Hebron is a divided city, its streets a maze of roadblocks and checkpoints, concrete walls and razor wire separating the Palestinian community from Jewish settlers.
The Israeli military and police maintain a heavy presence in Hebron, insisting they are there to maintain the security of residents and prevent terrorism.
Warning: This story contains content that may distress some readers.
But their conduct is being brought into question, with five Palestinian men telling the ABC they have been bashed, whipped, threatened and arbitrarily detained by Israeli forces in recent months.
They are among more than 20 residents of Hebron, less than 40 kilometres south of Jerusalem, who have spoken to long-standing Israeli human rights organisation B'Tselem and are describing themselves as victims of a campaign of violence and intimidation.
On Tuesday, B'Tselem released a report, titled Unleashed, which detailed allegations against Israeli forces operating in Hebron.
Despite potential reprisals for speaking out, the men insist they want to use their experiences to shine a light on the behaviour of Israeli forces.
B'Tselem has described Hebron as an example of how authorities conduct themselves right across the West Bank.
'You are dead now' — Mahmoud 'Alaa Ghanem
Softly spoken, but resolute and determined, 19-year-old Mahmoud 'Alaa Ghanem looked uncomfortable as he described his alleged treatment at the hands of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF).
The university student, who lives just outside of Hebron in the town of Dura, said he was travelling to Bethlehem with two friends on July 8 when the group was stopped and searched by soldiers.
Mahmoud said soldiers emptied the group's pockets of cash and their phones, then forced Mahmoud to unlock his device — taking great issue with pro-Palestinian images and Instagram posts about the war in Gaza which they found saved on the phone, before blindfolding him, tying his hands with zip ties and throwing him into the back of the jeep.
"There was a soldier in front of me and one behind me," he said.
"One started telling me: 'You terrorist, we got you.' He told me: 'You are a homo, and there is a day for each homo.'"
"I told him I did nothing, he told me to shut up, and not say a word. He then said: 'You are a terrorist, you are from Hamas, you are a terrorist.'"
Mahmoud said the soldiers kept asking him the same question again and again, punching him in the chest and head each time he denied supporting Hamas.
All the while, he said the soldiers continued searching his phone, asking him about photos on his Instagram account.
He said the beating continued as he knelt with his hands tied behind his back.
"He stepped on my genitals, he stepped very hard," Mahmoud said.
"I screamed, and told him: 'For God's sake.'
"He told me: 'I will now show you your God' — these were his exact words."
He said by this time, he was lying on his back, close to being knocked unconscious.
"I felt something cold going through my veins," Mahmoud said.
"A soldier then started telling me, 'You are dead now, you are dead.' I was afraid.
"He injected me with a needle twice, I felt them, and felt something cold going through my hand veins, and he was threatening me that I will be dead."
When his father, mother and sister visited him in hospital, they were in shock.
"This was the first time I ever saw my father crying," Mahmoud said.
Mahmoud said his glasses were smashed during the ordeal, which took around half an hour — and a local optometrist said his eyesight had deteriorated as a result of the beating.
'They took turns on hitting me' — Amir Aref Jaber
On the evening of June 21, Amir Aref Jaber said he was sitting around smoking a shisha with three friends when soldiers stormed into the house where they were.
They were searching the area for young Palestinians wearing white clothing, who they wanted for throwing stones.
Amir, 20, said he happened to be wearing a white T-shirt.
He said the soldiers tested his heart rate and said the results showed he had been running.
Next, he said, they started searching the house, throwing stun grenades into rooms and beating the men inside.
He said they took him from the house, blindfolded him and tied his hands behind his back, taking him away in a jeep and beating him en route to a military base half an hour's drive away.
"Two soldiers were inside — one to my left and one in front of me. One was cursing at me and saying: 'You are a son of a bitch, your sister is a whore,' and the other was hitting me," he said.
At the military base, he said he was taken inside a small room and forced to kneel once more.
"They took turns on hitting me — some would come and hit me and leave, and another would enter and start hitting me," Amir said.
"Some would take their phones and take photos of me or call people.
"During the first half hour, every now and then a soldier would come and hit me, then two would come and hit me, then four, there were more and more of them every time."
He said this continued for hours, until he felt like he was "not even alive".
He said soldiers even kicked footballs at him during the ordeal.
"I was so beaten up that I could not move, I was crying too because of all the curses I heard — I was humiliated so much that I cried," he said.
He alleged that in the early hours of the morning, the air conditioning in the room was turned up full blast and cold water was poured down his back.
He said he was freezing cold.
The beating then started again.
It continued for hours, until he heard the morning call to prayer in the distance, he said.
Later that morning, he said he was finally released — dumped in an unfamiliar town just outside of Hebron.
A passer-by picked him up and took him to Hebron.
A few days after speaking to the ABC, Amir said he was detained once more, along with his father, but was released within a few hours.
'Slamming us in the face' — Qutaybah Abu Ramileh
On July 8, Quatybah Abu Ramileh, 25, and his family heard the sounds of stun grenades outside their home.
He said it was around midnight, and Israeli forces were knocking in doors and forcing their way inside houses — all the men in the vicinity were being ordered out into the street.
He said the soldiers were furious, accusing local children of moving rolls of barbed wire that they had laid out across roads in the neighbourhood.
"There were around 10 soldiers around us — the oldest man was 80 years old and was also in his undershirt, and the youngest was my brother, who was 19 years old," Qutaybah said.
Along with his brother, he said he was separated from the older men, who were forced to pull the barbed wire back into place.
