Israel returns sexually abused Gaza detainee to detention centre where he was tortured

A Gaza detainee allegedly sexually abused by Israeli soldiers at Sde Teiman was returned to the military detention centre after being treated for his injuries in Beersheba.

According to Haaretz, he suffered from “a ruptured bowel, a severe injury to his anus, lung damage and broken ribs” as a result of the immense torture he was subjected to by Israeli occupation soldiers.

The Palestinian detainee was hospitalised immediately after the incident and then released to a field hospital at the Sde Teiman base.

It comes after one of the nine Israeli soldiers arrested for abusing him was released without charge. Deliberations about the other eight are continuing.

The nine men were detained for their role in the alleged abuse, including rape, of Palestinian detainees held at the facility, which has been compared to Guantanamo Bay and Abu Ghraib.

Physicians for Human Rights, an Israeli NGO, condemned the detainee’s return to the facility where he was allegedly abused, calling it a “serious ethical and professional failure” of the medical officials and hospital management involved in his care.

“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,” it said.

At least 13 prisoners are said to have died in recent months from abuse in Israeli prisons. That figure could be much higher with Haaretz reporting that the number of Palestinians who died because of Israeli torture and abuse could be as high as 27 since 7 October last year.

Allegations of abuse by Israeli soldiers against Palestinian detainees at Sde Teiman were reported in May. An anonymous Israeli whistleblower who worked at the facility in the Negev Desert reported gruesome details of abuse, torture and mistreatment of Palestinians.

In June, a shocking three-month investigation by the New York Times uncovered harrowing details of the conditions endured by the roughly 4,000 Palestinian detainees. Horrific accounts of rape were covered by the NYT investigation.

Yoel Donchin, a doctor at Sde Teiman who has attended the prisoner, told Haaretz that he “couldn’t believe an Israeli prison guard could do such a thing”.

He added: “If the state and Knesset [parliament] members think there’s no limit to how much you can abuse prisoners, they should kill them themselves, like the Nazis did, or close the hospitals. If they maintain a hospital only for the sake of defending ourselves at [the International Criminal Court] the Hague, that’s no good.”

Following the detention of the nine reservists, Israelis stormed the detention centre calling for their release and the death of Palestinian prisoners being held in the facility.

Some 9,700 Palestinians are detained in Israel’s jails, including 80 female prisoners and 250 children, according to estimates by the Palestinian Prisoners Club. It added that this number includes 3,380 administrative detainees – held without charge or trial, while two pregnant women were among those being detained.

Storming Detention centre to free alleged rapists shows growing Israeli fascism: Barghouti says