Sde Teiman detention camp

A photo of blindfolded Palestinian prisoners inside of the camp, released by an anonymous whistleblower in May 2024

Sde Teiman (Hebrew: שדה תימן) is an Israeli military base located in the Negev desert, 18 miles from the border with Gaza, which, during the Israel–Hamas war, has been doubling as a detention camp, used to detain Palestinians from the Gaza Strip. Multiple whistleblowing Israeli employees and released Palestinian detainees have reported systemic abuse and human rights violations, including physical and psychological torture. The camp has been dubbed "Israel's Guantánamo Bay."

Background

The military base was partially converted into a detention camp in the wake of the passing of the Unlawful Combatants Law by the Knesset in December 2023. It is divided into an enclosure where up to 200 detainees are kept blindfolded and handcuffed in cages, and a field hospital of tents where dozens of handcuffed prisoners are kept. The law allows the Israel Defense Forces to detain people without an arrest warrant for 45 days, after which the detainees must be transferred to the Israel Prison Service. As of 10 May 2024, the IDF has acknowledged two similar camps: Ofer Prison and a prison in Anatot, both in the West Bank.

All Gazans detained by Israel since the 7 October attack are classified as unlawful combatants rather than prisoners of war, which excludes them from rights like access to a lawyer. Most detainees, in lieu of evidence that they are members of Hamas, are kept as suspects, without charges laid.This classification is applied to all Gazans, some 849 individuals, detained by Israel since the outbreak of hostilities on October 7, 2023.

Sde Teiman is divided into two sections: enclosures and a field hospital.

As of 7 March 2024, Haaretz reported 27 deaths either from Sde Teiman, another camp, or "during questioning in Israeli territory."

Alleged abuse of detainees

See also: Torture during the Israel–Hamas war

Enclosures

In May 2024, three anonymous Israeli employees of the camp spoke to CNN as whistleblowers, during which they corroborated and expanded upon reports of abuse and poor conditions revealed by multiple detainees who were later released. The whistleblowers detailed enclosures where detainees are blindfolded and not allowed to speak or move. Images leaked to CNN show rows of men wearing gray tracksuits with blindfolds, each sitting on an exceptionally thin mattress, surrounded by a barbed-wire fence.

Punishments include beatings and for prisoners to raise their hands in a stress position, sometimes zip-tied to a fence, for upwards of an hour. In what one released detainee called "the nightly torture," guards would conduct routine searches with dogs and sound grenades while prisoners were sleeping.The detainees are reportedly kept on a diet of one cucumber, some slices of bread and a cup of cheese a day.

Field hospitals

In April 2024, Haaretz obtained a letter written by a doctor at a field hospital at Sde Teiman to Israel's attorney general, defense minister, and health minister. The doctor wrote that "inmates are fed through straws, defecate in diapers and are held [in] constant restraints, which violate medical ethics and the law." The doctor alleged that understaffing and inadequate care led to complications and deaths, describing amputations due to handcuff injuries as "routine." A separate medical source who visited Sde Teiman corroborated the letter to CNN. The source also characterized systemic dehumanizing of detainees, alleging that officials are told not to use prisoners' names but rather their serial numbers.

Whistleblowers to CNN echoed previous accounts of wounded detainees physically restrained to beds, wearing diapers, fed through straws, and blindfolded. They further alleged that medical procedures are frequently performed by underqualified employees, operations are often done without anesthesia, and patients are refused pain relievers. Some of the detainees were reportedly arrested in hospitals in Gaza while undergoing treatment. According to the whistleblowers, the medical team were told to not document treatments or sign papers, corroborating April 2024 reporting by Physicians for Human Rights in Israel that anonymity is employed to hinder potential investigation.

Responses

In response to allegations made by the whistleblowers, the IDF stated that they treat detainees "appropriately and carefully," and that "incidents of unlawful handcuffing are not known to the authorities." Maj. Gen. Yifat Tomer-Yerushalmi, the military advocate-general, stated that military police investigations have been opened into allegations of misconduct at Sde Teiman.

On 23 May 2024, Israeli human rights groups petitioned the High Court of Justice to close the detention center at Sde Teiman.

Allegations of sexual harassment of female guards by prisoners

In the wake of reports of abuse of detainees, in an interview on 25 May 2024, a female IDF soldier claimed women guards in Sde Teiman suffer regular sexual harassment from prisoners, who have blown kisses their way, made suggestive remarks and spat on the floor in their presence.

See also

• Camp 1391
• Human rights violations against Palestinians by Israel
• Mass detentions in the Israel–Hamas war
• Palestinian prisoners in Israel
• Torture during the Israel–Hamas war