It was morning in late June when the Israeli army jeep pulled up next to some teenage boys who were walking near an aid distribution site in southern Gaza.
Warning: This story contains details of sexual abuse and torture.
The soldiers told the boys to put their hands up, and when they complied, they were stripped naked.
The boys allege this was just the start of a month-long ordeal that would see them tortured and sexually abused in Israeli custody.
"They took me from the aid distribution site and transferred me to a hospital in Rafah, where I was interrogated for an hour," Sami, a 16-year-old who said he was taken, told the ABC.
"They stripped me and conducted a body search. Then, they loaded me into a jeep and transported me to a prison in Israel."
Another teenage boy — 17-year-old Mahmoud — said he was seized in the same way.
"They began hurling insults, cursing at us, and accusing us of being with Hamas," he said.
"They stripped us of our clothes and took us to Kerem Shalom (the main crossing into Gaza) — completely naked, with nothing. There, the beatings and torture began."
Sami and Mahmoud estimated between 15 and 18 teenagers were detained about the same time they were on June 29.
Most of the group were released back into the strip nearly a month later on July 27, they said.
Western journalists are barred by Israel from entering Gaza apart from rare, highly choreographed embeds with the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), so the ABC cannot independently verify these allegations.
The ABC conducted these interviews via trusted Palestinian stringers and through remote phone interviews, and also viewed footage of the boys' injuries.
The boys' testimonies match the accounts of other Palestinians who say they've been abused and tortured in Israeli detention since October 7, 2023.
Palestinian men have also spoken about being sexually assaulted while imprisoned, and a UN inquiry found "substantiated reports of widespread abuse, torture, sexual assault and rape".
Sami and Mahmoud believe eight boys, including some aged 13 to 15, remain in Israeli custody.
The two interviewed by the ABC said they did not know each other or the other boys.
In response to ABC questions, the IDF said "any abuse of detainees, whether during their detention or interrogation, is contrary to the law and to IDF orders, and as such is strictly prohibited".
'They did countless things to break us'
Sami and Mahmoud both said they were stopped by Israeli soldiers while walking to get aid in the Shakoush neighbourhood of Rafah. Both said they were taken on June 29. Both said they saw that more than a dozen other children were also captured. Both said they were taken to a prison in Israel. And both said they experienced similar abuse once there: beatings, torture and sexual assault.
"During the interrogations, they tortured us — handcuffing us, beating us with sticks, and using electric shocks. They did countless things to break us," Sami told the ABC from a tent in Deir al Balah, a city in the centre of Gaza, where he lives with his family.
"I was tortured for a week until I lost all sense of time and awareness. They put me in a one-square-metre cell, where I spent the entire week. I never saw daylight, never stepped outside. They only came to deliver food."
Both boys have similar injuries: Sami on his arms, and visible scarring from what appeared to be from handcuffs on his wrists, Mahmoud on his arms and feet.
Both boys said the soldiers interrogated them frequently about the October 7 Hamas terrorist attacks in southern Israel.
"They asked if I knew anyone from Hamas, and whether I had crossed over on October 7. They kept pressing me about who I knew and who I had seen. I told them I was just walking down the street — I didn't know anything," Sami said.
"They would beat me. Each person that talked to me would beat me. I was handcuffed, blindfolded and they put electricity in my legs."
Boys allege sexual abuse inside prison
Sami and Mahmoud also both said they were sexually abused inside prison.
"The Israeli women soldiers beat us. They stripped us and 'played' here and here and there," said Mahmoud, gesturing to his genitals.
"They beat us with sticks. Got on us while we were lying on the ground. We were handcuffed like that and naked."
Mahmoud said the soldiers wanted to humiliate the teenagers. He alleged that they took naked photos of him and sent female soldiers to mock his nudity and touch his body.
He also said he was stripped naked in front of female prisoners — a highly shameful experience in conservative Palestinian culture.
He said the experience left him "wanting to die".
Many Palestinians detained by Israel have alleged they were sexually abused, despite the high degree of shame associated with it in Palestinian society.
The IDF said it rejected "allegations of systematic abuse of detainees, including through violence, sexual violence, or torture".
"This includes allegations of electric shocks during interrogations, strip-searching detainees for humiliation purposes, or sexual assaults," its statement said.
