‘Israel's Guantanamo': What You Need to Know About Sde Teiman Prison for Torturing Gaza Detainees

The Israeli Occupation does not just annihilate the people of Gaza with bombs and missiles, but also kills those who survive by arresting and torturing them to death in a special Israeli prison built in a desert.

It resembles the infamous American counterparts, Guantanamo or Abu Ghraib, where the U.S. tortured Iraqis during its Invasion of Baghdad.

The Most Horrific Prison 

In early June 2024, the Israeli Occupation army revealed the martyrdom of 36 Gazan detainees in Israeli detention centers since October 7, 2023.

The martyrs were among 4,000 Palestinians arrested by the Israeli Occupation forces in the largest detention center called Sde Teiman since October 7. Israeli human rights groups report that detainees there endure torture and face death.

The Sde Teiman detention center, which has an attached desert military hospital to treat injured prisoners or harvest their organs, is akin to the infamous American Guantanamo.

Due to Israeli censorship, what happens in Sde Teriman stays in Sde Teriman, except through those who were released and returned to Gaza nearly dead from torture and harsh treatment, or through Israeli doctors and soldiers who have recounted their actions there.

Testimonies published by Western media and human rights groups reveal that Palestinian prisoners are bound and blindfolded inside the tents of this desert prison, where surgeries are performed on them without adequate anesthesia.

The exposure of the "Israeli Guantanamo" began when the Geneva-based Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor wrote on October 31, 2023, revealing the crimes occurring inside.

The monitor confirmed that it documented severe torture and abuse by the Israeli Occupation army against Palestinian detainees, blatant violations of their rights, and the prevention of journalists and the International Committee of the Red Cross from entering.

Later, on December 18, 2023, Haaretz began publishing leaks about the horrors happening in this detention center.

It revealed that hundreds of Palestinian detainees from Gaza remain blindfolded and handcuffed for weeks, subjected to violence and punishment by the Israeli Occupation soldiers according to their whims, in the detention center named Sde Teiman.

A soldier working in the desert detention center reported that Palestinian detainees sleep on the ground, shackled, in a place filled with foul odors, and are forced to wear diapers to prevent them from using the bathrooms.

He confirmed that even sick detainees in the detention hospital suffer from dire conditions, with many of their wounds becoming infected.

He mentioned that an elderly man underwent leg surgery without painkillers, "he was screaming and trembling."

Horrific Practices 

The Associated Press agency reported in early June 2024 on Israeli anesthesiologist Yoel Donchin defending the detention center and its military hospital, denying mistreatment while acknowledging some bad practices inside.

He stated that most patients wear diapers and are not allowed to use the bathroom, bound around their arms and legs and blindfolded, and their eyes are covered all the time, saying that he does not know the security reason for that.

Associated Press reported from three Israelis who worked in the hospital confirming that the patients lie there handcuffed and blindfolded, with surgeries performed without adequate pain relief, accounts also confirmed by human rights workers.

The American agency refuted Israeli claims that it only detained suspected Palestinian activists, confirming that it verified many of the patients were unarmed individuals captured during raids and detained without trial.

A doctor at the Sde Teiman hospital attached to the detention center stated that the conditions in the facility "can harm the health of the prisoners and make the Israeli government violate the law."

He said that in just one week, the legs of two prisoners were amputated due to injuries from the iron cuffs they have worn since their arrest, which unfortunately is routine.

Another doctor treating Palestinian detainees at the Sde Teiman military base revealed to Haaretz on April 7, 2024, the deplorable conditions surrounding the routine amputations of prisoners due to shackles.

In a letter to the Attorney General and the Israeli Ministers of War and Health, the doctor described these conditions as "violations" of professional ethics.

The doctor reported that the neglect leading to detainee deaths makes medical staff and officials in the Health and War Ministries "complicit in breaching humanitarian law."

On March 13, 2024, The Wall Street Journal published testimonies of former Palestinian detainees in the “Israeli Guantanamo."

Some of them reported being forced by the Israeli Occupation forces to kneel for up to 20 hours, and maintain difficult physical positions, in addition to being kicked, beaten, and assaulted.

They confirmed that the Israeli Occupation soldiers ordered detainees to "not move, sit upright, speak, or even glance from under the blindfold," under the threat of severe punishment and torture.

Mysterious Detention 

The Wall Street Journal interviewed over 10 former detainees in Israeli prisons, including Baha Abu Rukba (24 years old), a medic with the Palestinian Red Crescent, who said he was repeatedly beaten with rifle butts and kicked in the thigh.

Some described suffering physical assaults by Israeli forces and being deprived of sleep, limited to only four hours a day without beds or blankets.

Many Palestinians told The Wall Street Journal that Israeli forces arrested them in November and December 2023, when hundreds of thousands were moving to the southern sector following Israeli evacuation orders.

These detainees appeared naked, with the Israeli Occupation claiming it was to ensure they were not carrying explosives or other weapons.

Among the other detainees who spoke to the newspaper was Mohammed Obeid, who said that Israeli soldiers, under threat of weapons, forced him to strip, bound his hands and feet with zip ties, and transported him on a bus with other detainees. He was interrogated for six hours while his hands were tied to the ceiling.

