Violent clash over torture of Palestinian detainees reveals extent of Israeli political polarization

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The Israeli military is holding nine soldiers for questioning following allegations of "substantial abuse" of a detainee at the Sde Teiman military base, where Israel has been holding Palestinian prisoners throughout the war in Gaza. (AP)
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Updated 01 August 2024
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Violent clash over torture of Palestinian detainees reveals extent of Israeli political polarization

  • Investigation into maltreatment of a Palestinian in a military detention facility sparks rightwing protests
  • New accusations include use of waterboarding, electrocution, and sleep deprivation on Palestinians in Israeli custody

ATHENS: Southern Israel’s Sde Teiman detention facility was rocked by protests on Monday when dozens of protestors — including several far-right members of the Knesset — clashed with military police.

The protestors, waving Israeli flags and chanting “shame,” were condemning the arrest and detention of nine Israel Defense Forces reservists accused of subjecting a detained Palestinian man to abuse so severe it resulted in his hospitalization.




Protests have been held in support of the detained reservists despite mounting allegations of the maltreatment of Palestinians. (Reuters/AFP)

As domestic political tensions continue to rise and the war in Gaza shows no sign of stopping, many are wondering whether the widely reported torture of Palestinians in Israeli custody will only deepen the political rift in Israel.

The protest at Sde Teiman was expected, especially given the rhetoric of Israeli lawmakers regarding the treatment of detained Palestinians. Israel’s far-right Minister of National Security Itamar Ben-Gvir took to X on Monday to post: “Take your hands off our reservists!”




For Israel's right-wing extremist finance minister Bezalel Smotrich, the military reservists charged with torturing and maltreating Palestinian prisoners are “heroes.” (AFP photo)

Some Israeli politicians’ brazen endorsement of torture is even more shocking. When asked by a fellow member of the Knesset whether there was any justification for sodomizing a detainee, Likud Party MK Hanoch Mildwidsky shouted: “Yes! If he is a Nukhba (Hamas militant), everything is legitimate to do!”

Bezalel Smotrich, the minister of finance, also condemned the arrests on X, demanding the release of the reservists — whom he called “IDF heroes” — and calling for those who ordered their arrest to be sacked.




This undated photo taken in the winter of 2023 and provided by Breaking the Silence, a whistleblower group of former Israeli soldiers, shows blindfolded Palestinians captured in the Gaza Strip in a detention facility on the Sde Teiman military base in southern Israel. (Breaking The Silence via AP)

Videos posted on social media also showed far-right parliamentarian Zvi Sukkot of the Religious Zionist Party and Heritage Minister Amichay Eliyahu of Otzma Yehudit entering the detention facility at Sde Teiman.

The Sde Teiman protest escalated after protestors realized the detained reservists were being held at the Beit Lid military base north of Tel Aviv, where they attempted to break into the detention center to release the soldiers.

Several members of the reservists’ unit also joined in the protest in full military uniform, though their faces were covered.




People lift placards bearing portraits of Palestinians currently detained by Israel during a protest in solidarity with them and with the residents of the Gaza Strip, in Ramallah city in the occupied West Bank on July 30, 2024. (AFP)

Allegations of the torture of Palestinian detainees by Israeli forces have been mounting for years — even more so since the Hamas-led Oct. 7 attack on southern Israel that sparked the ongoing war in Gaza.

The UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights issued a report on Wednesday alleging the death of at least 53 Palestinian detainees in Israeli custody since the war began, as well as the use of waterboarding, electrocution, and sleep deprivation.

 

 

The Israel Prison Service has denied all of the allegations, claiming that Israeli prisons do not violate the rights of prisoners.

The OHCHR report added that more than 9,400 Palestinians had been detained in Israel from October to the end of June, many of whom had not been granted access to a lawyer.

Since Oct. 7, thousands of Palestinians — including medics, patients, residents and captured fighters — have been taken from Gaza to Israel, “usually shackled and blindfolded,” the OHCHR report said.

INNUMBERS

53 Palestinian detainees believed to have died in Israeli custody since Oct.7. 

9,400 Palestinians detained in Israel from October to the end of June.

Source: OHCHR

Thousands more have been detained in the West Bank and Israel. “They have generally been held in secret, without being given a reason for their detention, access to a lawyer or effective judicial review,” OHCHR added.

Testimonies for the report suggested that Israel had subjected prisoners to “a range of appalling acts, such as waterboarding and the release of dogs on detainees,” UN human rights chief Volker Turk said in a statement accompanying the report.

Many released Palestinians reported treatment “including severe beatings, electrocution, being forced to remain in stress positions for prolonged periods, or waterboarding.” The report said detainees had been subjected to blackmail, “being burnt with cigarettes, and given hallucinogenic pills.”