The IDF did say that detained suspects "may be required to remove their clothing to ensure they are not concealing explosive belts or other weapons".
"According to IDF orders, as soon as possible after the search, clothing is returned to the suspect or alternative clothing is provided," its statement said.
"There is no policy of photographing naked detainees for humiliation purposes, and such acts would be contrary to IDF orders."
Doctor says allegations echo his own experience
Gazan doctor Khaled al Sir said the boys' allegations echoed his own experience after being detained by Israeli soldiers for six months in 2024.
Dr al Sir was one of many medical staff at the Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis seized by Israeli forces in March 2024 and held until September 30, 2024.
He said soldiers stripped prisoners and fondled their genitals while they were being transported to the prison, then he saw guards beating and sexually assaulting prisoners.
"I witnessed many prisoners who were sexually assaulted using baton in their buttholes and also using the pepper spray over their private parts," he said.
He said there was one part of the Sde Teiman detention centre that guards called the "hell section", where the abuse was particularly pronounced — beatings were severe and sexual abuse common.
He also said he witnessed batons being used to sexual assault prisoners and has since treated released prisoners with injuries from these assaults sustained while held in Israeli custody.
"After being released … I met many prisoners who were in the same prison, Sde Teiman, and they told me about their stories," he said.
"One of them is my colleague here at the hospital. He has severe damage to his back passage because they use the baton to assault him inside the prison.
"They assaulted him badly inside the prison, using baton, using metallic instruments."
An Israeli doctor has also reported these types of assaults on prisoners, blowing the whistle on the abuse and horrific injuries he said were occurring at the Sde Teiman prison.
When the IDF military police arrested nine soldiers accused of the assault, enraged right-wing MPs and protesters broke into the army base and military prison to try to free them.
In a report from July this year, released on August 14, the United Nations said sexual violence was perpetrated in detention both in Israel and the State of Palestine, including as a "form of torture".
A UN Human Rights Commission inquiry released in March this year found Israeli forces were frequently sexually abusing prisoners, including male children, and were even publishing the footage and photos of the abuse online.
"The way in which these often-sexual acts are committed, including their filming, photographing and dissemination online, in conjunction with similar cases being documented in several locations, shows that forced public stripping and nudity, as well as sexualised torture and ill-treatment, are part of the persecutory attack against men and boys committed to punish, humiliate and intimidate Palestinian men and boys into subjugation," the commission, which included Australian jurist Chris Sidoti, found.
IDF rejects abuse claims
The commission described humiliation and threats of sexual assault as being "standard operating procedure" of the Israeli security forces toward Palestinians.
"Other forms of sexual and gender-based violence, including rape and violence to the genitals, were committed either under explicit orders or with implicit encouragement by Israel's top civilian and military leadership," the report said.
The commission found sexual abuse had increased "significantly in severity and frequence" since October 7, 2023.
"The mistreatment of Palestinian detainees by Israeli authorities is a result of an intentional policy that utilises sexual, reproductive and other forms of gender-based violence to humiliate and degrade Palestinians in detention," the report said.
The commission found the pattern of the abuses was so systematic, deliberate and widespread, it constituted a crime against humanity.
The Israeli human rights groups B'Tselem and Physicians for Human Rights also noted allegations of sexual abuse were commonly voiced by released prisoners.
"Regular, severe, and arbitrary violence; sexual abuse; humiliation and degradation; deliberate starvation; forced unhygienic conditions; sleep deprivation; and denial of medical treatment have all become systemic and institutionalized practices," B'Tselem found in its Our Genocide report.
The IDF said allegations of systematic sexual abuse of detainees in its custody were "baseless", "false" and "part of a disinformation campaign orchestrated by Hamas".
"The IDF operates in accordance with Israeli and international law, and upholds the rights of individuals held in its custody," its statement said.
Israel has sentenced one soldier to jail for physically abusing detainees and indicted five others for an horrific assault on another detainee but these sentences were not for sexual abuse.
The alleged abuse inside the prison has left the boys traumatised and afraid.
Mahmoud has not even seen a doctor since he was released back into Gaza.
"When I was released from prison, I had a breakdown. I felt mentally exhausted and deeply disgusted. What I witnessed — no-one should ever have to see," he said.
"I was tortured [but] we are children. What have we done?"
