By Abdelraouf Arnaout and Ahmed Asmar
JERUSALEM (AA) - Two Palestinian brothers were beaten, humiliated, and threatened with sexual assault by Israeli soldiers in the occupied West Bank, Israeli media said on Thursday.
The attack occurred when Israeli soldiers came to dismantle a portable toilet erected on a plot of land near the village of Al-Mughayyir in the central West Bank in January.
"Suddenly, a white Toyota with military plates arrived carrying soldiers," one of the brothers, Rabea, told Haaretz newspaper.
The soldiers confiscated the passports of two foreign activists in the area, along with the phones and ID cars of the Palestinians there.
As the soldiers searched the phone of Rabea’s brother, Mohammed, they found a picture of an armed man.
"They found a picture of an armed person on my phone, which wasn't mine," Mohammed said. "It probably got downloaded automatically from a Telegram group.”
The soldiers immediately started to slam Mohammed’s head against the car window, threw him to the ground, and dragged him into a tent, where they beat him with their fists and weapons.
Rabea was also searched violently by Israeli soldiers, shoved into the tent, and thrown to the ground.
"Inside the tent, I found my brother lying face down," said Rabea, a 34-year-old father of three.
"The soldier was stepping on his head, and every time my brother tried to turn his head, the soldier hit him. My face was on the ground, and whenever I tried to turn my head, he kicked my face and cursed at me terribly.”
Threatened with sexual assault, one of the soldiers lifted Rabea’s head as he was still lying on the ground and spat in his face. The soldiers also stepped heavily on his hand for an extended period until he heard a cracking sound – later revealed to be a broken bone.
The soldier also put his foot under Rabea’s stomach, lifted him up, placed a hard plastic plate beneath him, and then stepped on him, causing bleeding to his genitals.
When the two brothers went to complain about the assault to the military police, they were laughed at by Israeli soldiers.
"When I started telling them what happened to Rabea, they began laughing among themselves and taunting me," Mohammed said.
The Israeli army said an investigation has been launched into the incident, without giving any further details.
The assault came as the Israeli army has continued a deadly military offensive in the northern West Bank since Jan. 21, killing at least 70 Palestinians and displacing thousands.
Tension has been running high across the occupied West Bank, where at least 935 Palestinians have been killed and nearly 7,000 injured in attacks by the Israeli army and illegal settlers since the start of the Gaza war on Oct. 7, 2023, according to the Palestinian Health Ministry.
In July, the International Court of Justice declared Israel’s longstanding occupation of Palestinian territories illegal, calling for the evacuation of all settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem.