Israel’s Brutal Mass-Detention System is Out of Control, Clashes at Sde Teiman Confirm

London, 29th July 2024:  Responding to reported gang-rape of a Palestinian prisoner by Israeli soldiers, the Israeli Military Police has today raided the ‘Sde Teiman’ prison in order to question soldiers at the prison notorious for its violent mistreatment and abuse of thousands of Palestinian detainees. The Military Police were met by soldier gunfire, and the compound was then stormed by anti-Palestinian protestors and politicians, in events bringing further alarm as to the conditions faced by Palestinians held in captivity.

The International Centre of Justice for Palestinians (ICJP) reiterates its condemnation of Israel’s detention practices: the thousands of Palestinians held in captivity subjected to ‘rampant violence and deprivation’, in conditions attributable for dozens of deaths-in-custody. Furthermore, ICJP condemns the international community’s failure to address the stark deprivation of rights of Palestinian detainees, and calls upon the United Kingdom government to clarify its involvement in Israeli prison monitoring.

Today’s raid at Sde Teiman, and the political revolt in the Knesset at the suggestion of arrests for abuses of Palestinians, confirms that the situation within Israeli prisons has become ‘out-of-control’. With basic failures of reporting and accountability for abuse, the basic needs of the over 10,000 Palestinian prisoners, including almost 4,000 in ‘administrative detention’, are also deliberately neglected. Numerous reports by released Palestinians, and autopsies of those killed in custody, reveal an almost lawless situation of brutal violence against Palestinians, many of whom have never even been charged with a crime.

Today’s events come after months of reports on the brutal conditions inside Sde Teiman, where at least 35 Palestinians have died in the prison or after transport to hospital since October, according to the New York Times. Across Israel’s prison system, not just at Sde Teiman, facilities are dangerously overcrowded, prisoners are deprived of food, water, contact with family, and many are blindfolded and continuously handcuffed. Beatings and abuse, including sexual violence, are widespread. This is in clear contravention of the protections afforded to Palestinian detainees under the Geneva Conventions and numerous human rights treaties, including the Convention against Torture. 

Given this evidence, ICJP again reiterates its calls for the UK government to clarify its relationship to prison monitoring in Israel, with previous reports suggesting that a jointly developed UK-Israeli prison monitoring mechanism is due to replace the Red Cross’ monitoring role, with Red Cross having been denied access to facilities for months now.

ENDS 

Notes to Editors:  

1. The International Centre of Justice for Palestinians is an independent organisation of lawyers, politicians and academics who support the rights of Palestinians and aim to protect their rights through the law.   
2. Haaretz, 29^th July 2024, ‘Israeli Military Police Raid Sde Teiman Prison, Detain Soldiers Suspected of Abusing Palestinian Detainee’
3. Washington Post, 29^th July 2024, ‘Palestinians recount deadly abuse in Israeli prisons: ‘It is Guantanamo’’
4. New York Times, 6^th June 2024, ‘Inside Sde Teiman, the Base where Israel has Detained Thousands of Gazans’
5. The Guardian, 16^th May 2024, ‘Red Cross and Foreign Office to discuss plan to visit Palestinians in Israeli detention’