JERUSALEM — Israel’s Supreme Court on Wednesday considered a petition to close a military prison in the desert where soldiers have been held. accused of abusing Palestinianswhen a new video emerged purporting to show the sexual assault of a Palestinian detainee.
Human rights groups have been involved in a legal battle since June to close the detention center, known as Sde Teiman, where Israel held many Palestinians detained in Gaza during the 10-month war with Hamas. The groups claim that conditions at the facilities are serious and that abuse by Israeli soldiers is common, basing their claims on testimonies from released detainees and Israeli whistleblowers.
Calls for the prison’s closure increased in late July, when Israeli military police They arrested 10 Sde Teiman soldiers under suspicion of involvement in the alleged sexual assault of a Palestinian detainee at the facility. Five of the soldiers are no longer under investigation. A doctor who identified himself as the person who reported the attack said last week that the detainee appeared to have suffered serious sexual abuse.
The arrest of the soldiers caused furious protests from his followers, and at least two government ministers demanded his release. The response underscored tensions between the military command and hardline nationalists in Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government, who advocate even harsher treatment of Palestinians detained in Gaza.
Defense attorney Nati Rom told The Associated Press that the soldiers were arrested about a month after the alleged attack and are accused of carrying out acts of sodomy against the detainee. She said soldiers used force to defend themselves from a detainee who attacked them during a search, but she did not sexually abuse him.
A video purporting to reveal the assault shows a group of masked soldiers pulling a detainee from the ground, where he and other Palestinians appear to be lying face down in a fenced pen, with their arms handcuffed above their heads. The soldiers take the detainee to an area of the corral that they seem to cordon off with shields. The footage then shows about eight soldiers and a dog with the detainee, largely hidden from view by shields held by some of the soldiers. Israel’s News Channel 12, which aired the video, said it captured the moment of the attack.
Two soldiers who previously worked at the facility and requested anonymity for fear of reprisals told the AP they believed the video had been taken at Sde Teiman. The room in which the detainees appear, a corral topped by barbed wire, matches photographs of the facility shared with the AP and the description of the conditions of imprisonment that the complainants have previously described.
Military prosecutors asserted that evidence presented in the case indicates “reasonable suspicion of the commission of the acts,” the Israeli military said Tuesday. The military did not comment on the video.
U.S. officials viewed the video, State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said Wednesday. He called the reports of sexual abuse “horrible.”
“The human rights of prisoners must be respected in all cases and when there are alleged violations, the government of Israel must take steps to investigate those who are alleged to have committed abuses and, if appropriate, hold them accountable,” Miller said.
Meanwhile, more information about the case has come to light from a doctor who treated the detainee in question.
Dr. Yoel Donchin, an Israeli anesthesiologist at the field hospital for Palestinian detainees in Sde Teiman, introduced himself Friday as the person who reported the case to military authorities.
In an interview with Israeli public broadcaster Kan, Donchin said the detainee’s life was in danger and he needed emergency surgery after the attack.
During the interview, Donchin confirmed information attributed to an unnamed medical official who said the detainee had fractured ribs, showed signs of beatings and evidence of having been sodomized, which caused a tear in the lower part of his intestines.
Donchin said the detainee’s case was the most extreme he had witnessed since working at the center.
Naji Abbas, a case manager for Physicians for Human Rights-Israel, said the detainee was transferred to a civilian hospital outside Sde Teiman about a month ago because his injuries were too serious to be treated at the military facility. Abbas received his information from a medical source familiar with the case.
In a written submission to Israel’s Supreme Court ahead of Wednesday’s hearing, state prosecutors made no mention of the military’s sexual assault investigation but insisted that human rights groups’ claims about deplorable conditions were inaccurate. .
The Israeli organization that defended the closure of the military prison in court, the Association for Civil Rights in Israel, had alleged that detainees in the facilities are punished with severe violence, including attack dogs and sexual assault; forced to sit on the floor, blindfolded and handcuffed, 24 hours a day; forbidden to move or speak and rarely shower or change clothes.
An AP investigation at the center documented how detainees are blindfolded, handcuffed and diapered during medical treatment.
The state, in a written response, said detainees were given sufficient food and water, showered regularly, accessed medical treatment as needed and were blindfolded and handcuffed for fear they could harm staff. . The state said a new wing of Sde Teiman opening Sept. 5 would improve conditions, including adding a walking area for detainees. Additional improvements are expected to be made later this year, he said.
After Wednesday’s hearing, the court gave the state a week and a half to provide more information about conditions at the prison.
Sde Teiman was the main military prison holding Palestinians captured in large-scale raids in the Gaza Strip. Israel began removing detainees from the center following calls from human rights groups to close it. State documents show 28 detainees remain.
Under Israeli law, Palestinians in Gaza can be held in the facilities and other military detention camps, without warrants, trial or charges, for more than a month. Many Palestinian detainees have spent weeks in the facilities before being released back to Gaza after Israeli authorities deemed them not affiliated with militant groups.
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This story has been edited to correct the name of the organization Physicians for Human Rights-Israel. ___
Associated Press reporters Tia Goldenberg and Melanie Lidman in Tel Aviv, Israel; and Jack Jeffery in Ramallah, West Bank, contributed to this report.
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