Palestinian Faouzi Abdel Aal, 21, lies at the Nasser hospital in Khan Yunis in the southern Gaza Strip where he will receive treatment for his injuries, after being reportedly released from an Israeli detention center into Gaza via the Karem Shalom gate, on July 25, 2024. (AFP)

It said there were “reasonable grounds to believe” that since Oct. 7, Israel and Palestinian armed groups had “committed gross violations and abuses … of the rights to life, liberty and freedom from torture and other ill-treatment.”

These included the use of “rape and other forms of sexual violence,” warning the abuses may amount to war crimes. Besides calling for the abuses to cease, the OHCHR urged all parties to “immediately end all forms of arbitrary detention, including the holding of hostages.”


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A summary of the report referred to a “staggering” number of detainees — including men, women, children, journalists and human rights defenders.

“Detainees said they were held in cage-like facilities, stripped naked for prolonged periods, wearing only diapers. Their testimonies told of prolonged blindfolding, deprivation of food, sleep and water,” the summary said.




Bound and blindfolded Palestinian detainees are transported by Israeli soldiers in Gaza on Dec. 8, 2023. (Haaretz via AP/File)

Some detainees said that “their hands were tied and they were suspended from the ceiling,” while “some women and men also spoke of sexual and gender-based violence.”

According to the Prisoners Club, a Palestinian rights watchdog, around 9,600 Palestinians are currently held in Israeli jails, including hundreds under administrative detention where they can be kept for long periods without charge.

Not all Israelis have defended the alleged actions of the arrested reservists, nor do they support the use of torture and the violation of the human rights of Palestinian detainees.

 

 

“Are you in favor of rape? Is this part of Judaism?” Israeli human rights activist Yariv Oppenheimer replied to Belal Smotrich’s post on X.

Israeli writer Hen Mazzig condemned the protests, during which he said members of the media were verbally and physically assaulted.

“Israel’s investigation (of the reservists) must be allowed to proceed. This protest and the politicians encouraging it do NOTHING to help Israel. It only gives more material for those who hate us,” he posted on X on Monday.

 

 

Only a handful of Israeli government officials have condemned the protests and the storming of the detention facility, chief among them Defense Minister Yoav Gallant and Interior Minister Moshe Arbel.

“Even when angry, the laws apply to everyone — do not break into IDF bases and do not violate the laws of the State of Israel,” Gallant posted on X.

“I call on the Israeli Police to act immediately against the violators of the law and on all elected officials to refrain from irresponsible statements that drag the IDF into the political arena,” he said in a separate post.




Israeli soldiers and police clash with right wing protesters after they broke into the Beit Lid army base over the detention for questioning of military reservists who were suspected of abuse of a detainee, following the October 7 attack in Israel, on July 29, 2024 in Kfar Yona. (AFP)

In a statement on Monday, Herzi Halevi, chief of the general staff of the IDF, stated that the break-ins at IDF bases were “extremely serious and against the law.”

However, despite these condemnations, Israeli security forces at the IDF military bases were reportedly apathetic towards the protestors, and there have been no reported detentions or arrests of those involved.

The day after the protests saw a boisterous meeting in the Knesset after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu condemned the mob that broke into IDF bases.

Despite attempts by right-wing activists and lawmakers alike to have the arrested reservists released, eight of the original 10 reservists had their detentions extended this morning and will remain in custody until Sunday, according to the IDF.

The suspects may face charges of aggravated sodomy, assault, and conduct unbecoming of a soldier, among other charges.
 

 


Oman to host sixth round of nuclear negotiations between Iran and US on Sunday

Updated 59 min 5 sec ago
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Oman to host sixth round of nuclear negotiations between Iran and US on Sunday

  • Oman’s foreign minister Badr Al-Busaidi makes announcement on the social platform X

DUBAI: There will be a sixth round of negotiations between Iran and the United States over Tehran’s rapidly advancing nuclear program this weekend, Oman’s foreign minister said Thursday.

Badr Al-Busaidi made the announcement on the social platform X.

“I am pleased to confirm the 6th round of Iran US talks will be held in Muscat this Sunday the 15th,” he wrote.

Iran for days had been saying there would be talks, but Oman, which is serving as the mediator, had not confirmed them until now.

There was no immediate comment from the US.

Tensions have been rising over the last day in the region, with the US drawing down the presence of staffers who are not deemed essential to operations in the Middle East and their loved ones due to the potential for regional unrest.


