on their knees, blindfolded, hands shackled… Israeli whistleblowers denounce the conditions of detention of Palestinian prisoners

In a long article published Friday, the American channel CNN reveals photos and testimonies. Information that corroborates stories already collected by NGOs and UN agencies.

This is the first leaked photo from one of Israel’s detention centers for prisoners taken in Gaza. It is published by the American channel CNN and confirms that the conditions of detention in these camps are extreme. The alert has been raised for a long time. But the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) has still not had access to these prisoners.

The CNN photo is taken at one of three detention sites. This is Sde Teiman, a military base planted in the Negev desert. We see prisoners in gray-blue outfits behind a curtain of barbed wire, pressed together on the ground, blindfolded, in what looks like daily detention conditions.

This image confirms what several NGOs and UN agencies have already documented in surveys carried out among released Gazans. According to these sources, the conditions of detention amount to torture. According to a doctor at the site, two Gazans had to have their legs amputated because the ties were too tight. In the hospital, inmates are continually tied up and defecate in diapers. The care is inadequate.

According to Naji Abbas, this confirms what witnesses have already said. “People are constantly hampered, that means for 24 hours, for weeks and months, says the one who takes care of detainees for the Israeli doctors’ NGO Physicians for Human Rights (PHR). They are blindfolded the whole time. The soldiers made them stay on their knees from 7 a.m. until 11 p.m. People who were detained for one or two months and whom we met after their release from Sde Teiman told us this.”

Totally opaque management

It is not known how many prisoners are being held in Sde Teiman. Several dozen people are believed to have died. The Jewish state has a law that defines the status of illegal combatants. It allows incarceration for 45 days without judicial supervision. But since October 7, the International Committee of the Red Cross has no longer had access to detention centers. He also has no list of prisoners. Management is completely opaque. It contradicts the Fourth Geneva Convention which defines protection for people under occupation. The army rejects these allegations as unfounded.

Since the start of the war, the ICRC has received 7,000 requests for information on missing Palestinians. In Israel, an NGO has collected more than 1,500 signatures from doctors to demand the closure of Sde Teiman. The Jewish state has indicated that it intends to respond favorably to the British who wish to bring two observers into this military center.