Israeli soldiers allegedly mistreated prisoner
Observers have been criticizing the conditions in the Israeli detention camp Sde Teiman for some time. Now, the army is initiating investigations against several soldiers for "serious mistreatment of a prisoner". Right-wing protesters storm the facility in anger.
Following the alleged mistreatment of a prisoner in an Israeli detention camp for Palestinians, the army has taken several soldiers into custody and initiated an investigation. "An investigation has been launched following allegations of serious mistreatment of a prisoner in the Sde Teiman detention facility," the Israeli army said in a statement. Nine soldiers were reportedly taken into custody. According to Israeli media, the prisoner is a Palestinian who was allegedly mistreated by the soldiers and is said to belong to an elite unit of Hamas.
The military radio reported that the military police appeared at the detention camp Sde Teiman. As the military police arrived at the camp, protesters gathered there, including members of right-wing parties. They protested against the investigation, claiming that the soldiers had merely carried out their duty. As seen in live broadcasts on Israeli television, some managed to enter the facility.
Israel's army chief Herzi Halevi sharply criticized the action: "Intruding into a military base and disrupting the order there is a serious behavior that is in no way acceptable," he said. Israel is "in the midst of a war," and actions of this kind endanger the country's security. However, Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, a leader of the nationalist-religious bloc in the government, said in a video uploaded to X that the accused soldiers should be treated as heroes, not criminals.
Amnesty speaks of "rampant torture"
The detention camp Sde Teiman was set up to detain Palestinians arrested in the Gaza Strip at the start of the war between Israel and Hamas on October 7. Since then, both the United Nations and human rights lawyers, as well as Hamas-controlled authorities and former detainees, have criticized mistreatment during detention. Human Rights Watch has called on Israel to end the indefinite detention of Palestinians from the Gaza Strip and "rampant torture" in Israeli prisons. According to the Israeli army, detention conditions are based on international law.
The war in the Gaza Strip has been going on for more than nine months. It was triggered by the unprecedented attack by the radical Islamic Hamas on Israel, in which, according to Israeli figures, 1,197 people were killed. Since then, Israel has been carrying out massive attacks on targets in the Palestinian territory. According to Hamas, which cannot be independently verified, more than 39,300 people have been killed since then. It is not specified whether these are civilians or Hamas fighters.
The ongoing war with Israel and the Gaza Strip has brought renewed attention to the allegations of mistreatment of Palestinians in Israeli detention facilities, such as Sde Teiman. Amidst this, Amnesty International has accused Israel of rampant torture in its prisons, calling for an end to indefinite detentions.
In light of these accusations and the investigation into the serious mistreatment of a prisoner in Sde Teiman, calls for war with Israel have intensified from certain segments of the population, seeing the soldiers as patriotic defenders rather than accused individuals.
