A group of 10 UN human rights experts have decried the world’s “silence” on reports of Israeli forces torturing Palestinian detainees, warning that the allegations of maltreatment and sexual violence at Israel’s Sde Teiman prison “only represent the tip of the iceberg”, according to Al Jazeera.

The independent experts said they have received “substantiated reports of widespread abuse, torture, sexual assault and rape” of Palestinian detainees held in Israeli prisons.

“Countless testimonies by men and women speak of detainees in cage-like enclosures, tied to beds blindfolded and in diapers, stripped naked, deprived of adequate healthcare, food, water and sleep, electrocutions including on their genitals, blackmail and cigarette burns,” they said in a statement. “In addition, victims spoke of loud music played until their ears bled, attacks by dogs, waterboarding, suspension from ceilings and severe sexual and gender-based violence.”