Israeli minister defends soldiers suspected of raping Palestinian prisoner

In response to demonstrators breaking into the Beit Lid base, far-right Minister of Finance Bezalel Smotrich said that civil protests were "justified".

"The civil protest against the terrible injustice towards the reservists in Sdei Teiman is justified and I support it with all my heart. In contrast to the hypocritical left who made breaking the law, refusing and burning the state a method for a year and a half under the auspices of the attorney general, we have a responsibility to the state," said Smotrich.

"Therefore: I call on everyone to maintain the law and the integrity of the army and the people," Smotrich said, "Not to break into the bases and not to confront our brothers the soldiers and the police, and to maintain the borders of the protest," he added.

Dozens of Israeli right-wing rioters have broken into the Israeli army's Beit Lid base in central Israel earlier on Monday.

Nine Israeli soldiers in the notorious Sde Teiman detention centre were arrested on Monday on suspicion of raping a Palestinian detainee, sparking a riot where far-right activists and MPs stormed the facility.

They are being held at the Beit Lid base and rioters have sought to seemingly break them free or show their support.