The writing was on the wall for Israel’s torture of prisoners
Prisoners seen at a courtyard in a prison in southern Israel, 14 February 2024
Janan Abdu writes in +972 on 14 May 2024:
For months, revelations have emerged about the nightmarish transformation of Israel’s Sde Teiman army base, located near the southern city of Be’er Sheva/Bir al-Saba, into a detention center. Stories of the abuse of Palestinians detained by Israeli forces in Gaza echo the notorious American prisons at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba and Abu Ghraib in Iraq, and confirm what many suspected: that Israeli security personnel have been engaging in acts of torture against Palestinians detained since October 7.
According to Haaretz, as of March, at least 27 detainees from Gaza had died in Israeli military facilities since the beginning of the war, including some at Sde Teiman. One of the most recent deaths to be confirmed was Adnan al-Bursh, a Palestinian doctor who was reportedly arrested in December at Al-Awda Hospital in northern Gaza; it was announced this month that al-Bursh had died in Ofer Prison in April. The Israeli authorities have refused to give details about the circumstances of his death.
In December, photographs emerged of thousands of Palestinians who were arrested by Israeli forces in Gaza, stripped naked and handcuffed, and transported by truck to facilities in Israeli including Sde Teiman (it is worth noting that transporting individuals outside of occupied territory is itself a violation of international law). Some of those who were subsequently released described the horrors they endured: a never-ending series of torture, humiliations, and watching friends die. In the words of one former detainee, it was “a journey to hell and back.”
After the shocking images were exposed, Israeli officials admitted that approximately 90 percent of the detainees were civilians unaffiliated with any militant groups.
In January, +972 and Local Call spoke with several of these former detainees, and collated public testimonies from others. They described how soldiers inflicted a range of violent practices against civilians and combatants alike at the detention facilities, including forcing inmates to stand for 20 hours in a row and beating them if they move; blindfolding and handcuffing inmates for hours on end; and preventing them from sleeping by constant exposure to lights.
Last week, CNN further revealed the testimonies of three Israeli whistleblowers who worked at Sde Teiman, affirming many of the accounts of these former detainees.
On April 4, Haaretz revealed a copy of a letter written by a doctor working in the field hospital at Sde Teiman. Addressed to the Israeli Defense Minister, Health Minister, and Attorney General, the letter describes the horrific conditions and abusive practices taking place at the army base.
“Just this week,” the doctor wrote, “two prisoners had their legs amputated due to handcuff injuries, which unfortunately is a routine event.”