The UN special rapporteur on torture has responded to the gang rape of a Palestinian by Israeli soldiers at the Sde Teiman detention facility in the Negev Desert in southern Israel, calling the case “particularly gruesome”.

“There are no circumstances in which sexual torture or sexualized inhuman and degrading treatment can be justified,” Alice Jill Edwards said in a statement. “This alleged sexual torture involving multiple offenders is particularly gruesome.”

A video of the case shows the prisoner being selected from a larger group lying bound on the floor. The victim is then escorted to a wall, where guards, using their shields to hide their identity from the camera, proceed to rape him.