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Located in the Negev desert, this Israeli military base was transformed after the October 7 attack into an internment camp for Palestinians captured by the IDF.
“No one can enter. And no one has any information about what happens on a daily basis there”, says Naji Abbas, project manager for the Israeli NGO Physicians for Human Rights, to franceinfo. In the Negev desert, several Palestinians arrested in the Gaza Strip are detained in the Israeli military camp of Sde Teiman. An investigation published by the American channel CNN in May confirmed detention conditions amounting to torture. Prisoners handcuffed for hours, others tied to medical beds… Several human rights associations have since called for the closure of this secret detention center before the Supreme Court of Israel. We summarize for you what we know about this camp described as “worse than Guantanamo”according to Naji Abbas.
Prisoners without protection
Located around thirty kilometers from the Gaza Strip in the Negev desert, the Sde Teiman military base was transformed after the deadly attack on October 7 into an internment camp for captured Gazan fighters. Israeli army prisoners are transported to Sde Teiman by truck. Once there, the detainees are “completely isolated from the outside world”warns the Israeli NGO Physicians for Human Rights in a report published in April 2024.
Detained under the law on the imprisonment of illegal combatants, Palestinians do not benefit from the status of prisoners of war, but that of “illegal combatants”. This qualification allows the incarceration of a person without judicial supervision for a period of 45 days. According to the Public Committee Against Torture in Israel, this status offers few protections to detainees. They can thus “be detained without their relatives being informed of the place of detention and without contact with a lawyer or representatives of the Red Cross”.
During their detention, Palestinian prisoners are interrogated by soldiers from Unit 504, specialized in intelligence, according to the daily Haaretz. Prisoners for whom all suspicion is ruled out “are sent back to the Gaza Strip”explained an army spokesperson to AFP, the others are handed over to the Israeli prison administration.
Accusations of mistreatment
Interviewed by CNN, several Palestinians returning to Gaza claim to have suffered acts of torture in Sde Teiman. “They tied our hands so tightly that even when we ate it was difficult to do soassures a Gazan. I was there for 23 days, but it feels like it lasted 100 years.” In a report based on the testimonies of Gazans released by Israel, UNRWA notes “signs of trauma and mistreatment among released detainees”.
One of the whistleblowers, who shared photographs with CNN, also mentioned blindfolded prisoners being ordered to sit up straight and not speak while shouting at them. “Shut up” in Arabic in enclosures surrounded by barbed wire. Detainees who repeatedly violated the ban on speaking or moving were beaten by guards. In the CNN investigation, Doctor Mohammed al-Ran also denounces dehumanizing practices.
“While we were tied up, they released the dogs which trampled on us.”
Mohammed al-Ran, doctorin a CNN investigation
A doctor who worked inside the base described to franceinfo the lack of care. “Patients don’t have names”, he assures. In the field hospital, patients are “all tied up, lying on beds”. “They can’t move. They’re blindfolded. They’re naked. They’re wearing diapers.”, he describes. According to Naji Abbas, project manager of the NGO Physicians for Human Rights, “prisoners hospitalized (…) died”.
At the beginning of April, the newspaper Haaretz published a letter addressed to the Ministries of Health and Defense, in which a doctor assures that the detention center does not have medical equipment adapted to the state of health of the patients. He denounces a shortage of specialist doctors. These deficiencies have “resulting in complications and sometimes death of the patient”. In March, the daily Haaretz revealed that 27 Gazans had died in custody. The Israeli army assured that a criminal investigation had been opened.
Closure requests
Following these revelations, several Israeli civil society associations are mobilizing. A petition was filed by several human rights organizations with Israel’s Supreme Court, demanding the immediate closure of Sde Tieman, reports the newspaper Haaretz.
Before the hearing before Israel’s highest court began on June 5, the state announced its desire to improve detention conditions. Israel plans to limit the number of detainees to 200 and transfer several hundred Palestinians currently in Sde Teiman to the Ofer and Ktzi’ot establishments. Existing infrastructure will be renovated, Israel also assures.
“The Israeli army is constantly working to improve incarceration conditions and the transfer of 500 detainees should bring a significant improvement”assures the Hebrew State in a document that the newspaper Haaretz was able to consult. A few days before these announcements, the army noted the creation of a “Consultative Committee”responsible for investigating the conditions of detention at Sde Tieman, specifies The world.