Confessions of Detained Palestinians in the Gaza War

The material described as confessions is not a single uniform collection of evidence. It includes video excerpts released by Israeli security bodies and the military, along with news reports quoting statements made in interrogation.[1][4] Archival records also catalog interrogation footage, although the cited recordings are restricted from public viewing.[6][7] The statements have been used to publicize claims about Hamas’s conduct, the October 7 attacks, and terrorist activity in Gaza hospitals.[1][8] The sources also document disputes over what the statements prove and under what conditions they were made.[4][5]

The word “confession” can therefore encompass very different kinds of recorded speech. Some detainees were reported as describing participation in killings, kidnappings, or sexual violence.[9][10] Others made claims about Hamas activity in medical facilities.[2][11] Former Hamas official Yousef al-Mansi condemned the organization’s leadership while in custody.[3] These accounts remain statements attributed to detainees rather than findings independently established by the reports that publicized them.[9][10]

A National Library of Israel catalog entry is explicitly titled “Confessions of Hamas Terrorists” and describes excerpts from investigations of Hamas personnel captured and arrested by Israeli authorities. A separate catalog record identifies an excerpt from the interrogation of Muhammad Nahed Ahmad El-Arsha, who the record says entered Israel with Hamas members on October 7. Both recordings are restricted from viewing under privacy or confidentiality conditions set by the depositor.[6][7]

On October 23, 2023, Israeli security agencies released excerpts from interrogations of six Hamas Nukhba members detained after the October 7 attacks. Reports on the footage said detainees described instructions to kill people and take hostages.[1][12] Israeli authorities also said the questioning produced information about the attacks and intelligence used to direct strikes in Gaza. The reports do not describe the interrogation methods or independently establish whether the statements were voluntary.[1]

In November, the IDF said about 300 people had been questioned at a detention facility in southern Israel, including people it identified as members of Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad, and other groups. Three released videos included claims about alleged terrorist activity at Shifa and Rantisi hospitals and a Red Crescent building. One detainee, identified as Hamuda Riad Asad Shalamah, said weapons were hidden in the Red Crescent building; the report presents this as a statement in released footage, not an independently verified finding.[8]

A further set of videos released in March 2024 concerned Manar Mahmoud Muhammad Kasem, whom the IDF identified as a Palestinian Islamic Jihad member captured in Khan Younis. In a video longer than five minutes, Kasem described entering Israel on October 7 with a handgun and grenades, and said he raped a woman in a kibbutz and shot a man while leaving. The report did not identify the woman or the kibbutz and did not independently verify either the account or the conditions of questioning.[10]

In May 2024, the IDF released interrogation footage of Jamal Hussein Ahmad Radi, 47, and his son Abdallah, 18, identified in the reporting as Hamas members captured in March. Their accounts described crossing into Israel on October 7 and participating in killings and kidnappings; Abdallah also said he raped two people.[9][13] They initially gave different accounts about a woman: Jamal first said he alone raped her, while Abdallah said his father, he, and a cousin raped her and that Jamal killed her. Jamal later said the others had also raped her, explaining that he had initially wanted to protect his son. The reports do not independently verify these statements or describe the interrogation methods.[9]

Other released footage concerned claims about Hamas use of hospitals. In December 2023, Ahmed Kahlot, identified as director of Kamal Adwan Hospital in Jabaliya, said in interrogation footage that he had been a Hamas lieutenant colonel since 2010. The reported statements attributed to him described Hamas offices and operational activity at the hospital, said about 16 staff members—including doctors, nurses, paramedics, and clerks—served as Hamas operatives, and claimed a kidnapped Israeli soldier had been brought there. These were claims made in Israeli-released footage; the reporting did not independently verify them or describe how Kahlot was questioned.[14][2]

In January 2025, the IDF released footage of Anas Mohammad Faiz a-Sharif, whom it described as a Hamas operative detained at Kamal Adwan Hospital. He said Hamas operatives used the hospital as a shelter and moved weapons there. The report said it was unclear whether he spoke under duress or whether his account represented other detainees; the IDF said Unit 504 interrogations had yielded intelligence used in military operations.[11]

