After learning of the arrests, Israelis, including ultra-nationalist MK Zvi Sukkot, rushed to the detention center in support of the Israeli soldiers.
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The Israeli army announced on Monday, July 29, the arrest of nine soldiers as part of an investigation opened for mistreatment of a Palestinian detainee. An army spokesperson confirmed to AFP that nine soldiers had been arrested. “arrested for questioning”in connection with this case. According to Israeli media reports, the detainee is a Palestinian who was allegedly mistreated in the Sde Teiman detention center in the Negev desert in the south of the country.
The spokesman had previously said that the investigation had been opened “following suspicions of significant ill-treatment of a detainee at the Sde Teiman detention centre”without further details. After learning of these arrests, Israelis including ultra-nationalist MP Zvi Sukkot rushed to the detention centre in support of the soldiers, some trying to force their way in before being pushed back by police, according to images broadcast by Israeli television.
Later, television broadcast footage of other protesters gathered outside the military base where the detained soldiers were being questioned by investigators. Senior Israeli officials, including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and army chief General Herzi Halevi, condemned the spontaneous demonstrations.
“Breaking into a military base and disturbing order is serious behaviour that is not acceptable under any circumstances.”the general said in a statement. “We are in the middle of a war and actions of this type endanger the security of the State”he added. The Israeli Prime Minister, for his part, “strongly condemned the intrusion into an Israeli army compound”referring to the detention center, calling for a return to calm, according to a statement released by his office.
The Sde Teiman detention center was set up to hold Palestinians arrested in the Gaza Strip after the start of the war between Israel and Hamas, which began on October 7 after the Palestinian Islamist movement launched an unprecedented attack on Israeli soil.
In mid-July, Amnesty International urged Israel to stop placing “in secret” Palestinians in Gaza and subject them to a “widespread torture” in its jails. The NGO said in a statement that it had collected information on 27 Palestinians who had told it that they had been subjected to acts of torture and other “cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment”. The Israeli military had rejected the allegations.