Palestine Embassy In Zimbabwe says Gaza Infant Tortured To Force Father’s Confession

By Desire Tshuma

Harare — The Embassy of the State of Palestine in Zimbabwe has accused Israel of adopting torture as state policy, citing the case of a 1-year-old from Gaza’s Al-Maghazi refugee camp who it says was abused during his father’s interrogation. The allegation, which Israel has not commented on publicly, was released in a Harare statement dated March 25, 2026, and calls for urgent international intervention.

According to the embassy, Karim Abu Nassar was held for 10 hours while soldiers extinguished cigarettes on his legs, pricked his skin and inserted a metal nail into his leg to pressure his father to confess. The statement says the infant was released through the International Committee of the Red Cross and returned to Al-Maghazi, while his father remains in detention.

“This is not an isolated incident of excessive zeal but a calculated tool of psychological and physical warfare used to shatter the spirit of Palestinian families,” Ambassador Tamer Almassri said in the embassy’s release.

The embassy frames the case as part of a broader pattern since October 2023, arguing that torture has become “socially produced, politically defended, and publicly normalised” within Israel’s occupation system. It says roughly 350 Palestinian children are currently held in Israeli detention centres, many without trial, and that practices such as arbitrary arrests, home demolitions, forced displacement and settler violence amount to an unlawful system that denies self-determination.

“No child, anywhere in the world, should be subjected to such cruelty,” Almassri said. “These actions constitute a total collapse of human decency and a flagrant violation of every international law designed to protect the vulnerable.”

The statement urges states and multilateral bodies to provide immediate protection for Palestinians, enforce international law, and end impunity through legal and diplomatic forums. It also calls for the release of all prisoners and for documented violations to be pursued in international mechanisms.

The allegations could not be independently verified. Requests for comment to Israeli authorities were not immediately answered. The ICRC, which the embassy says transferred the child, typically does not discuss individual cases in public.

Human-rights groups have long reported mistreatment of Palestinian detainees, including minors, and have pressed for safeguards and monitoring. Israel says its security forces operate under legal oversight and that allegations are investigated, while critics argue accountability is inadequate.

For now, the embassy’s appeal puts Harare in the diplomatic spotlight as it tries to turn testimonies—such as Karim’s—into pressure for investigations, consular access and trial guarantees. Whether the case mobilises concrete action may depend on what evidence emerges and how states chose to respond.