'There's a desire for revenge': New harrowing abuse details emerge from Israel's notorious Sde Teiman

More details have surfaced on the human rights violations taking place at the notorious Sde Teiman detention facility in southern Israel, which, in recent months, has been the subject of international attention due to numerous abuse testimonies.

Israeli reservist soldiers who served at the prison over the months spoke to the Haaretz newspaper on condition of anonymity about the abuse which took place at the facility throughout Israel's deadly war in Gaza, which has killed over 40,000 Palestinians.

One soldier, a student tasked with guard duty at Sde Teiman back in October, said soldiers boasted about "hitting people with clubs".

He said detainees, blindfolded and handcuffed by the arms and legs were "instructed to remain seated and not move nor talk".

Another soldier said these rules were imposed around the clock. Detainees are not allowed to sleep or lie down when night strikes.

"They're like that [blindfolded and shackled] all the time, day and night."

Anyone going against the Israeli soldiers' rules was allowed to "punish" them according to the kind of rules they broke.

Many were shackled according to a "scale of how dangerous they are".

"The ones who were ranked high, like four, would sit up front, so they would be closer to the guards. I saw the lists a little. Mainly the Nukhbas [term for Hamas military wing fighter] were classified as four."

"I understood that a rank of three is a Hamas militant who isn't Nukhba but is a fighter. Two is someone who is affiliated with Hamas but isn't a fighter. And someone ranked as one is someone who isn't affiliated with any organisation," one reservist told Haaretz.

Detainees were also accused of carrying out "violations" they did not commit. One Palestinian was accused of "looking at a female guard", and was subsequently taken to another location where he was beaten.

"You could see red marks on his arms, around the wrists. When they brought him into the lockup he shouted in Arabic, 'I swear I didn't look [at her].' He lifted his shirt and you could see there were bruises and a little blood around the ribs," he said.

When military officers arrived for their shifts at 5:00 a.m., they would do a head count and read out detainees’ names, who were forced to reply "Yes captain!" in Hebrew, another reservist confessed.

The same reservist described the "extreme violent" nature of body searches, carried out by members of the Force 100.

"They made the detainees lie on their stomachs, hands behind their heads. During the first search I saw, after they were lying down, five inmates were taken out each time, according to some sort of order. They took them out violently, stood them up outside, faces to the fence, and searched them. Usually, they pulled one of them out – I don't know whether randomly or not – and threw him onto the ground."

"It looked like an excuse to sow terror. It wasn't an ordinary search," he added.

Bones and teeth were also broken during the violent searches as soldiers "beat, slapped and punched" detainees, he said, adding that dogs were set on them, too.

One doctor, called to Sdei Teiman’s medical facility in the winter, said detainees in hospital tents had "all four limbs shackled to hospital beds", and were blindfolded. The same detainees were not allowed to communicate regarding injuries or illnesses – potentially threatening their lives.

These detainees had suffered severe injuries or were in critical condition prior to their detention, and "should be recovering in intensive care for at least one or two days", rather than being at the facility, the physician said.

"To hold a person without letting them move any of their limbs, blindfolded, naked, under treatment, in the middle of the desert… in the end, it's no less than torture," the physician said.

When questioned whether soldiers had any questions regarding the violent incident, a military police reservist said "plenty" of soldiers were "enthusiastic" about those kinds of shifts, and "wanted to be there", to witness the violence or partake in it.

"Most of the guys were just fine with what was happening. There were some who were a little bothered by it, and there were others who were bothered by it at the start and then they toed the line with the system. The excuses were that 'it's wartime,' 'they are terrible' and 'there's no other way to impose discipline on them.'"

"There's a desire for revenge," he said.

Another reservist, who witnessed the beating of a Palestinian man who ended up collapsing, said of the violence in Sde Teiman: "People allow themselves [to do things], especially in places where there is no supervision. Or there were cases in which people came to give someone a beating in order to take revenge [for October 7]. Or… that… I don't know whether to call it that… people are sadistic."

The same reservist said many of those who volunteered at Sde Teiman were those who "really enjoy beating up Arabs", in another dehumanising justification for violence against Palestinians.

Sde Teiman, located in the Negev [Naqab] Desert near the border with Gaza, has become the centre of human rights violations and abuse during Israel's military onslaught in Gaza, with allegations coming to light over the months.

The Israeli NGO, B'Tselem, issued a report titled 'Welcome to Hell' on the torture carried out in Sde Teiman, which included testimonies from 55 Palestinian survivors.

Earlier this month, two Palestinians who were abducted by Israeli forces died from torture in detention, rights groups said.

In July, nine Israeli reservist soldiers were arrested over the abuse of a Palestinian detainee, who was assaulted and raped at the facility. The arrests sparked outrage from far-right protesters, who broke into the Sde Teiman and voiced Israeli soldiers’ "right" to sexually assault Palestinians. Several far-right MKs were also involved in the protest.

Also in August, leaked footage shared by the Israeli Channel 12 showed Israeli soldiers picking up a blindfolded detainee and taking him to a corner before he was sexually assaulted. The victim was left bleeding and subsequently hospitalised with his condition described as "complex".

At least 36 Palestinians have died due to torture at the hands of Israeli soldiers since October 7, with over 4,000 men from Gaza passing through the detention facility since.

Following the testimonies from Palestinian victims of abuse, Israeli whistleblowers and rights organisations in the country, NGOs have petitioned the High Court of Justice for the prison to be shut down.

Human rights violations have been carried out extensively by Israeli soldiers amid the war, prompting global accusations of genocide and war crimes.