Essa, now 43, was arrested in the Jabalia refugee camp in January 2024, where he had been staying since having both feet amputated after an Israeli missile attack on his home. He was held at Israel\u2019s Ofer Prison before being released in October 2025.<\/p>\n
Quick GuideAxon and IsraelShow<\/p>\n
Relations between Axon and Israel date back to 1995, when a delegation from the company\u00a0led by its founder, Rick Smith, attended a commercial security exhibition in Eilat.<\/p>\n
In 2014, the US Department of State issued a report on human rights practices<\/a> in the occupied territories, noting that the Israeli police commissioner,\u00a0Yohanan Danino, had announced a temporary suspension<\/a> of the use of Taser weapons in 2013, which came after the leak of a video documenting the repeated shocking of an Israeli citizen with one.<\/p>\n In 2016, MR Hunter emerged as Axon\u2019s distributor in Israel and signed a 13m shekel (\u00a33m) contract to supply the Taser X26P stun gun and its accessories to Israeli security agencies. <\/p>\n In 2025, Axon listed another Israeli company, Goren-Kidon Group, as a distributor of its products in Israel. This company includes the Taser electroshock weapons among its products, and counts the Israeli police, the Ministry of National Security, the Ministry of Defence and the Israel prison service among its clients.<\/p>\n In June 2025, Axon held a conference in Israel<\/a> to showcase the latest models of electroshock weapons, attended by representatives from Israeli security agencies.<\/p>\n Axon\u2019s electroshock weapons are manufactured in the US state<\/a> of Arizona and exported under the category of crime control. They are subject to oversight by the Department of Commerce, which grants export licences based on specific criteria<\/a>, including whether there is evidence indicating \u201cthe government of the importing country may have violated internationally recognised human rights\u201d.<\/p>\n Thank you for your feedback.<\/p>\n According to an investigation by the Guardian and Arab Reporters for Investigative Journalism, Essa was likely to have been tortured with a Taser electroshock weapon manufactured by the American company Axon<\/a> Enterprise, formerly known as Taser International.<\/p>\n The alleged torture is one of a number of incidents that have been linked to the use of Axon weapons, which the company appears to continue to supply to Israel. Three other detainees since released allege they were tortured using Axon weapons between 2024 and 2025.<\/p>\n Human rights groups have condemned allegations of the repeated torture<\/a> and ill-treatment of detainees held in Israeli detention centres and prisons using electric shock devices, with Amnesty calling for restrictions on exports of such devices.<\/p>\n A spokesperson for the Israel Defense Forces said the abuse of detainees was strictly prohibited and that the use of restraints on detainees was carried out \u201conly in exceptional circumstances that justify their use, and in subject to Israeli law, international law and IDF orders\u201d.<\/p>\n An investigation conducted<\/a> by the Israeli military advocate general, Itai Ofir, against five Israeli soldiers accused of committing a sexual assault against a Palestinian detainee inside the Sde Teiman detention camp<\/a> in July 2024 found they had used a Taser weapon while torturing the detainee, leaving him needing hospital treatment.<\/p>\n In November 2025, the UN\u2019s Committee Against Torture reported on allegations<\/a> of torture, including the use of electric shocks, within Israeli detention facilities and noted that \u201ctorture and ill-treatment had escalated sharply since 7 October 2023\u201d.\n <\/p>\n The committee also expressed its<\/a> \u201cserious concern over widespread allegations of sexual abuse of Palestinian detainees \u2026 including allegations of rape \u2026 sexualised forms of torture \u2026 electrocution of the genitals and anus\u201d.<\/p>\n Axon appears to have continued to sign contracts with Israeli entities to supply either the Taser gun or its accessories. Photograph: Jacquelyn Martin\/AP<\/p>\n Despite such concerns, Axon appears to have continued to sign contracts with Israeli entities to supply either the Taser gun or its accessories. As recently as June 2025, the company was showcasing the latest models of its electroshock weapons to Israeli security agencies at a conference in Israel<\/a>.<\/p>\n skip past newsletter promotion<\/a>Free newsletter |Every fortnight<\/p>\n Sign up to Global Dispatch<\/p>\n Get a different world view with a roundup of the best news, features, opinion and photography, curated by our global development team<\/p>\n after newsletter promotion<\/p>\n Two video clips produced by the Israeli prison service over the past year show a gun that appears to be a Taser electroshock weapon produced by Axon. Both Essa and the three other detainees interviewed say it was the weapon used to torture them inside Israeli detention centres and prisons.<\/p>\n One of the detainees interviewed says he had water poured over his body \u2013 which can intensify<\/a> the torture \u2013 before he was given an electric shock with a Taser weapon, during a spell in detention in 2024. He says he still suffers from severe visual impairment, spasms and recurrent fainting spells.<\/p>\n In August 2025, the Palestinian Commission of Detainees and Ex-Detainees Affairs highlighted the torture<\/a> of detainees at Gilboa prison with electric shocks, before they were dragged to the shower stalls in the prison\u2019s courtyard, doused with water and then shocked again. It did not state the model of weapon used.\n <\/p>\n Amani Al-Sarhanah, from the Palestinian Prisoners\u2019 Club, a human rights group, says: \u201cThe use of electric shocks may be just one of dozens of types of weapons that have been used against them [Palestinian prisoners]. We do not actually know what types they are or which companies supply them. Nevertheless, we certainly know that most weapons imported by Israel originate from the United States in one way or another.\u201d<\/p>\n Since October 2023, 92 Palestinians are reported to have died<\/a> while in detention, but only one Israeli soldier has been tried for mistreating Palestinian prisoners from Gaza, according to a report<\/a> by a group of Israeli NGOs.<\/p>\n Amnesty says it has published<\/a> extensively on the human rights risks involved in the use of electric shock weapons and has previously called for such law enforcement equipment to be included in the UN\u2019s Arms Trade Treaty<\/a> that regulates the trade in conventional weapons.\n <\/p>\n Axon Enterprises and the Israel prison service were approached for comment.<\/p>\n * Names have been changed<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The soldiers drag the man into a section of the prison known as Hell\u2019s Wing, a metaphor for…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":653424,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[85,46,43],"class_list":["post-653423","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-israel","tag-il","tag-israel","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/653423","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=653423"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/653423\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/653424"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=653423"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=653423"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=653423"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/1792642578_285_500.jpg\")
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