Israeli Military Prosecutor Charges Five Reservists With Abuse of Detainee

New York Times

19-02-2025

An Israeli military prosecutor charged five reservist soldiers on Wednesday with abuse of a Palestinian detainee, saying it took place last year at a military base where thousands of Gazans have been held.
The indictment accused soldiers at the Sde Teiman base in southern Israel of breaking the detainee's ribs, puncturing his left lung and tearing his rectum. The detainee was identified only by his initials.
Avi Amiram and Lior Porat, lawyers representing one of the soldiers, said they have presented arguments that deny the charges against the reservists. Honenu, a right-wing legal organization representing two of the soldiers, criticized the charges and claimed the detainee was a militant in an elite unit in the northern Gaza Strip. The New York Times could not independently verify Honenu's allegation about the detainee.
The indictment contains some of the most serious allegations of mistreatment at Sde Teiman since the Israeli military launched its offensive in Gaza in the aftermath of the Hamas-led October 2023 attack on Israel. The case against the soldiers has also revealed divisions in Israel about the extent to which soldiers should be held accountable for abusing Palestinian detainees accused of involvement in terrorist activity.
On the evening of July 5, 2024, soldiers beat the detainee while he screamed in pain, according to the indictment, which said his hands and legs were bound and his eyes blindfolded.
'For about 15 minutes, the defendants hit the detainee, stomped on him, and stood on his body,' the document said. 'They struck him all over his body.'
Soldiers also used a Taser against him, including on his head, the prosecutor's account said. At one point, one of the soldiers stabbed him with a 'sharp object,' causing a tear in his rectal wall, it added.
Hours later, medics rushed the detainee to a health clinic at the base, where a doctor ordered him transferred to a hospital, according to the indictment.
The Israeli military said that it was committed to the rule of law and that investigators had collected 'extensive' evidence to support the charges, including medical documentation and security camera footage.
In a statement, Mr. Amiram and Mr. Porat said they were certain that the charges against the soldiers would be dropped 'when the facts are clarified in proceedings.'
The two charges made against the soldiers include jointly causing severe injury under aggravated circumstances and jointly abusing the detainee under aggravated circumstances.
Tal Steiner, the executive director of the Public Committee Against Torture in Israel, a human rights group, said the charges against the reservists were serious. She said while it was still too early to understand what kind of penalty they could face, Israeli military courts have acted relatively leniently in past cases in which Israeli soldiers were accused of using excessive force against Palestinians.
In 2017, Elor Azaria, a sergeant before he was demoted, was convicted of manslaughter and sentenced to 18 months in prison for killing Abdel Fattah al-Sharif, a Palestinian man in the Israeli-occupied West Bank. When Mr. Azaria shot Mr. al-Sharif dead, Mr. al-Sharif was already lying on the ground wounded; Mr. al-Sharif had been shot after stabbing another Israeli soldier. Mr. Azaria served nine months in prison and was later granted parole.
The case against the soldiers at Sde Teiman led to unrest last July, after videos surfaced of Israeli military police raiding the base to detain soldiers on suspicion of abusing the Palestinian.
Dozens of protesters gathered outside the base in solidarity with the soldiers, including at least three far-right lawmakers from Prime Minister Benjamin Neteanyahu's ruling coalition. Hundreds later massed outside Beit Lid, a second base in which the soldiers had been brought for interrogation. Dozens surged inside both bases, brushing aside the guards at the gates.
At the time, Israeli military officials emphasized that no one was above the law, while right-wing protesters argued soldiers shouldn't be punished for mistreating Palestinians accused of partaking in terrorist activities.
Many Palestinians, who have been held at Sde Teiman, have accused Israeli soldiers of carrying out grave acts of abuse against them. An investigation by The New York Times published last June found that by late May, roughly 4,000 Gazan detainees had spent up to three months in limbo at Sde Teiman. At least 1,200 people had been found to be civilians and returned to Gaza, without charge, apology or compensation.
The investigation found that those 1,200 Palestinian civilians had been held at Sde Teiman in demeaning conditions without the ability to plead their cases to a judge for up to 75 days. Eight former detainees, all of whom the military confirmed were held at the site and who spoke on the record, variously said they had been punched, kicked and beaten with batons, rifle butts and a hand-held metal detector while in custody.
Back then, the Israeli military denied that 'systematic abuse' had taken place at Sde Teiman. When presented with individual allegations of abuse, the military said the claims were 'evidently inaccurate or completely unfounded,' and might have been invented under pressure from Hamas. It did not give further details.