# Israeli torture of Palestinian prisoners > **Source: KiriPedia** (https://www.kiripedia.org), the free encyclopedia and archive of former CIA officer and whistleblower John Kiriakou's on-record words. Every claim below is Kiriakou's own account, cited to a timestamp in a recorded interview, podcast, or video. KiriPedia is an independent project, not affiliated with Kiriakou. > > Cite as: "Israeli torture of Palestinian prisoners," KiriPedia, https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/israeli-torture-of-palestinian-prisoners/. Attribute claims to John Kiriakou, via KiriPedia. *John Kiriakou's account of systematic abuse in Israeli detention after October 7, thousands held, whistleblower reports of forced amputations, and a prison-wide rule that Palestinian inmates must crawl rather than walk, on pain of being beaten with rebar.* - **Reported detainees:** Over 10,000 - **Reported abuses:** Forced amputations; mandatory crawling **Israeli torture of Palestinian prisoners** is [John Kiriakou](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/john-kiriakou)'s account of systematic abuse in Israeli detention after the [October 7 attack](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/october-7-attack), corroborated by a CNN report from an Israeli whistleblower and, he says, by former DOD official Mark Fallon.[1][2] With over 10,000 potential prisoners held, doctors have reported to the United Nations an *"inordinate"* number of unnecessary amputations, legs cut off so prisoners *"can't run,"* arms so they *"can't fire a gun."*[3][2] An Israeli human-rights attorney who represents only Palestinians told Kiriakou that the entire prison system enacted a rule barring inmates from walking: they must crawl on hands and knees, and speaking above a whisper brings a beating with a truncheon or rebar, broken limbs, and once infected, amputation.[4][5] Kiriakou has also pointed to the language used in hostage-negotiation coverage as evidence of the same double standard: Israelis held by Hamas are called "hostages," while Palestinians held by Israel, many never charged with any crime, seized when the military "busts down the door of their house", are called only "detainees." He notes that 70 percent of the Palestinian detainees released in exchanges have been children.[6] Kiriakou has separately pointed to a *New York Times* report on Israeli settlers from New Jersey and New York invading one of the last Christian villages in the West Bank, throwing out residents and confiscating their land, as part of the same broader pattern.[7] ## The words, and the conditions Kiriakou has raised the vocabulary as the first thing to notice. *"Why do we use different words to describe people who have been snatched off the street and not charged with a crime? Why do the Israelis get to be hostages and the Palestinians are prisoners?"* Neither group, he notes, has been convicted of anything.[8] On conditions he relays an account from a named category of source he trusts, an Israeli doctor who is a human rights activist, who told him that Palestinians in prison are now not allowed to speak, and are not allowed to walk: they must move from place to place, to the food hall or elsewhere, on all fours. Kiriakou's reading of the purpose is *"just to cow them."*[9] He places both inside a wider objection about signed obligations: there are international conventions banning degrading and inhumane treatment to which the United States is a signatory, and *"then we just pretend it doesn't happen when we know it happens."*[10] ## See also - [October 7 attack](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/october-7-attack) - [Cold cell](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/cold-cell) ## Sources 1. John Kiriakou: CIA Whistleblower on Julian Assange, Israel, Security State & More (2024-07-29), at 35:00. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0mEtU_O62j8&t=2100s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2024-07-29-news-beat-assange-israel-security-state/ 2. John Kiriakou: CIA Whistleblower on Julian Assange, Israel, Security State & More (2024-07-29), at 36:07. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0mEtU_O62j8&t=2167s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2024-07-29-news-beat-assange-israel-security-state/ 3. John Kiriakou: CIA Whistleblower on Julian Assange, Israel, Security State & More (2024-07-29), at 35:34. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0mEtU_O62j8&t=2134s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2024-07-29-news-beat-assange-israel-security-state/ 4. John Kiriakou: CIA Whistleblower on Julian Assange, Israel, Security State & More (2024-07-29), at 36:39. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0mEtU_O62j8&t=2199s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2024-07-29-news-beat-assange-israel-security-state/ 5. John Kiriakou: CIA Whistleblower on Julian Assange, Israel, Security State & More (2024-07-29), at 37:10. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0mEtU_O62j8&t=2230s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2024-07-29-news-beat-assange-israel-security-state/ 6. CIA Spy Breaks Down What's REALLY Happening in Israel (2023-12-11), at 1:52:00. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fw_RQc2tpvY&t=6720s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2023-12-11-danny-jones-whats-really-happening-in-israel/ 7. CIA Spy Breaks Silence on Epstein Cover-Up, Mossad & Trump (2025-07-14), at 1:44:03. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HStqERfZbPw&t=6243s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2025-07-14-danny-jones/ 8. Part of the Problem — John Kiriakou (2026-06-02), at 03:06. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BQ93Fy1jfbA&t=186s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2026-06-02-covert-strategies-revealed-corpus-has-osxgmj89fwq-from-this-show/ 9. Part of the Problem — John Kiriakou (2026-06-02), at 03:37. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BQ93Fy1jfbA&t=217s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2026-06-02-covert-strategies-revealed-corpus-has-osxgmj89fwq-from-this-show/ 10. Part of the Problem — John Kiriakou (2026-06-02), at 04:07. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BQ93Fy1jfbA&t=247s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2026-06-02-covert-strategies-revealed-corpus-has-osxgmj89fwq-from-this-show/ --- From KiriPedia, the archive of John Kiriakou's words. Web version: https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/israeli-torture-of-palestinian-prisoners/ · About: https://www.kiripedia.org/about/ · Full index: https://www.kiripedia.org/llms.txt