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This page is the English version of Almasirah Media Network website and it focuses on delivering all leading News and developments in Yemen, the Middle East and the world. In the eara of misinformation imposed by the main stream media in the Middle East and abroad, Almasirah Media Network strives towards promoting knowledge, principle values and justice, among all societies and cultures in the world

The Dark Reality of Sde Timan: Systematic Torture and Sexual Abuse of Gaza Detainees in Israeli Prisons

Middle East: The name "Sde Timan Camp" has been repeatedly mentioned as a detention center for prisoners from Gaza, notorious for its bad reputation since the beginning of the genocide war on the Gaza Strip. 

 

This camp is primarily a military base of the Israeli occupation forces, housing various units, leaders, and brigades. The State of Israel inherited it from the British Mandate and repurposed it as a military base in the 1950s, naming it "Sde Timan," meaning the Yemen Field, as it was used to accommodate Yemeni Jews at that time.

The Israeli army began using this camp as a detention center for Gaza prisoners following the 2008/2009 aggression when a decision was made to allocate it for detaining Gazans captured during the ground incursion into the strip. This practice was repeated in the 2014 aggression, with *Haaretz* reporting that 270 Palestinians were detained there during the ground incursion.

Recently, an incident at "Sde Timan Camp" on July 29th brought renewed attention to the widespread violations against Gaza prisoners in Israeli detention centers, particularly in this camp. The incident involved the Israeli military police arresting several soldiers following reports of a sexual assault and gang rape of a Gaza prisoner. The situation escalated when hundreds of far-right Israeli supporters stormed the camp to prevent the investigation and later raided the "Beit Lid" base, where the investigation was taking place.

According to *Haaretz*, the gang rape caused severe bleeding and critical injuries to the prisoner, leading to the investigation of the involved soldiers. Despite "Sde Timan" being the worst of Israeli detention centers globally, it serves as an example of the other facilities where Gaza prisoners are tortured, mistreated, sexually assaulted, and denied basic rights.

Khaled Mahajna, a lawyer from the Commission of Detainees and Ex-Detainees Affairs, reported that "Ofer" camp has two sections, named "Hell" and "Inferno," designated for torturing Gaza prisoners transferred from "Sde Timan." The conditions in these sections, in terms of torture, violations, and deprivation of basic rights such as food, clothing, and cleanliness, are extremely dire.

However, "Sde Timan" remains the worst, as the most horrifying testimonies of brutal torture and sexual assaults come from there. By late June, of the 54 prisoners who died in Israeli prisons, 36 were in "Sde Timan."

Sexual torture is a systematic policy

Israeli soldiers and jailers have subjected Gaza prisoners to various forms of torture, deprivation, abuse, and humiliation, with sexual torture being a recurring theme in most testimonies from former detainees. 

The rape of a prisoner in "Sde Timan" was not an isolated incident; released prisoners' testimonies indicate that sexual torture is a systematic policy against Gaza prisoners, both men and women. This begins at the moment of arrest, with soldiers often forcing prisoners to strip almost completely or fully. Sexual torture continues in the detention centers, starting with strip searches of new prisoners, often conducted in front of other prisoners, with women being forced to strip in front of soldiers.

A 64-year-old female prisoner from Gaza recounted how the female soldiers stripped and searched the female prisoners naked in the presence of male soldiers. The abuse does not stop there; Gaza prisoners are subjected to various forms of sexual violence and rape, leading to the death of some due to the accompanying brutal physical torture.

 

According to Mahajna, sexual torture and rape are prevalent in "Sde Timan" and "Ofer" camps, with some prisoners dying or sustaining severe injuries due to the brutality. Soldiers have been reported to rape prisoners and sexually assault them in front of others. One prisoner was raped with a fire extinguisher hose, which was inserted into his rectum by the soldiers. Another was tortured naked with electric shocks to his sensitive areas in front of other prisoners, while others reported being forced to sit on metal objects that caused severe injuries and bleeding in the rectal area.

The physical, psychological, and sexual torture, starvation, and killing of Gaza prisoners cannot be understood through Israeli colonial laws alone. The core understanding comes from Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant's description of Gazans as "human animals." This exceptional state reduces the individual to *homo sacer*—a person outside any legal, moral, or religious framework, living a bare life without any political or social existence, only a biological one. This view, as Gallant describes them as "human animals," implies that harming them does not necessitate any legal or moral accountability.

Thus, Gaza prisoners are tortured out of revenge, entertainment, and to satisfy soldiers' hatreds, not to extract information. Many are released after weeks or months without charges, but they endure various forms of torture during their detention.

Moreover, the desire to satisfy the occupiers extends beyond the soldiers to the public, as the Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor documented testimonies from prisoners who said Israeli settlers were brought in groups to watch the torture, filming them as they were stripped, tortured, humiliated, and subjected to electric shocks.

 

Translated from a special report by Kareem Qurt for the Vision Center for Political Development.

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This page is the English version of Almasirah Media Network website and it focuses on delivering all leading News and developments in Yemen, the Middle East and the world. In the eara of misinformation imposed by the main stream media in the Middle East and abroad, Almasirah Media Network strives towards promoting knowledge, principle values and justice, among all societies and cultures in the world

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