Rights group: Sde Teiman atrocities require Israeli officials’ prosecution as war criminals

A Palestinian prisoners' rights group says recent revelations about the shocking violations committed at the Sde Teiman detention center in the occupied territories are conclusive evidence of systematic war crimes, which require urgent action to bring Israeli leaders to trial before international courts.

The Palestine Center for Prisoner Studies said in a statement on Sunday that the testimony of an Israeli soldier published by the Israeli newspaper Haaretz regarding the brutalities there “is a legal and moral indictment that exposes the involvement of the Israeli military and political leadership in atrocities against Palestinian detainees, most of whom are civilians.”

The soldier confirmed that the detention center is used as a “sadistic torture camp” and that many Palestinians “entered alive and came out in body bags,” reflecting the scale of the crimes committed under the direct supervision of Israeli officials, it added.

The soldier, who served in the detention center, cited the prison commander as describing it as a “graveyard,” noting that the death of prisoners has become commonplace, and that the only surprise is who survives. 

He also confirmed that many wounded prisoners do not receive medical treatment and are left without food for weeks. 

They undergo surgery without anesthesia and are held in inhumane conditions.

The center considered that “the importance of this testimony lies not only in its content, but also in its source, as it came from an eyewitness who served in the place and was reported by a well-known Israeli newspaper, which enhances its legal and media credibility and refutes any attempts to cast doubt on it.”

“The testimony confirms what has already been documented about crimes committed in the Sde Teiman detention center, which has become known as the ‘death prison’,” the Palestine Center for Prisoner Studies said.

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The center noted that what was published by Haaretz “represents only a fraction of the violations suffered by prisoners from the Gaza Strip, which have reached the level of rape, starvation, and deliberate execution, leading to the martyrdom of dozens of detainees, some of whom have been identified, while the fate of others remains unknown.”

The Palestine Center concluded its statement by calling on “all human rights and humanitarian organizations to document the Israeli soldiers’ testimony and use it as a legal tool to condemn the Israeli officials before international forums and hold the perpetrators of crimes in the Sde Teiman detention center accountable.”

Israel launched the war on Gaza on October 7, 2023, after the Palestinian resistance movement Hamas waged the surprise Operation al-Aqsa Flood against the occupying entity in response to the Israeli regime's decades-long campaign of bloodletting and devastation against Palestinians.

The regime’s bloody onslaught on Gaza has so far killed at least 52,862 Palestinians, mostly women and children, and injured more than 119,648 others. Thousands more are also missing and presumed dead under rubble.

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