The videos also served a public-communication role. A November 2023 report observed that footage released by different Israeli bodies varied in presentation: some videos showed detainees’ faces and brown Israel Prison Service uniforms, while others blurred faces and showed white clothing. The report said the videos were edited and did not show the interrogations in full, and described their release as serving an Israeli public-information purpose as well as presenting detainees’ statements.[4]

A December 2023 video of former Hamas communications minister Yousef al-Mansi presented a different kind of statement. Al-Mansi criticized Hamas’s leadership and its October 7 attack, blamed Yahya Sinwar and his associates for Gaza’s situation, and said, “They destroyed the Gaza Strip. Set it back 200 years.” The report did not describe his detention or interrogation conditions and did not independently assess what he said.[3]

Publicized questioning took place amid a much larger detention operation. A U.S. State Department human-rights report said Israel arrested hundreds of Palestinians during Gaza military operations beginning in October 2023 on suspicion of being Hamas terrorists or otherwise supporting terrorists. It described detention under the Unlawful Combatants Law, amended after October 7 to extend the ability to hold people without charge, trial, or access to counsel; the report did not establish that every detainee was a terrorist or that statements made in detention were voluntary.[5]

A Jerusalem Center for Security and Foreign Affairs article cited IDF statistics published on April 6, 2024, saying approximately 4,600 people had been detained in Gaza and interrogated by IDF Unit 504 since the beginning of the war. The article said many had been identified as terrorists and some had participated in the October 7 massacre, without giving numbers for either group. It also distinguished arrest for investigation of suspected past crimes from preventive detention under administrative detention or the Unlawful Combatants Law, while not establishing which legal framework applied to individuals appearing in released videos.[15]

The same article said a blanket order prevented publication of details of criminal proceedings concerning the October 7 massacre. It treated recordings as an indication that some detainees were held for investigation, but did not determine the legal status of each person shown or interviewed.[15] A March 2024 interview with a senior Israeli police officer described detainees captured on October 7 as being questioned by police and the Shin Bet, and said those captured during Israeli operations in Gaza first underwent military questioning. The officer characterized the questioning as aggressive but lawful and cautioned that detainees might provide incomplete accounts or shift blame.[16]

Not all videos or images of Palestinians in custody depict interrogations or confessions. At a December 11, 2023, State Department briefing, spokesperson Matthew Miller was asked about images of men who had been detained, blindfolded, and stripped, amid disagreement over whether they were Hamas terrorists or civilians. He called the images “deeply disturbing” and said the United States was seeking more information about the nature of the images and why they had been made public. His remarks concerned detention images and did not identify the men or characterize the images as interrogation footage.[17]

Reports on detention conditions provide broader context, but do not tie the reported experiences to specific people whose statements were publicized. The State Department’s 2023 report summarized press and survivor accounts that on December 7 dozens of men were removed from homes in northern Gaza, stripped, transported to military-run sites, and reportedly interrogated and abused. It also relayed Israeli press accounts that men were taken to a beach for hours before further interrogation.[18]

The same report relayed detainees’ allegations of beatings, deprivation of food and water, stripping, exposure to cold, sleep deprivation, threats, and other abuse. The reporting presents these as attributed allegations and does not establish the voluntariness or truth of statements made during particular interrogations.[18]

A later brief relayed a New York Times account that Gazans released from Israeli detention had described physical abuse in testimonies gathered by United Nations workers and cited in a report released by UNRWA. The brief did not give the number of testimonies, their details, the detainees’ identities, or the report’s methodology. These allegations concern detention conditions generally, not established circumstances of the individuals shown in interrogation videos.[19]

Interrogation statements have been presented as information about the October 7 attacks, alleged Hamas operations in hospitals, and other activity in Gaza.[1][8] Some reports say information from questioning helped direct military operations or identify locations where hostages had been held. A September 2024 report, for example, said some Nukhba members identified places where hostages had been held or people who had held them, prompting searches; in some cases, detainees accompanied troops into Gaza.[20] These accounts describe the reported operational use of information rather than independently validating every statement made in custody.