US-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation says 5 members killed in Hamas attack

Updated 41 min 24 sec ago
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US-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation says 5 members killed in Hamas attack

  • “We condemn this heinous and deliberate attack in the strongest possible terms,” the group said in its statement

WASHINGTON: The US-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation on Wednesday accused militant group Hamas of attacking a bus carrying its staffers to an aid distribution center, saying at least five people were killed and multiple others injured.

The group said in a statement that around 10 p.m. local time (1900 GMT) “a bus carrying more than two dozen members of the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation team... were brutally attacked by Hamas.”

“We are still gathering facts, but what we know is devastating: there are at least five fatalities, multiple injuries, and fear that some of our team members may have been taken hostage,” the statement read.

In an email to AFP the group said all the passengers on the bus were Palestinian and all were aid workers. They were en route to GHF’s distribution center in the area west of Khan Younis.

“We condemn this heinous and deliberate attack in the strongest possible terms,” the group said in its statement. “These were aid workers. Humanitarians. Fathers, brothers, sons and friends, who were risking their lives every day to help others.”

An officially private effort with opaque funding and backed by Israel, GHF began operations on May 26 after Israel completely cut off supplies into Gaza for more than two months, sparking warnings of mass famine.

But GHF’s first week of operations, in which it said it had distributed more than seven million meals’ worth of food, has been marred by criticism.

The Israeli military faces allegations of shooting into crowds of civilians rushing to pick up aid packages near GHF sites.

Israeli authorities and the GHF — which uses contracted US security — denied any such incident took place.

The United Nations and major aid groups have refused to cooperate with the foundation over concerns it was designed to cater to Israeli military objectives.


Palestinian boy who lost nine siblings arrives in Italy for treatment

Updated 12 June 2025
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Palestinian boy who lost nine siblings arrives in Italy for treatment

  • According to the United Nations Children’s Fund (Unicef) website, more than 15,000 children have reportedly been killed and over 34,000 injured in almost two years of war in Gaza

MILAN: A group of 17 Palestinian children, including an 11-year-old boy who lost nine siblings in an Israel strike in Gaza last month, arrived in Italy on Wednesday for hospital treatment, accompanied by more than 50 family members.
Adam Al-Najjar, who has multiple fractures, arrived with his mother at Milan’s Linate airport where he was welcomed by Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani, before being transferred to the city’s Niguarda Hospital.
The plane that landed at Linate carried five other injured Palestinian minors, while 11 more arrived on flights to other Italian airports.
The May 23 attack left Adam in a serious condition at Nasser Hospital, one of the few operational medical facilities in southern Gaza.
Adam “is stable, has a head wound that is healing but his left arm is bad, the bones are fractured and the nerves damaged,” his 36-year-old mother, Alaa Al-Najjar, a paediatrician, told Italian newspaper la Repubblica.
Adam’s father, Hamdi Al-Najjar, who was also a doctor, died a week after the attack.
“The damage is in my left hand, there is a problem with the nerves, I can’t feel my fingers. There’s still a lot of pain,” Adam told Turkish news agency Anadolu.
A total of 70 Palestinians were set to arrive in Italy on three military aircraft that set off from Israel’s Eilat airport, the Italian foreign ministry said earlier on Wednesday.
The patients will be treated at hospitals in numerous cities including Milan, Rome, Florence and Bologna.
According to the United Nations Children’s Fund (Unicef) website, more than 15,000 children have reportedly been killed and over 34,000 injured in almost two years of war in Gaza.
Including the latest operation, Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni’s government has so far brought 150 injured Palestinians from Gaza to Italy for treatment, the foreign ministry said.
The Italian government has been a staunch supporter of Israel since the Oct. 7, 2023 attack by Hamas-led militants that killed some 1,200 people and took about 250 hostages to Gaza, according to Israeli figures.
In recent months, Rome has criticized the extent of the Israeli response, and expressed concern as the death toll in Gaza has mounted, while declining to apply sanctions.
Italy was not among numerous European Union countries that called last month for a review of EU-Israeli economic and trade relations.

