BEIRUT, (PIC)
The Palestine Center for Prisoner Studies said “what the Israeli newspaper Haaretz revealed about the shocking violations committed in the Sde Teiman detention center is conclusive evidence of systematic war crimes, which requires urgent action to bring the Israeli leaders to trial before international courts.”
In a statement on Sunday, the center noted that “the testimony of the Israeli soldier, published by the newspaper, is a legal and moral indictment that reveals 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 direct supervision of Israeli officials, it added.
The soldier, who served in the detention center, quoted 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, are prevented from using the bathroom, 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 center said, noting 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 soldier’s 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.”
Since the beginning of the aggression against Gaza in October 2023, the Israeli occupation forces have arrested thousands of Palestinians, especially from the eastern and northern areas of the Strip, and thrown them into secret detention centers such as Sde Teiman, amid a widespread media and human rights blackout.
Over the past months, testimonies have emerged about horrific crimes committed inside that detention center, while human rights reports confirm that hundreds of prisoners have been killed under torture or due to deliberate medical negligence, amid shameful international silence.
