Alarming reports reveal systematic maltreatment of Palestinian detainees amid Israel’s military operations
Occupied Palestine (Quds News Network)- In a recent investigation by Haaretz, shocking testimonies have emerged regarding the torture, systematically practiced by Israel against Palestinian detainees, including children as young as 10 years old, at a makeshift Israeli military detention facility in Sde Teiman. These testimonies, provided by soldiers and officers stationed at the facility, paint a disturbing picture of systematic torture, dehumanization, sadism, and violence against detainees.
One soldier described the initial impression of the detainees, stating, “You don’t really relate to them as if they’re real human beings.” This sentiment seems to permeate the facility, where detainees were routinely subjected to physical abuse and psychological torment. In one particularly harrowing account, a soldier recalled witnessing a detainee being brutally beaten: “Because of the searches, I think his legs were broken, so every time he had to stand for the head count, for example, and he couldn’t stand up. So that was an excuse to take him out and beat him some more.”
The conditions at the facility were so dire that even some soldiers found them difficult to rationalize. “I understand, if we were fighting in Afghanistan, there I can somehow grasp [the existence of] a field hospital like that. But here?” one soldier questioned, expressing confusion over the necessity of such extreme measures against civilians.
The ICJ finds that BDS is not merely a right, but an obligation
Violence against detainees was not only tolerated but, in some cases, actively encouraged. Another soldier recounted a disturbing incident at the entrance to the pen: “I saw one of the police officers, right at the entrance to the pen, take the head of the first detainee and ‘boom,’ smash him with force into some iron part of the door. And then he smashed him again and said ‘Yalla.’ The moment I saw that I went into total shock… he didn’t look angry or full of hatred, he even laughed at it.”
The atmosphere at Sde Teiman was one of unspoken complicity. Soldiers were warned against speaking out or documenting what they witnessed. “All the time they told us to talk as little as possible. Like, what happens in Sde Teiman, stays in Sde Teiman. That’s the atmosphere,” a soldier revealed, emphasizing the strict secrecy surrounding the facility’s operations.
Despite the evident brutality, some soldiers expressed a sense of loyalty to the system, trusting that their actions were justified under the circumstances. “I relied on the idea that the bigger system knows what it needs to do and why it needed me there. I trust the army. And everything I saw at Sde Teiman looked to me, all in all, very logical, under the circumstances,” one soldier admitted, illustrating the complex moral calculus at play.
However, the testimonies also revealed instances of blatant sadism, with some soldiers deriving a disturbing sense of satisfaction from their actions. “People allow themselves [to do things], especially in places where there is no supervision. Or there were cases in which people came to give someone a beating in order to take revenge [for October 7]. Or… that… I don’t know whether to call it that… people are sadistic,” a soldier confessed, pointing to a culture of impunity within the facility.
Source: qudsnen
