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Three Israeli whistleblowers working at the Sde Teiman desert camp say military responsible for series of abuses
Tom Ambrose (now) and Jane Clinton (earlier)Fri 10 May 2024 14.05 BSTShareShow key events only
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Israeli whistleblowers claim abuse of Palestinians at detention centre
Lorenzo Tondo
Three Israeli whistleblowers working at the Sde Teiman desert camp, a holding site for Palestinians detained during Israel’s invasion of Gaza, have claimed to have witnessed a series of abuses by the military, including prisoners being restrained, blindfolded, and forced to wear diapers, reports CNN.
The Israeli whistleblowers said of the prisoners:
We were told they were not allowed to move. They should sit upright. They’re not allowed to talk. Not allowed to peek under their blindfold.
According to the sources, guards were instructed to enforce silence by shouting “uskot” (Arabic for “shut up”) and to identify and punish problematic individuals.
The witnesses told CNN the facility, some 18 miles from the Gaza frontier, is split into two parts: enclosures where around 70 Palestinian detainees from Gaza are placed under extreme physical restraint, and a field hospital “where injured detainees are immobilised, diapered, and fed through straws”.
According to the whistleblowers, the beatings were retaliatory in nature and not intended for intelligence gathering. “They were done out of revenge. It was punishment for what they [Hamas] did on October 7 and punishment for behaviour in the camp.”
One whistleblower described “a routine search when the guards would unleash large dogs on sleeping detainees, lobbing a sound grenade at the enclosure as troops barged in”.
Following the attack on Israel by Hamas on October 7, the Israeli military converted three military sites into detention camps for Palestinian prisoners from Gaza. This move aligns with Israel’s Unlawful Combatants Law, which was expanded by the Knesset in December to grant the military greater detention powers.
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Categories: Gaza, Israel, War, War crimes