A court in Israel ruled on Tuesday to remove a gag order on the name of a Palestinian prisoner accused of raping a female soldier serving as a prison guard and sexually assaulting others.
Mahmoud Atallah's name has been circulating as the likely perpetrator but the Israel Prison Service demanded a gag order be placed on the case and never confirmed his identity.
The affair came to light in 2018 and returned to the headlines last year following testimony from prison commander Freddy Ben Shitrit.
The accusations resurfaced after a former female jailor, whose identity remains anonymous, claimed Atallah raped her with the full knowledge of prison authorities.
A detailed complaint filed this month by the anonymous female soldier against the security prisoner said he had raped her three times as soon as 2016 while she was serving as a prison guard at Gilboa Prison.
Atallah's name was allowed to be published by Judge Gil Gabbai of the Rishon Lezion Magistrate's Court despite his attorney's claims that the allegations may endanger him and damage his reputation.
Gabbai ruled that the evidence points to a "considerable suspicion against the suspect, in which the prisoner committed the offenses attributed to him."
Atallah, a member of Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah movement, was convicted of the 2003 murder of Jamila Djeles, a Palestinian from Ramallah who is believed to have collaborated with Israel.
The convict was sentenced to life imprisonment and has since become one of the most prominent leaders of Palestinian security prisoners and is considered the spokesperson of Ward 5 – the security prisoners' wing at Gilboa Prison.
"Atallah controlled the prison officers, at least from my experience," said the female soldier. "He would decide who would be assigned where, what privileges he would be granted, and if it will really turn out eventually that he was given privileges to touch the female staff members – you can understand how much power he had."
Several other female jailors also stepped forward with similar allegations.
"He was like the king of the prison, going wherever he wanted, whenever he wanted," a former prison guard identified only by her first name Yael told Ynet's sister publication Yedioth Ahronoth in an interview in 2019.
"I stood and talked to the guard, and Atallah was behind me. I felt a hand on my behind, and at first, I was sure I was imagining. I flinched a bit, I didn't turn my head, he touched me again. I understand that this was real and I was not imagining. I froze. I waited to take him back to the ward, and I slammed the cell door in his face."
Another female turnkey identified as Noga claimed she pleaded with one of her superiors to stay with her in the presence of the prisoner but was told, "I have to go, don't worry, Atallah will explain to you what you need to do."
According to Noga, she "only knew that he was the ward's spokesperson, I didn't know that he was convicted of the murder of a woman. I didn't understand how on Earth a sergeant sends me to learn the job from a security prisoner. Who has heard of such a thing? Only in retrospect, do I understand that they sent me as prey."
"After about a month, he allowed himself to tell me things like 'I'm addicted to your love,' 'what are we going to do without you if you leave,' 'you're killing us, what are you doing to me'," Noga continued. "From the first instant I turned to my commander, and I told him what I was going through. The guards knew, they even called me 'Atallah's lover' behind my back."
Ayelet first arrived at the Gilboa Prison in January 2016 and served in the Hamas ward.
"One day on my way to the medical clinic, I heard Atallah pass by me and tell me quietly 'you'll see that you'll return to me in Ward 5.' I ignored him and kept walking. A few days later I was suddenly told I would be stationed in Ward 5. I turned to the shift commander and he replied, 'it's an order from above, leave it.'
"From the moment they transferred me to Ward 5, Atallah tried to make contact," Ayelet said. "On one of my shifts, I sat with Noga. She told me something about Atallah and about him touching her and making comments to her. At that moment I was in shock. I understood."
The anonymous female soldier, the first to accuse Atallah of rape, told the police that she was raped at least three times in early 2016 after her commanders left her alone with Atallah while the other prisoners were outside in the courtyard, going against the prison's security protocol.
The former guard said she was also sexually assaulted on another occasion after she was left in the ward with 120 security prisoners.
She added that one time she was assigned to count canteen goods with Atallah and he pulled her from her guard post to a room not covered by security cameras, locked them inside and went on to rape her. Afterward, she returned to the ward with Atallah, where an intelligence officer had been quietly waiting for them.