A November 2023 report described a detainee as saying that senior Hamas political and military figures were hiding in hospitals, especially Shifa. After Israeli forces entered the hospital, the IDF later narrowed its public description, saying it had meant battalion-level commanders rather than Hamas’s highest officials.[12] The episode illustrates that public claims connected to interrogation material can later be qualified.

The distinction between interrogation material and established findings matters especially for allegations of serious crimes. The reports about Kasem and the Radi father and son attribute admissions of rape, murder, killings, and kidnappings to the men in Israeli-released videos.[10][13] The cited accounts do not describe court findings adjudicating those particular statements. In the Radi case, the reported change in Jamal’s account and the differences between father and son further show why a video excerpt should be read as a record of what a detainee was reported to say, not as a complete, independently tested account.[9]

The archival record has similar limits. The National Library of Israel catalog confirms that material titled “Confessions of Hamas Terrorists” and an interrogation excerpt concerning El-Arsha were deposited and described, but the recordings are restricted. Catalog descriptions establish the existence and classification of the material, not the truth of its contents or the voluntariness of the statements.[6][7]

Whether publicized statements were voluntary and reliable is a recurring issue. The reporting on named videos generally does not provide complete recordings, transcripts, independent corroboration, or a detailed account of the questioning. A coherent presentation or an apparent admission in an edited excerpt cannot, on the evidence in these sources alone, establish the circumstances in which the statement was made or prove every underlying claim.[10][4]

The dispute was explicit in the case of Ahmed Kahlot. Gaza’s Health Ministry challenged the voluntariness of his statement, alleging that it had been made under “the force of oppression, torture and intimidation.” That allegation was reported by HonestReporting, which did not establish whether Kahlot had been coerced. The interrogation footage and the challenge to it therefore represent competing claims, not an independently resolved account of his treatment.[2][21]

Hamas political bureau member Izzat al-Rishq rejected Israeli claims linking detainees shown in custody to the al-Qassam Brigades. He called the footage “staged theatrics” and alleged that the men were unarmed civilians detained among planted weapons. This was Hamas’s denial; it does not independently establish the identities or interrogation conditions of the men shown.[22]

A February 2024 account of a UNRWA report said some released Palestinian employees alleged they had been pressured to make false statements about the agency’s links to Hamas and staff participation in the October 7 attacks. UNRWA said its report was based on interviews with dozens of released Palestinians assisted by the agency, but its communications director could not say how many interviewees had made those specific allegations. Reuters could not independently confirm the coercion or mistreatment accounts, and UNRWA declined to provide interview transcripts. The IDF said mistreatment was prohibited, denied sexual abuse, and said complaints and detainee deaths were subject to review or investigation; an Israeli military spokesperson also said released detainees could be pressured by Hamas to denounce Israel.[23]

A separate report published in 2025 described affidavits collected by Hamoked lawyers from released Gazans. One aid-truck driver said he was beaten after being detained at a checkpoint and told to admit he was a Hamas operative; he said that after 45 days at Sde Teiman he was questioned about tunnels and disclosed information about a tunnel near his home while denying a Hamas connection. The newspaper said it had seen affidavits from 11 other detainees with similar accounts. The report did not establish how representative the affidavits were, and the Israel Prison Service and IDF repeatedly denied abusing or mistreating detainees.[24]

The State Department’s 2024 report said the Israeli government acknowledged that the Shin Bet and police used violent interrogation methods it called “exceptional measures.” It also said the Ministry of Justice did not provide information on how often these interrogations occurred or which specific methods were used. The report did not connect the acknowledgment to any particular publicized confession video. It separately relayed that the Palestinian Authority and nongovernmental organizations reported at least 43 Palestinian deaths in Israeli custody during 2024, an attributed figure not presented as independently verified and not linked to specific recordings.[5]

The available record contains Israeli-released statements and official responses.[1][5] It also contains denials, allegations of coercion, and broader reporting on detention conditions.[18][23] It does not establish that every statement was false or coerced, nor does it independently confirm that every statement was voluntary and accurate. Reports about detention conditions and questioning should not be treated as proof about a specific recording unless the source connects them to the person and interrogation in question.[4][5]