Sde Teiman — a detention facility notorious for its abuse of Palestinian prisoners — made headlines for its systematic torture, rape, and murder of Palestinians. After Oct. 7, the Israeli regime constructed “a secret imprisonment camp in the Negev,” which has been operating essentially as a concentration camp.
Over 4,000 Palestinians from Gaza have been rounded up and detained at the desert military base since the genocide began, as reported by Middle East Eye. Eyewitnesses described the conditions at the camp, recounting physical, sexual, and psychological abuse. All detainees are kept blindfolded and shackled at all times. Whistleblowers have shared that the handcuffing is so severe that it has frequently led to amputations. Electric shocks have also been reportedly used as a form of abuse and torture within Sde Teiman’s walls. These fragments of information barely scratch the surface of human rights atrocities occurring at Israel’s very own death camp for Palestinians.
It has been confirmed that at least two Palestinians held at Sde Teiman have been tortured to death by the Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF). At the same time, the UN estimates that at least 27 Palestinians have been killed while being arbitrarily detained in recent months. Israeli officers place this number as high as 35.
The most recent and widely spread horror story to come out of the torture center was brought to light when nine Israeli soldiers were apprehended on Monday, July 29, for the gang-rape of a Palestinian detainee. Violent protests quickly broke out at Sde Teiman, with Israelis defending the right to rape Palestinians. The soldiers running the facility attempted to barricade themselves inside the base, even using pepper spray to prevent themselves from being arrested.
The protest morphed into a riot when Israeli settlers and Knesset (parliament) members arrived at the torture camp, advocating that the suspected soldiers be set free. Solidarity protests erupted throughout the settler colony and were coined “the right to rape” across the social media app X. The Cradle reports that “members of the Knesset representing several political parties, including the Likud [Netanyahu’s party], also took part in the riots.”
Simultaneously, the Knesset held a government meeting to discuss this so-called right to sexually assault and rape Palestinians, with Israeli politicians claiming it is legitimate to commit sexual abuse. In fact, the Israeli parliament and society have so much confidence and pride when it comes to the torture and rape of Palestinians that a major Hebrew media site hailed the guilty soldiers as “heroes.”
Palestinian poet Remi Kanazi weighed in on the use of torture and rape as a tool of colonialism. He wrote on X, “Israel has been sexually assaulting and violating Palestinian men, women, and children for more than 75 years. The discovery of their rape factory is not an aberration. It's been part of the foundation of the state and has never skipped a beat. Believe Palestinians next time.”
Further developments in this case became publicized on Aug. 7, when actual video footage was released by certain Israeli media outlets capturing the moment a Palestinian detainee was sodomized. After seeing the grotesque recording, Palestinians reminded the world that “every [Israeli] accusation is a confession,” referring to Palestinian resistance fighters being willfully and wrongly accused of sexual misconduct. Even massive outlets such as The New York Times repeatedly parroted such myths. (Randa Abdel-Fattah wrote about the paper’s weaponization of rape for Palestine Square here).
Additionally, it was revealed that the assault victim in the video suffered from “a ruptured bowel, a severe injury to his anus, lung damage and broken ribs." To add to the horror, the same political prisoner was reportedly returned to Sde Teiman after being transferred to a hospital for treatment.
An Israeli doctor at this particular detention center was quoted as saying, "If the state and Knesset 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 ICC] the Hague, that's no good."
The comparisons do not end there. Mansoor Adayfi — a former prisoner at Guantánamo Bay — wrote about how the reports of Sde Teiman “immediately transported” him back to his days in arbitrary detention at the illegal American camp. “The similarities between Guantánamo Sde Teiman are not limited to the treatment of prisoners,” he pointed out. “The two facilities also justify their existence — and provide legal cover for their excesses — [by] using similar arguments and narratives.”
Khaled Mahajneh — a lawyer who managed to obtain access to the detention center — could only describe what he saw as “more horrific than anything we’ve heard about Abu Ghraib and Guantánamo,” reports Palestine Chronicle.
On Aug. 9, one of the Israeli soldiers who participated in the rape revealed his identity on social media as Meir Ben-Shitrit. Ten soldiers were detained for the sexual abuse of the Palestinian prisoners. Israeli media report that only five were placed on house arrest through Sept. 4. On Sept. 18, the Israeli Supreme Court declined a petition submitted by civil society organizations to shut down the Sde Teiman torture camp claiming that the government has taken steps to 'improve conditions.' Israeli media also reported that a new detention facility was built in September and paraded the narrative of 'improved conditions' in an attempt to pacify public criticism. More than 4,000 Palestinians from Gaza have been detained at Sde Teiman throughout the genocide. The Israeli government claims that as of last month, there are currently 28 prisoners at the torture camp. This number could not be independently verified.
Thousands of Palestinians are reported missing from Gaza, their fates unknown whether buried under the rubble or kidnapped. Only last week, Israel returned the decomposing and unidentifiable bodies of 88 dead Palestinians, refusing to disclose their names or other information about whether they were kidnapped or stolen from mass graves. Earlier last month, an Israeli soldier posted a photo with a Palestinian child that went missing from Gaza identified as Doha Talat — he quickly deleted the photograph after it circulated on social media and raised questions about Israel abducting children from Gaza.
Mainstream Western outlets were criticized for “conspicuous lack of coverage and vocalized condemnation” after footage of the horrific assault of a Palestinian detainee was released.
Laura Albast, a Palestinian journalist and editor of Palestine Square, said that when Western media outlets cannot use a “‘convincing’ justification for an Israeli atrocity, they simply don’t report it at all.”
“Even when Israeli war crimes are in our face, the [Western] media apparatus lowers its gaze. This leaves the public uninformed,” she added.
The Gaza Ministry of Detainees has called for Sde Teiman to be shut down, stating that it is being used as a form of “torture, assault, and humiliation.” UN human rights experts have referred to the crimes as “grossly illegal & revolting and only the ‘tip of the iceberg’” in terms of what atrocities are being hidden behind Sde Teiman’s iron curtain.
During these surreal moments, Ali Abunimah reminds, “This is the monster regime Palestinians are fighting to liberate themselves from. Their fight is just. Their resistance is just. They will be free of this Western savagery.”