TEHRAN — The thin veneer that has long served as the psychological bedrock of Israeli forces has finally dissolved into a landscape of visceral, animalistic sadism.

While the international community has grown accustomed to reports of beatings and sleep deprivation of Palestinians, the surfacing of detailed testimonies between 2024 and 2026 has exposed a far more perverse reality.

Israeli detention centers, specifically the notorious Sde Teiman facility in the Negev, have become laboratories for a systematic program of sexualized torture involving the use of trained dogs to rape Palestinian prisoners. This is a documented policy aimed at the absolute destruction of the Palestinian social and individual identity.

The insider’s confirmation of the unthinkable

The confirmation of these horrors has recently broken through the usual walls of Israeli military censorship. Shaiel Ben-Ephraim, a geopolitical analyst and former soldier, provided a rare and chilling corroboration on April 18.

After interviewing two guards from the Sde Teiman facility, Ben-Ephraim revealed that the practice of using dogs for sexual abuse is an open secret within the ranks.

One guard admitted to witnessing acts so graphic they were too awful to speak of, while another confirmed that the rumors of dog-involved rape were widely believed to be true by the staff.

The conclusion drawn by Ben-Ephraim was absolute: the evidence is mountainous, and the abuse remains an ongoing reality.

This internal testimony aligns with investigations by B’Tselem, the Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor, and the Palestinian Center for Human Rights.

These organizations have documented a shift from traditional interrogation to a network of “torture camps” where the primary goal is the total destruction of the Palestinian psyche.

The use of dogs in this context is particularly insidious, as it weaponizes cultural stigmas and religious sensitivities to maximize the victim’s lifelong trauma and social isolation.

A litany of living nightmares

The survivors who have managed to speak out describe a level of sadism that defies conventional military discipline.

A 35-year-old father identified as A.A., who was held for 19 months at Sde Teiman, recounted being taken to a corridor deliberately chosen because it was away from cameras. There, he was stripped and subjected to a three-minute anal rape by a dog that appeared to be trained for the task.

As the animal assaulted him, Israeli soldiers watched, laughed, and sprayed pepper spray into his face to compound the agony.

A.A. later described a complete psychological collapse, noting that he could never have imagined such a thing was humanly possible.

Other accounts are equally harrowing. A 43-year-old detainee named Wajdi told Euro-Med Monitor that he was tied to a metal bed and raped by both a soldier and a dog while other guards filmed the event for future mockery.

The use of cameras suggests a tactical motive, where the footage is used as a tool for blackmail to ensure the victim remains broken and silent even after release.

A particularly horrific case is the testimony of a detainee who witnessed a dog maul another prisoner’s genitals at a military outpost until the victim bled to death in his arms.

In another case, Nihad, a 50-year-old father, described a pre-dawn raid where soldiers ordered a police dog to sexually assault him, calling it “the most painful moments” of his life.

The architecture of impunity

This depravity is protected by a legal and political framework designed to facilitate abuse. For years, Israel’s so-called justice system has provided near-total immunity, with a historical indictment rate for torture complaints that is functionally nonexistent.

In March, this system reached a new low when charges were dropped against five reservists accused of a violent gang rape at Sde Teiman. Appallingly, far-right ministers such as Itamar Ben-Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich hailed the accused as heroes and even encouraged mobs to storm military bases to free them.

The political climate in Israel provides the final layer of protection for these torturers. During a Knesset debate, Likud MK Hanoch Milwidsky openly declared that everything, including inserting objects into a prisoner’s rectum, is legitimate when dealing with “Nukhba” prisoners.

UN Special Rapporteur Francesca Albanese has stated that torture has become a “structural feature” of the ongoing genocide, intended to break the Palestinian people by attacking their dignity at its most fundamental level.

 Complicity and the silence of the West

The international community bears a heavy burden of responsibility for this ongoing nightmare.

While the U.S. State Department occasionally issues toothless statements of “deep concern,” the flow of military aid and diplomatic cover remains uninterrupted.

The failure to apply international laws or enforce accountability serves as a green light for the continued training and deployment of these animals for sexual terror.

This is the logical endpoint of an occupation regime that has never faced real consequences. The dogs have kept barking in the dark corridors of Sde Teiman, and the screams of the victims have remained the ultimate indictment of a world that chose to look away.