Palestinian sexually abused by Israeli jailers returned to Sde Teiman prison camp
Dozens of Palestinians have been killed while being held at the notorious Israeli detention center
The Palestinian prisoner who was tortured and sexually assaulted by Israeli forces at the notorious Sde Teiman detention center has been returned to the facility, Haaretz newspaper reported on 1 August.
The detainee has been sent to a field hospital at Sde Teiman after being released from the hospital he was taken to after being assaulted.
According to Haaretz, the prisoner was an officer in Hamas’ armed wing, the Qassam Brigades, and was arrested following the start of the Israeli ground war in Gaza on 27 October.
He was reportedly transferred to Sde Teiman from the Ofer prison after leading a prisoner rebellion with 14 others.
“The detainee was examined initially at the Sde Teiman in field hospital, where personnel saw that he was injured and reported the violence to the detention center, which conducted a preliminary internal investigation. He was transferred to a hospital in southern Israel for treatment, at the end of which he was returned to the hospital at Sde Teiman. He remains there, held in restraints,” army sources told Haaretz.
“The return of the detainee to the clinic at Sde Teiman, the facility where he was subjected to torture, is a serious ethical and professional failure of the medical officials and hospital management who were involved in his medical care,” doctors at Human Rights Israel said. “Through this decision, the medical teams exposed the detainee to the possibility that he would once again meet the soldiers suspected of raping him, thereby putting his life in danger.”
Haaretz said that soldiers who took part in demonstrations in defense of those who assaulted the prisoner remain in the facility.
Following a hearing on 31 July, the detention of the soldiers was extended.
Massive riots at Sde Teiman and the Beit Lid base erupted on 29 July after settlers and far-right officials stormed both facilities in defense of the soldiers who committed the assault.
On Wednesday, the UN human rights office issued a report saying Palestinians detained in Israeli detention centers since 7 October face waterboarding, sleep deprivation, electric shocks, dog attacks, and other brutal acts of torture.
“The testimonies gathered by my office and other entities indicate a range of appalling acts, such as waterboarding and the release of dogs on detainees, amongst other acts, in flagrant violation of international human rights law and international humanitarian law,” UN Human Rights Chief, Volker Türk, said in a statement.
Sde Teiman itself has been referred to as Israel’s Guantanamo. Dozens of prisoners at the facility have been killed, the New York Times reported in June.