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Sde Teiman detention camp

Coordinates: 31°17′38″N 34°42′26″E / 31.29389°N 34.70722°E / 31.29389; 34.70722
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A photo of blindfolded Palestinian prisoners inside of the camp, released by an anonymous whistleblower in May 2024

Sde Teiman (Hebrew: שדה תימן), also spelled Sde Teman or Sede Teman, is an Israeli military base located in the Negev desert, 18 miles from the border with Gaza,[1] which, during the Israel–Hamas war, has been doubling as a detention camp,[2] used to detain Palestinians from the Gaza Strip. Multiple whistleblowing Israeli employees and released Palestinian detainees have reported systemic abuse and human rights violations, including physical and psychological torture. The camp has been dubbed "Israel's Guantánamo Bay."[3]

Background

The military base was partially converted into a detention camp in the wake of the passing of the Unlawful Combatants Law by the Knesset in December 2023.[2] It is divided into an enclosure where up to 200 detainees are kept blindfolded and handcuffed in cages, and a field hospital of tents where dozens of handcuffed prisoners are kept.[1] The law allows the Israel Defense Forces to detain people without an arrest warrant for 45 days, after which the detainees must be transferred to the Israel Prison Service.[2] As of 10 May 2024, the IDF has acknowledged two similar camps: Ofer Prison and a prison in Anatot, both in the West Bank.[2]

All Gazans detained by Israel since the 7 October attack are classified as unlawful combatants rather than prisoners of war, which excludes them from rights like access to a lawyer.[1] Most detainees, in lieu of evidence that they are members of Hamas, are kept as suspects, without charges laid.[1]This classification is applied to all Gazans, some 849 individuals, detained by Israel since the outbreak of hostilities on October 7, 2023.[1] Among those arrested as suspect combatents were a paraplegic, a man weighing 300 pounds, and another who, since childhood, has had to breathe with the assistence of a tube in his neck.[4]

Sde Teiman is divided into two sections: enclosures and a field hospital.[1][2] An additional structure exists where interrogations take place.[4] Some 4,000 Gazans have been detained at Sde Teiman since October, of which 70% have been detained for further investigation, while 1,200 have been repatriated to Gaza after their civilian status was confirmed.[4]

As of 7 March 2024, Haaretz reported 27 deaths either from Sde Teiman, another camp, or "during questioning in Israeli territory."[5] According to the New York Times, by early June 35 had died either there or after transport to nearby civilian hospitals.[4]

Abuse of detainees

See also: Torture during the Israel–Hamas war

Enclosures

In May 2024, three anonymous Israeli employees of the camp spoke to CNN as whistleblowers, during which they corroborated and expanded upon reports of abuse and poor conditions revealed by multiple detainees who were later released. The whistleblowers detailed enclosures where detainees are blindfolded and not allowed to speak or move. Images leaked to CNN show rows of men wearing gray tracksuits with blindfolds, each sitting on an exceptionally thin mattress, surrounded by a barbed-wire fence.[2][6]

Punishments include beatings and for prisoners to raise their hands in a stress position, sometimes zip-tied to a fence, for upwards of an hour.[2][6] In what one released detainee called "the nightly torture," guards would conduct routine searches with dogs and sound grenades while prisoners were sleeping.[2]The detainees are reportedly kept on a diet of one cucumber, some slices of bread and a cup of cheese a day.[1] Several prisoners since returned to Gaza reported to UNWRA and the New York Times that a metal stick was used to inflict injury by penetrating the anus of detainees under interrogation and multiple prisoners reported the use of electric shocks, sometimes being forced to "sit in a chair wired with electricity".[4][7]

Field hospitals

In April 2024, Haaretz obtained a letter written by a doctor at a field hospital at Sde Teiman to Israel's attorney general, defense minister, and health minister.[8][9] The doctor wrote that "inmates are fed through straws, defecate in diapers and are held [in] constant restraints, which violate medical ethics and the law."[8][9] The doctor alleged that understaffing and inadequate care led to complications and deaths, describing amputations due to handcuff injuries as "routine."[8][9] A separate medical source who visited Sde Teiman corroborated the letter to CNN.[9] The source also characterized systemic dehumanizing of detainees, alleging that officials are told not to use prisoners' names but rather their serial numbers.[9]

