Sde Teiman: What abuses are alleged to have taken place in the Israeli prison?
On Tuesday, dozens of Israelis stormed Sde Teiman detention facility in southern Israel's Negev desert.
They gathered in response to the arrest of nine soldiers accused of raping a Palestinian prisoner. But rather than directing their anger at the soldiers suspected of the abuse, these far-right Israelis, who included MPs and a minister, were outraged that they had been arrested at all.
For many in Israel and beyond, the riot and further protests at a military courthouse symbolise the crossing of a moral event horizon, but the civil strife is just a backdrop to the litany of abuses alleged to have been carried out at Sde Teiman detention facility.
About 4,000 Palestinians have been detained from Gaza in Israel since October 2023. Most are detained and interrogated in the enclave but if they are believed to have useful information they are brought to Sde Teiman, even if a non-combatant.
Torture, rape and murder have all been reported as rife at the facility, one of several facilities where Palestinians have been mistreated for decades.
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National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir on Sunday confirmed that conditions inside Israeli prisons “have indeed worsened" since the war on Gaza began, adding: "I am proud of that.”
Middle East Eye details some of the abuses alleged to have taken place at Sde Teiman:
Torture
In recent months, numerous media reports have detailed testimony from Palestinians detained at Sde Teiman about the physical and psychological abuse they endured at the facility.
Detainees are kept blindfolded at all times in the facility - even peeking out can result in beatings from the guards.
According to CNN, a prisoner can be punished for committing an offence, such as speaking to another prisoner, by being ordered to raise his arms above his head for up to an hour, sometimes with his hands zip-tied to a fence to ensure that they do not come out of the stress position.
The constant handcuffing is said to be so severe that whistleblowers have reported doctors having to amputate prisoners’ limbs as a result.
Repeatedly breaching prohibitions on speaking and moving can prompt Israeli guards to take prisoners to an area outside the enclosure and beat them aggressively. One whistleblower, who worked as a guard, said he saw a man emerge from a beating with shattered teeth and bones.
One Palestinian brought to Sde Teiman was reported by the New York Times to have been beaten after falling asleep on arrival, being told by the officer "this is the punishment for anyone who sleeps".
Several people also reported been subjected to electric shocks.
A 39-year old nurse taken from Gaza recalled being forced to sit in a chair wired with electricity and said he was shocked so often that, after initially urinating uncontrollably, he stopped being able to urinate for days after.
Psychological and aural torture have also been reported.
A whistleblower said that dogs were set loose on sleeping detainees, while sound grenades were thrown at them.
Several detainees also recalled being brought to a separate enclosure that they called the “disco room”, where they were forced to listen to extremely loud music preventing them from sleeping. One detainee said the sound was so painful that blood began to trickle from inside his ear.
Testimony given to Middle East Eye by former detainees chimes with the reports from Sde Teiman, with detainees saying they were attacked by dogs, doused with cold water, denied food and water, deprived of sleep, and subjected to constant loud music.
"I was naked, cold, beaten, starving, exhausted and completely drained. If any prisoner fell asleep the soldiers would viciously beat him on the head or chest to keep him awake," said 26-year old Moaz Muhammad Khamis Miqdad, who was rounded up at gunpoint by Israeli soldiers on 21 December while sheltering in a school with his family in the Sheikh Radwan neighbourhood of Gaza City.
"They wanted us to stay between life and death.”
Sexual abuse
Some of the most aggressive forms of torture alleged by former detainees have involved sexual abuse.
Several detainees have told the United Nations and the media that they had metal rods inserted into their rectums.
The 39-year-old nurse told the New York Times that two soldiers pressed his rectum against a metal stick that was fixed to the ground, which penetrated him for around five seconds, causing it to bleed and leaving him with “unbearable pain”.
Another witness told +972 Magazine that Israeli guards sexually assaulted six prisoners with a stick in front of other detainees after they violated prison orders.
In a particularly horrific account detailed on a video circulating on social media, one recently released Palestinian prisoner said that he had seen multiple rapes, and cases in which Israeli soldiers made dogs sexually assault prisoners.
In an interview with Al Araby TV, Palestinian lawyer Khaled Mhajne recounted a case involving a 27-year-old detainee who was raped, forced to sleep on his stomach, attacked by police dogs “and then raped with a fire extinguisher and had the tube inserted into his butt”.
The extinguisher was then activated to release its contents into the man’s body, Mhajne said.
Deaths
Along with the abuse meted out against detainees, dozens of Palestinians are believed to have died while at the facility, with the cause of death often left uncertain.
Officers at Sde Teiman told the New York Times that 35 Palestinians detained at Sde Teiman since October had died either at the facility or after being brought to nearby hospitals.
The officers denied any of them died as a result of injuries or mistreatment at the centre - but the Israeli military has said that it is investigating reports of deaths at Sde Teiman.
Haaretz also quoted a military source saying two detainees had died from injuries inflicted by Israeli soldiers en route to Sde Teiman.
In comments to Middle East Eye in May, the Israeli army said its soldiers act “in accordance with Israeli and international law in order to protect the rights of the detainees”.
It has said every death in Israeli military custody is being investigated, and that some of those who had died had pre-existing medical conditions or injuries.
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