 


Israel to expel French nationals on Gaza aid boat by end of week

Updated 12 June 2025
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Israel to expel French nationals on Gaza aid boat by end of week

  • All 12 of them have been banned from Israel for 100 years
  • France and Saudi Arabia are co-hosting a UN meeting later this month in New York on steps toward recognizing a Palestinian state and reaching a so-called two-state solution to the conflict

JERUSALEM: Israel is to expel by the end of the week four French nationals held after security forces intercepted their Gaza-bound aid boat, France’s foreign minister said Wednesday, as an Israeli NGO said one of the French campaigners was briefly put in solitary confinement.
The announcement came as France’s prime minister accused activists aboard the boat — who hoped to raise awareness about the humanitarian situation in war-torn Gaza — of capitalizing on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict for political attention.
The four, who include Rima Hassan, a member of European Parliament from the hard-left France Unbowed (LFI) party who is of Palestinian descent, will be deported on Thursday and Friday, French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot said on X.
They were among 12 people on board the Madleen sailboat which was carrying food and supplies for Gaza before it was intercepted by Israeli forces in international waters off the besieged Palestinian territory on Monday.
Four, including two French citizens and Swedish campaigner Greta Thunberg, agreed to be deported immediately.
The remaining eight were taken into custody after they refused to leave Israel voluntarily, according to Adalah, an Israeli rights NGO representing most of the activists.
All 12 of them have been banned from Israel for 100 years.
Adalah said on Wednesday that Israeli authorities had placed French MEP Hassan and Brazilian activist Thiago Avila in solitary confinement, with Hassan later removed.

“Israeli authorities transferred two of the volunteers — the Brazilian volunteer Thiago Avila and the French-Palestinian European Parliament member Rima Hassan — to separate prison facilities, away from the others, and placed them in solitary confinement,” Adalah said in a statement.
The NGO later said that Hassan had been moved back to Givon prison in Ramla, near Tel Aviv, while Avila remained in isolation.
When asked for comment, Israel’s prison authority referred AFP to the foreign ministry, which said it was checking the reports.
Adalah said Hassan was put in isolation after writing “Free Palestine” on a prison wall.
The NGO said Brazilian activist Avila was placed in isolation “due to his ongoing hunger and thirst strike, which he began two days ago.”
“He has also been treated aggressively by prison authorities, although this has not escalated to physical assault,” it added.
The leader of Hassan’s LFI party in parliament, Mathilde Panot, said France’s prime minister Francois Bayrou had failed to condemn Israel’s actions.
The party’s boss, Jean-Luc Melenchon, accused Bayrou of “abandoning the French prisoners,” and called on President Emmanuel Macron to step in.
“These activists obtained the effect they wanted, but it’s a form of instrumentalization to which we should not lend ourselves,” Bayrou responded in the National Assembly.
It’s “through diplomatic action, and efforts to bring together several states to pressure the Israeli government, that we can obtain the only possible solution” to the conflict, he added.
Foreign Minister Barrot also rejected Panot’s criticism, saying “the admirable mobilization” of French officials had made a rapid resolution of the situation possible “despite the harassment and defamation that they have been subjected to.”

France and Saudi Arabia are co-hosting a UN meeting later this month in New York on steps toward recognizing a Palestinian state and reaching a so-called two-state solution to the conflict.
Israel is facing mounting pressure to allow more humanitarian aid into Gaza, whose entire population the United Nations has warned is at risk of famine.
Israel’s defense minister Israel Katz on Wednesday called on Egypt to block a hundreds-strong pro-Palestinian activist convoy from reaching Gaza, as the group arrived in the Libyan capital of Tripoli.
Palestinian militant group Hamas on October 7, 2023 attacked Israel, resulting in the deaths of 1,219 people on the Israeli side, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally of official figures.
The health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza says the retaliatory Israeli military offensive has killed at least 55,104 people, the majority civilians. The United Nations considers these figures to be reliable.
Out of 251 taken hostage during the Hamas attack, 54 are still held in Gaza including 32 the Israeli military says are dead.

 


Israel says bodies of two hostages retrieved from Gaza

Updated 11 June 2025
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Israel says bodies of two hostages retrieved from Gaza

  • Yair Yaakov was seized in the Hamas-led October 7, 2023 attack on Israel and killed the same day

JERUSALEM: Israeli forces have retrieved the bodies of two hostages from the Gaza Strip, the military said Wednesday, as Israel presses its offensive in the Palestinian territory.
A military statement said a joint operation by the army and the Shin Bet security agency recovered the bodies of Yair Yaakov and “an additional hostage whose name has not yet been cleared for publication” from the Khan Yunis area of southern Gaza.
Yaakov, a member of Kibbutz Nir Oz, was 59 when he was seized in the Hamas-led October 7, 2023 attack on Israel and killed the same day.
The military statement said he had been abducted and killed by fighters from Islamic Jihad, a Hamas ally.
Yaakov was abducted along with his partner Meirav Tal, as they sheltered in their safe room in Nir Oz.
She was freed on November 28, 2023 during the first truce.
Abducted separately at the home of their mother, Yair’s two children Yagil and Or were also released on November 27 during the first truce.
Nir Oz was one of the communities hit hardest by the attack, with nearly a quarter of its residents killed or taken hostage.