The next day, Israeli interrogators took him to a room and questioned him about his whereabouts on October 7, Operation al-Aqsa Flood, the locations of Israeli hostages, Hamas tunnels, and rocket sites, while taking turns punching him in the face.

After the interrogation, they ordered him to wipe the blood from his face and stand in front of the Israeli flag for a photo before releasing him without charges after 40 days of detention.

40-year-old Hiba said she was arrested in early December. During interrogation, she was asked about the residents of her neighborhood and the whereabouts of Hamas leaders and Israeli hostages.

They threatened to electrocute her, and when the detainees were returned to the cell, Israeli soldiers tied their hands and feet, she said.

A previous report by CNN on May 11, 2024, cited Israeli informants confirming that Palestinians inside the mysterious Israeli desert detention facility live bound, blindfolded, and wearing diapers.

These informants painted a grim, harsh, and inhumane picture of what happens in the detention center.

They stated that "unqualified" Israeli doctors at the prison hospital amputated prisoners' limbs due to injuries caused by continuous handcuffing.

Sde Teiman Massacre 

Hebrew newspapers reported that this detention center was established near the city of Beersheba in southern “Israel,” in the desert, at a military base following the Hamas attack on October 7.

CNN described it on May 11, 2024, as a mysterious detention center in “Israel,” previously a military base in the Negev Desert; it is about 18 miles (28.9 km) from Gaza.

The Sde Teiman detention facility is divided into two sections: a "prison" where detainees are held under severe conditions, and a "hospital" where injured detainees are tied to their beds, wear diapers, and are fed through special tubes.

The military hospital was attached to the prison to treat those injured by the Israeli Occupation, as Israeli civilian hospitals refused to treat Gaza detainees.

Foreign newspapers revealed in March 2024 that recent satellite images showed unprecedented expansion of the Sde Teiman detention facility, which was formerly an airbase located between the Be’er Sheva settlement and the Gaza Strip.

The satellite images showed a number of new buildings and what appeared to be large tents (hangars) at different locations within the base, which had transformed from a camp and airbase into what human rights groups described as "Israel's Guantanamo."

Human rights groups and other critics claimed that "what seemed like a temporary detention and treatment facility has turned into a harsh detention center with little accountability."

Physicians for Human Rights-Israel confirmed that the 36 Palestinians from Gaza who died in the prison, as announced by the Israeli army, died due to medical neglect.

Tal Steiner, the executive director of The Public Committee Against Torture in Israel, said some Palestinians are held incommunicado, without the right to consult a lawyer, and without contact with their families.

In April 2024, Physicians for Human Rights-Israel presented a report detailing the ethical crimes at Sde Teiman and the health damages suffered by detainees due to the detention conditions, which could lead to "complete nerve damage."

The organization stated that what is happening at Sde Teiman in general, and regarding the medical treatment provided to detainees in that camp, reflects an unprecedented decline in accepted medical ethics and standards.

In February 2024, as more Western media began reporting on the crimes occurring within the detention facility, the medical ethics committee, consisting of representatives from the Ministry of Health, the Israel Medicine Association, and hospital administrations, visited Sde Teiman.

They reported encountering "ethical issues" faced by the medical staff at the facility, although the committee has yet to publish its findings.

A source who visited the base told Haaretz that these are indeed the same conditions as those in Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq.

Excessive Abuse 

White House National Security Council spokesman John Kirby admitted the existence of this infamous detention facility during a press conference in May 2024.

Kirby said the White House is deeply concerned about reports of detainee abuse, indicating that Washington is preparing to raise questions with Israeli officials.

Israeli Military Advocate General Yifat Tomer Yerushalmi was forced to admit in May 2024 that some soldiers are currently under investigation for mistreating prisoners and using excessive force.

However, the Hebrew site +972 explained that Benjamin Netanyahu's government has spent months creating legal immunity for sites like Sde Teiman.

The Knesset passed an amendment to the Unlawful Combatants Law, along with other new emergency regulations, granting broad powers to detain prisoners with limited oversight or due process.

According to the new amendment, which became law on December 18, 2023, a person can be detained for 45 days without a judicial order, held without judicial review of their case for 75 days, and denied the right to meet with a lawyer for 180 days.

The site explained that the cumulative effect of these regulations is that a person can be tortured, or even die, without anyone knowing of their detention or the circumstances and location of their imprisonment.

According to its quarterly report as of March 2024, Israel Prison Service held 829 detainees (828 men and one woman) under the Unlawful Combatants Law.

Since then, reports indicate that the number of detainees from Gaza has increased by 150%.

By March, according to Israel Prison Service, the number of Palestinian detainees classified as "security prisoners" reached over 9,000 prisoners, including 3,582 administrative detainees, held without charge or trial.

It is worth noting that Israeli law does not explicitly prohibit torture. Despite signing and ratifying the United Nations Convention Against Torture, “Israel” has refrained from enacting legislation that defines torture as a crime and sets penalties for its perpetrators.