TEL AVIV, Wednesday, August 7, 2024 (WAFA) – The Supreme Court of Israel today resumed hearing a petition filed in May by five Israeli human rights organizations to close Israel's notorious Sde Teiman detention camp due to acts of torture and sexual assault against Palestinian detainees from the Gaza Strip.
Today, Israeli media circulated a video documenting the incident of Israeli occupation soldiers sexually assaulting a detainee from Gaza in the said prison.
The Israeli Channel 12 published the internal cameras’ documentation in the prison, which is under the responsibility of the occupation army, of the assault on the detainee whose identity has not yet been revealed.
The video documentation, the date of which and how it reached the channel were not specified, shows several occupation soldiers choosing a detainee from among more than 30 detainees who were lying on the ground in the prison yard with their eyes covered.
Researcher and activist in the field of human rights and prisoners' issues, and lawyer in the legal department of the Committee Against Torture, Janan Abdo, said during an interview with WAFA that based on what the detainees described, the area of the detention camp is not large. It includes buildings and animal pens surrounded by nets; each building occupies an area of 20 meters and contains between 120-130 detainees.
She cited the testimony of one of the released detainees, stating that he spent 52 consecutive days in the said detention camp, where his leg was amputated due to violence, beatings and medical negligence. The detainee said he was given a choice between having his leg amputated or losing his life. He was released back to Gaza following the amputation.
Abdo explained that the detainees were not brought before a judge until about 70 days later through a soldier's phone screen, while the judge on the other side informed them that they would remain in detention until the end of the war.
The Center for the Defense of Liberties and Civil Rights "Hurriyat" confirmed that Sde Teiman camp is witnessing systematic brutal torture programs in which all methods of torture are used, including electricity, dogs, beatings, and shackling in handcuffs on a permanent and continuous basis.
The center indicated that some of the detainees are transferred after being subjected to various forms of severe torture to the Anatot camp next to the town of Anata or to the Ofer prison, where they are subjected to further and continuous torture.
K.T