Whistleblowers to CNN echoed previous accounts of wounded detainees physically restrained to beds, wearing diapers, fed through straws, and blindfolded.[2] They further alleged that medical procedures are frequently performed by underqualified employees, operations are often done without anesthesia, and patients are refused pain relievers.[1][2] Some of the detainees were reportedly arrested in hospitals in Gaza while undergoing treatment.[1] According to the whistleblowers, the medical team were told to not document treatments or sign papers, corroborating April 2024 reporting by Physicians for Human Rights in Israel that anonymity is employed to hinder potential investigation;[2][6][10] during the 2024 New York Times visit, the newspaper noted that three doctors attributed their use of anonymity to fear of retribution from "Hamas and their allies".[4] Whistleblowers further stated that patients were shackled to their beds and surgeries were performed without adequate painkillers.[11]

Responses

In response to allegations made by the whistleblowers, the IDF stated that they treat detainees "appropriately and carefully," and that "incidents of unlawful handcuffing are not known to the authorities."[1][2] Maj. Gen. Yifat Tomer-Yerushalmi, the military advocate-general, stated that military police investigations have been opened into allegations of misconduct at Sde Teiman.[12][13]

On 23 May 2024, Israeli human rights groups petitioned the High Court of Justice to close the detention center at Sde Teiman.[14]

Allegations of sexual harassment of female guards by prisoners

In the wake of reports of abuse of detainees, in an interview on 25 May 2024, a female IDF soldier claimed women guards in Sde Teiman suffer regular sexual harassment from prisoners, who have blown kisses their way, made suggestive remarks and spat on the floor in their presence.[15]

See also

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Tondo, Lorenzo; Kierszenbaum, Quique (23 May 2024). "Whistleblowers allege widespread abuses at Israeli detention camp". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 27 May 2024.
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Qiblawi, Tamara (10 May 2024). "Israeli whistleblowers detail horror of shadowy detention facility for Palestinians". CNN. Retrieved 12 May 2024.
  3. ^ Wilkins, Brett (4 April 2024). "Doctor at Israeli Detention Camp for Gazans Blows Whistle on War Crimes". Common Dreams. Retrieved 13 May 2024.
  4. ^ a b c d e f Patrick Kingsley, Bilal Shbair, 'Inside the Base Where Israel Has Detained Thousands of Gazans,' New York Times 6 June 2024.
  5. ^ Shezaf, Hagar (18 December 2023). "Hundreds of Gazans arrested during war held blindfolded and handcuffed at Israeli base". Haaretz. Retrieved 12 May 2024.
  6. ^ a b c Magid, Jacob (11 May 2024). "US 'deeply concerned' after report alleges Gaza prisoners abused at Israeli facility". The Times of Israel. Retrieved 14 May 2024.
  7. ^ Mr. al-Hamlawi, the senior nurse, said a female officer had ordered two soldiers to lift him up and press his rectum against a metal stick that was fixed to the ground. Mr. al-Hamlawi said the stick penetrated his rectum for roughly five seconds, causing it to bleed and leaving him with “unbearable pain.” A leaked draft of the UNRWA report detailed an interview that gave a similar account. It cited a 41-year-old detainee who said that interrogators “made me sit on something like a hot metal stick and it felt like fire,” and also said that another detainee “died after they put the electric stick up” his anus.'
  8. ^ a b c Shezaf, Hagar; Tov, Michael Hauser (4 April 2024). "Doctor at Israeli field hospital for detained Gazans: 'We are all complicit in breaking the law'". Haaretz. Retrieved 14 May 2024.
  9. ^ a b c d e Kent, Lauren (6 April 2024). "Israeli doctor says detained Palestinians are undergoing 'routine' amputations for handcuff injuries, Haaretz reports". CNN. Retrieved 14 May 2024.
  10. ^ Ziv, Hadas; Dror, Oneg Ben (April 2024). "MEDICAL ETHICS AND THE DETENTION OF GAZA RESIDENTS SINCE THE START OF THE 2023 WAR: AN ETHICAL OPINION PAPER" (PDF). Physicians for Human Rights in Israel. p. 10. Retrieved 14 May 2024.
  11. ^ Frankel, Julia. "Israel maintains a shadowy hospital in the desert for Gaza detainees. Critics allege mistreatment". Associated Press. Retrieved 4 June 2024.
  12. ^ "IDF probing allegations of torture of Gazan detainees at Sde Teiman base – military prosecutor". The Times of Israel. 27 May 2024. Retrieved 27 May 2024.
  13. ^ "Israeli military investigates deaths of Gaza war detainees". Reuters. 27 May 2024. Retrieved 27 May 2024.
  14. ^ "Rights groups petition court to shutter Negev detention facility over torture claims". The Times of Israel. 23 May 2024. Retrieved 27 May 2024.
  15. ^ Jailed Nukhba terrorists regularly sexually harass female guards, soldier says The Times of Israel 26 May 2024

31°17′38″N 34°42′26″E / 31.29389°N 34.70722°E / 31.29389; 34.70722

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