An Israeli reserve soldier: torture, killing, and humiliation of Palestinians is taking place at the Sde Teiman prison despite their innocence

An Israeli reserve soldier revealed on Friday the horrific atrocities being committed at the notorious Sde Teiman camp in southern Israel against civilian detainees from the Gaza Strip.

Some of them died as a result of severe torture and others underwent surgery without anesthesia.

The Israeli soldier (whose name wasn’t revealed) said in an article published in the Israeli Haaretz newspaper, that civilian detainees from the Gaza Strip were subjected to systematic torture inside the camp, amid media complicity in covering up these violations.

The Israeli soldier, who served during the ongoing war in Gaza, added that the camp had become a “site of death and torture,” with detainees dying in front of soldiers under shocking medical conditions.

He explained that most of the detainees who were tortured were not members of Hamas, but rather civilians from the Gaza Strip who were detained pending investigation.

Some were later released after it was proven that they had no affiliation with Hamas or had participated in military activities against Israel.

He added, “Although they were innocent, they were subjected to severe torture”.

The soldier continued, saying, “I saw a detainee dying in front of me, and I saw detainees forced to urinate and defecate on themselves, and left without food or medical care,” adding that some detainees underwent surgery without anesthesia.

The soldier emphasized that what was happening inside the Sde Teiman camp wasn’t an exceptional incident, but rather “a systematic policy carried out with the knowledge of army commanders and the assistance of the Israeli media”.

He pointed out that the Israeli media is aware of what is happening inside the camp but ignores it, contenting itself with presenting superficial individual accounts, in order, he said, to avoid acknowledging the existence of a systematic policy.

The soldier concluded his article by saying, “What is happening at the Sde Teiman isn’t an isolated incident, but rather part of an entire system… The media, which knows everything, has decided to remain silent, and by its silence, it gives evil cover to continue”.

Last February, the Israeli military said a soldier was convicted of torturing Palestinian prisoners at the Sde Teiman camp and sentenced to seven months in prison.

However, no punishment has been imposed on hundreds of soldiers who participated in the torture and genocide of detainees, despite media and human rights reports condemning them.

The notorious detention camp was the scene of abuses targeting Palestinian prisoners kidnapped by the Israeli army from the Gaza Strip after the war, including sexual assaults, according to Hebrew media.

Sde Teiman is an Israeli military base in the Negev Desert in southern Israel.

It was established following Operation Eagle’s Wing, during which the Jewish Agency deported approximately 49,000 Jews from Yemen to Israel between 1949 and 1950.

During Israel’s war on Gaza in 2008 and 2014, the Israeli military established detention camps at the base for hundreds of Palestinian detainees from the Strip.