces since 7 October.

"In light of Israel's decades-long track record of mistreating and torturing Palestinian detainees and resulting well-founded concerns that the interrogations could have involved the use of torture or other forms of ill-treatment, Human Rights Watch does not rely on, nor consider credible, accounts recorded in videos of interrogations of detained Palestinians they say participated in the 7 October assault," Israel and Palestine director at Human Rights Watch, Omar Shakir, told Middle East Eye.

Meanwhile, Amnesty International's researcher on Israel and the Occupied Palestinian territories, Budour Hassan, said that "any public 'confession' made by the defendants should be excluded from the evidence considered by court".

"Amnesty International reiterates its call on the Israeli authorities to end the practice of filming alleged confessions by detained individuals and broadcasting them on social media in advance of their trial," she told MEE.

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