A scandal at the Sde Teiman concentration camp has led to infighting among Zionist occupation forces’ units and far-right settlers, following reports of “serious abuse” of Palestinian detainees.
According to Zionist media reports, troops deployed in the camp to guard Palestinian detainees have been torturing them for their own amusement.
A specific case saw occupation forces rape a Palestinian detainee, by assaulting him with a rod, causing him severe injuries that necessitated his transfer to a hospital.
Zionist Military Police raided the concentration camp, which has also been a military base for occupation forces in the occupied al-Naqab desert, arresting nine troops serving at the site for questioning.
As a result of the raid, a fight broke out between members of the Military Police and soldiers manning the site.
According to Zionist media outlets, the investigation into the rape case was opened by orders of the Military Advocate, Major General Yifat Tomer-Yerushalmi.
At around 3:00 pm (local time), the military command said it arrested nine soldiers for questioning with a tenth suspect yet to be detained. It also claimed that the incident in the base had ended.
Far-right Zionist angered by questioning of troops
However, a few minutes later, news of far-right settlers and lawmakers storming the base broke out.
The far-right Zionist breached the Sde Teiman base, protesting the arrest of the soldiers.
The soldiers were reportedly transported to the Beit Lid base in central occupied Palestine, where protesters began to gather on Monday afternoon. At Sde Teiman, dozens of far-right lawmakers and settlers were able to breach the base’s checkpoint, defying the orders of officers.
Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, Police Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, and Member of Knesset Yitzhak Kroizer all denounced the arrest of Zionist troops, directing a message to the Military Police saying, “Keep your hands off our soldiers.”
Kroizer said he would join protesters in the Beit Lid base.
Later, Zionist media outlets reported that dozens of settlers stormed the Beit Lid base, with videos showing a group of far-right settlers entering the headquarters on Monday night.
Zionist military chief slams infiltration of Sde Teiman
Earlier on Monday, occupation forces Chief of Staff Herzi Halevi slammed the infiltration into Sde Teiman, saying that the incident “is extremely serious and against the law.”
“Breaking into a military base and disturbing the order there is serious behavior that is not acceptable in any way,” Halevi added.
“We are at war, and actions of this kind endanger the security of the country,” he asserted.
Halevi announced his support to the Military Advocate General and the Military Police investigation.
“Troops and police officers are currently working to detain those who broke into the base in protest of nine soldiers being held for questioning over the serious abuse incident,” he added.
However, Halevi’s message that settlers who broke into the Sde Teiman base would be arrested did not stop dozens of others from breaking into the Beit Lid base.
The Minister of Security, Yoav Gallant, also released a statement condemning the storming of Sde Teiman by settlers.
“Even in times of anger, the law applies to everyone, ” he said.
“We must allow the authorized parties to carry out the necessary investigations while maintaining the dignity of our soldiers,” he added.
Netanyahu calls for a “calming of passions”
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu released a statement calling for “an immediate calming of passions in the Sde Teiman base.”
He also said he “strongly condemns” the storming of the base.
President Isaac Herzog also echoed the statements of other top officials saying that “breaking into a military base by civilians, and certainly when it is done with the encouragement and involvement of elected officials, is a serious, dangerous, illegal and irresponsible act, which first and foremost harms us as a people and as a country.”
Palestinian Resistance factions issue statements
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What is required is to refer all crimes and terrible violations against prisoners to international courts, and to send international committees to inspect prisons and find out their fate.
What was revealed by the Washington Post about heinous crimes committed by the zionist occupation against Palestinian prisoners in its prisons, including torture, rape, and deliberate medical neglect, which led to the martyrdom of a number of them as a result of severe beatings and deprivation of the necessary medical care, are war crimes against humanity that reflect an unprecedented and unparalleled level of cruelty and the sadism, fascism and brutality rampant in the cowardly and Nazi occupation army.
The occupation’s arrest of a number of its soldiers after a video was leaked depicting them brutally torturing a prisoner from the Gaza Strip is nothing but a farce aimed at evading international accountability and trying to evade any prosecutions from international courts by conducting formal and farcical trials.
These atrocities are taking place under the direct sponsorship and support of the American administration, and the complicity of the international community and its failure to assume its moral and humanitarian responsibilities to stop the major atrocities committed against Palestinian prisoners, especially the prisoners of the Gaza Strip in the “Sde Teman” extermination camp.
We call for urgent action to save the lives of the prisoners and end their suffering, and to send international committees to inspect the occupation prisons and find out the fate of the prisoners, and to refer all horrific crimes and violations against them to international courts.
Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine
Central Media Department
29 July 2024
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In the Name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful
The brutal violations occurring at the “Sde Teman” military base against thousands of abductees from the Gaza Strip, and the systematic torture they endure at the hands of sadistic zionist officers and soldiers of the occupation army, affirm the nature of this rogue occupation entity against human values. It is necessary for the world, the United Nations, and human rights institutions to turn their attention to the occupation’s prisons and the disappeared within them, to monitor their conditions and unknown fate.
The ministers of the fascist occupation government, who are now leading a campaign to protect the criminal soldiers and officers who committed these crimes, unequivocally confirm that what is happening inside the occupation prisons against our prisoners are systematic violations carried out according to a policy drawn up by the war criminal Netanyahu and his security minister Ben-Gvir.
We demand an international investigation committee to investigate these heinous and brutal crimes against the prisoners.
These atrocious crimes against our prisoners require immediate international intervention to stop them and to add them to the file of war crimes and genocide by the zionist entity in the International Court of Justice and the International Criminal Court, and to take serious steps to prosecute and hold these Nazis accountable for their crimes against the prisoners and their grave violations of international law.
The Islamic Resistance Movement – Hamas
Monday: 23 Muharram 1446 AH
Corresponding to: July 29, 2024