Palestinian captives 'tortured and humiliated' at Israeli army base

Hundreds of Palestinians have disappeared since Israel began its onslaught in the West Bank less than two weeks ago. Details are only now emerging about what has happened to them, and how they say they have been tortured and humiliated by Israeli forces.

The wife of a man called Hussein has not seen her husband for six days. She said the Israeli army came to their village, Salseed, at 4am. They blindfolded the men and made them stand outside in their night clothes. She has no idea where her husband is.

The answer, for hundreds like her, lies behind the razor wire and lookout posts at Ofer, an Israeli army base that sits in a valley surrounded on three sides by hills, overlooked by the scruffy outskirts of Ramallah.

It appears that many of the disappeared are still alive. But that is where the good news ends. Inside Ofer up to 1,000 Palestinians are detained and have been regularly beaten with wooden batons. They are forced to spend nights sitting in the dirt outside in the cold, in their underwear. They are refused food for days at a time.