Israel's Sde Teiman prison restricts Gazan detainees' freedom

By Abdelraouf Arnaout

JERUSALEM (AA) – Israel’s Sde Teiman prison, a military installation in the Negev desert in southern Israel, houses thousands of Palestinians arrested by Israeli forces in Gaza in the course of their devastating onslaught since Oct. 7.

Since the early days of Israel’s war on the enclave, the prison, dubbed "Israel's Guantanamo Bay, was always in the forefront of the news as reports emerged on the scale of torture and violations committed against Palestinian detainees inside the facility, which is far from the oversight of rights groups.

According to Israel’s Army Radio, 10 soldiers were recently detained for questioning as part of an investigation into the gang-rape of a Palestinian detainee from Gaza in the prison.

In response, hundreds of Israeli protesters, including officials, stormed the prison facility to protest the arrest of the soldiers over the incident.

-History of abuses

The military base, which is currently under the army's southern command, was established following an operation by the Jewish Agency to bring 49,000 Jews from Yemen to Israel in 1949 and 1950.

During the Israeli wars on Gaza in 2008 and 2014, hundreds of Palestinians from Gaza were arrested and sent to Sde Teiman.

In the latest Israeli war on Gaza, Israel arrested hundreds of Palestinians and classified them as “unlawful combatants”

In a statement, the Association for Civil Rights in Israel said the detainees are deprived of food, and when they eat, they do so while blindfolded and handcuffed.

It added that the prison is crowded and prisoners sleep and defecate while blindfolded and handcuffed, while there is also no health care, with many dying as a result.

There is also no exact number of Palestinian detainees at Sde Teiman.

In mid-July, Israel’s Haaretz daily reported that the Israeli army has been holding the bodies of 1,500 Palestinians believed to be Hamas gunmen at Sde Teiman since Oct. 7.

Haaretz quoted an Israeli soldier who served at Sde Teiman as saying that the bodies are held in refrigerators and classified as numbers, not based on names.

-Petition to close Sde Teiman

The Association for Civil Rights in Israel along with five other rights groups filed a petition in May before the Israeli Supreme Court to immediately close the prison.

It said in its petition that in the past few months, evidence had accumulated of violations at the prison.

Surgical operations were carried out at the prison facility without anesthesia, and detainees were cuffed in ways that caused amputations, the association said.

It noted that a field hospital was established in the prison but doesn't offer the minimum health care needed for the detainees.

According to Haaretz, 36 Palestinians have died at the prison since Oct. 7.

-Torture testimonies

The Israeli Supreme Court is still looking into a case brought by Israeli human rights organizations demanding to immediately close Sde Teiman following reports of torture and killings of Palestinians detained at the center.

Haaretz quoted one Israeli soldier who was part of the army's Force 100 that supervises the prison as confirming the bad treatment against the detainees.

Based on testimonies from recently released detainees, they are subject to numerous forms of torture and inhumane treatment, including forced stripping, prolonged binding and blindfolding, electrocution, systematic starvation and cutting the body with sharp tools.

Other reported abuses include deprivation of sleep, bathing and medical care, dog attacks and exposure to extreme cold.

Israel, flouting a UN Security Council resolution demanding an immediate cease-fire, has faced international condemnation amid its continued brutal offensive on Gaza since an Oct. 7 attack by the Palestinian group Hamas.

Over 39,300 Palestinians have since been killed, mostly women and children, and nearly 91,000 injured, according to local health authorities.

Over nine months into the Israeli onslaught, vast tracts of Gaza lie in ruins amid a crippling blockade of food, clean water and medicine.

Israel is accused of genocide at the International Court of Justice, which ordered it to immediately halt its military operation in the southern city of Rafah, where more than 1 million Palestinians had sought refuge from the war before it was invaded on May 6.

*Writing by Ahmed Asmar