He alleged five soldiers then turned on them, handcuffing Qutaybah around the shoulders of his brother and making them jog along behind a military vehicle.
"Two soldiers were behind us, and two were in front — the one in the jeep was the one who was cursing at us, and telling us to move faster, and the two behind us were beating us, slamming us in the face, and kicking us with their legs."
After arriving at a military compound, Qutaybah said they were taken inside and beaten — blindfolded, before a bucket was also placed on his head.
He said he had trouble breathing.
"When they stopped beating me, I lowered my head, so the bucket fell down," Qutaybah said.
"At this moment I was afraid that he will put it back and start beating me again.
"When the bucket fell down, he took it and put it on my brother's head and started beating him."
Qutaybah said footballs were kicked at the pair, before a leather belt appeared. A soldier started making a slapping noise with the strap.
"I shivered, thinking that he will hit me soon, then suddenly he started hitting me with the belt on my back," Quatybah said.
He said they remained detained for a couple of hours, as the beatings continued within a room in the military compound.
"The space smelled so bad, it had a urine smell like a sewer," Qutaybah said.
"He left time between each time he hit me to surprise me, when I was about to sleep he would hit me.
"Maybe they were afraid that my brother fainted, so they started spray water on his face — at that time I fainted too, I did not feel anything then, because of all of the beatings that I received on my head."
The next morning, they were released, but Israeli authorities kept their ID cards.
'There is no law' — Bader a-Tamimi
Bader a-Tamimi's souvenir shop in Hebron is just metres from fencing Israeli authorities have built, segregating parts of the city.
He said soldiers were regular visitors to his shop but they were not there to spend money.
Items emblazoned with the Palestinian flag drew their interest and anger.
"About a month ago, for example, four soldiers came into the store," the 60-year-old said.
"One of them picked up some pendants and keffiyehs that had a Palestinian flag on them. He pointed to the flag and asked: 'What's this?'
"I said: 'The Palestinian flag.'
"In response, he started swearing at me and cursing Palestine saying: 'There's no such thing as Palestine, there's only the State of Israel.'"
Bader said two of the soldiers grabbed some flags, went to his toilet, and urinated on them.
He also said he was pushed and beaten.
He said his shop had previously been vandalised and firebombed by Israeli settlers.
But rather than protecting him, Bader said the IDF has repeatedly targeted him.
"They tell you: 'There is no law, the law is under my foot, I am the law,' even the youngest soldier does this," he said.
Bader complained that soldiers would confiscate and search through smartphones, prompting some locals to embrace older phones that were unable to store things such as photos.
'He would jump on my stomach' — Yasser Abu Markhiyeh
It is not the first time Yasser Abu Markhiyeh has had run-ins with the IDF, but he said his dealings with soldiers a few months ago took a turn.
He works as a director of a charitable organisation.
He said troops had stopped him in the street after he had spoken to media about Israeli behaviour in the area and had helped doctors and aid organisations do their work in Hebron.
In July, Yasser said he was confronted by soldiers, new to the area, who said they would bash him until he "was tired of beating".
The 53-year-old said he was detained for at least 6 hours, as a soldier attacked him.
"He would jump on my stomach, hit me on my face, hit me on my head," Yasser said.
When he was released, he said Israeli soldiers left him handcuffed and blindfolded — and he wandered back to an Arab area of Hebron, where he asked people for help.
"At the hospital, I could not see well through my eyes after all the beating and being blindfolded, I started to have blurry vision, so they decided to operate on my eyes, to take my eyes' lenses and to insert other artificial lenses," he said.
"They also checked my legs because they were hurt, two tendons of my foot were broken, and internal bleeding in my knee and I am now in the process to have an operation for it in the near future."
IDF says it is maintaining law and order
The ABC asked the IDF a series of questions about the testimony from the five men, and provided their names, ages, neighbourhoods and the dates of the alleged abuse — in Hebrew — to its press office.
The IDF complained it could not provide answers on individual allegations, as individual identification numbers were not provided.
"The IDF operates in the area of Judea and Samaria in accordance with international law in order to maintain the security of all residents of the area, and to act to prevent terrorism and activities that endanger the citizens of the State of Israel," a spokesperson said.
It also told the German broadcaster ARD: "Since the October 7 massacre, there has been a significant rise in terrorist attacks in the West Bank and Jordan Valley, with over 2,000 attempted attacks recorded since the war began.
"The IDF conducts nightly counter-terrorism operations to apprehend suspects, many of whom are affiliated with the Hamas terrorist organisation.
"Additionally, as part of regional security measures, dynamic checkpoints have been established in various locations."
The IDF insisted complaints about misconduct were "thoroughly investigated".
Hebron the 'occupation lab' of the West Bank
"There is a saying that Hebron is the occupation lab," B'Tselem spokesman Shai Parnes told the ABC.
"The occupation looks, in Hebron, quite different than the rest of the West Bank, but we get these testimonies and incidents all over the West Bank.
"But we did decide to focus on Hebron because of how small it is, how Israel uses CCTV, and the use of how many soldiers are in Hebron compared to the Jewish settlements."
In July, the International Court of Justice found Israel's presence in the Occupied Palestinian Territories to be unlawful.
Mr Parnes said the IDF's constant references to October 7 in discussing its conduct across the Occupied Palestinian Territories was deeply problematic.
"I think they exploit the true horror and the emotions and anxiety that the Israeli public had experienced on this horrific day," he said.
"And it's soon become a total dehumanisation of any Palestinian, no matter where he lives — whether it's Gaza, the West Bank, East Jerusalem or even Palestinian citizens of Israel."
