Gaza detainees died in Israel detention facility

Several Palestinians are reported to have died in a detention facility where they were held near Israel’s Be’er Sheva. They were detained in the Gaza Strip in recent weeks, according to the Israeli newspaper Haaretz.

The army claims that the circumstances of their death are not yet clear and that they are “rioters”, and an investigation is ongoing.

Detainees are being held in fenced areas, blindfolded and handcuffed for most of the day, with lights on throughout the night and undergoing interrogations.

The Sde Teiman facility, located ten kilometres north of Be’er Sheva, is used to hold detainees and for small aircraft and parachute landing training.

The Israeli army claims that detainees who are found not to be involved in resistance operations are returned to the Gaza Strip, while other detainees are transferred to Israeli prisons.

In an interview with Al Jazeera upon their return to Gaza, some Palestinian men showed signs of torture, with deep marks on their wrists from where they had been held in restraints. They said they were not fed, weren’t given clothes to deal with the cold weather and were tortured, left in stress positions and kept blindfolded for weeks. They were beaten with iron bars, had their heads stomped on, were urinated upon and left exposed outdoors for days. They said the number of those detained is unimaginable.

Israel has kept the ID cards of those it allowed back to Gaza.

More horrifying testimonies emerge from civilian Palestinian detainees from Gaza subjected to brutal forms of torture, starvation, & the degradation of human dignity. They were beaten with iron bars, had their heads stomped on, urinated upon, and left exposed outdoors for days. pic.twitter.com/ZFtifAMmfG

— Ramy Abdu| رامي عبده (@RamAbdu) December 19, 2023

READ: UN agencies voice anger at Gaza hospital attacks, depravation