The US State Department has called the sexual assaults of Palestinian prisoners by Israeli soldiers “horrific” and said Israel should investigate “swiftly” and “to the fullest extent,” State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said at a news conference.

CNN noted that the announcement came after Israeli media obtained leaked surveillance video showing Israeli soldiers sexually assaulting a Palestinian prisoner at the Sde Teiman base in the Negev desert.

The Israeli military declined to comment on the leaked video and there were no comments from the State Department, CNN reported.

A report by the United Nations human rights office last week said that Palestinian prisoners from the Gaza Strip and the West Bank have been subjected to torture, ill-treatment and sexual violence since October 7, and that at least 53 of them have died in custody.

Numerous Israeli and Palestinian human rights groups, as well as local and international media, have also detailed torture and abuse at the detention facility.

In July, following international outrage over reports of abuses at the Sde Teiman detention center, Netanyahu told Israel’s Supreme Court that he had ordered an end to long-term detention at the facility, limiting its use to preliminary interrogations and temporary detention. According to an Israeli government statement submitted to the court at the time, the vast majority of prisoners had already been transferred from the desert prison.