Sde Teiman ( Hebrew: שדה תימן), also spelled Sde Teman or Sede Teman, is an Israeli military base located in the Negev desert, 29 kilometres (18 miles) from the border with Gaza, ^[1] which, during the Israel–Hamas war, has been doubling as a detention camp, ^[2] used to detain Palestinians from the Gaza Strip.

Multiple whistleblowing Israeli employees and released Palestinian detainees have reported systemic abuse and human rights violations, including physical and psychological torture. ^[3] The camp has been dubbed "Israel's Guantánamo Bay." ^{[4] [5]} In July 2024, several soldiers suspected of the abuse of a prisoner were detained for questioning, leading to right-wing protesters and Knesset members illegally breaking into the camp. ^[6]

The military base was partially converted into a detention camp in the wake of the passing of the Unlawful Combatants Law by the Knesset in December 2023. ^[2] It is divided into an enclosure where up to 200 detainees are kept blindfolded and handcuffed in cages, and a field hospital of tents where dozens of handcuffed prisoners are kept. ^[1] The law allows the Israel Defense Forces to detain people without an arrest warrant for 45 days, after which the detainees must be transferred to the Israel Prison Service. ^[2] As of 10 May 2024, the IDF has acknowledged two similar camps: Ofer Prison and a prison in Anatot, both in the West Bank. ^[2]

All Gazans detained by Israel since the 7 October attack are classified as unlawful combatants rather than prisoners of war, which excludes them from rights like access to a lawyer. ^[1] Most detainees, in lieu of evidence that they are members of Hamas, are kept as suspects, without charges laid. ^[1] This classification is applied to all Gazans detained by Israel since October 2023, which The Guardian reported to be 849 people as of April 2024. ^[1] A doctor working at Sde Teiman stated that he didn't know why many of the prisoners he encountered had been detained by Israel; among those he treated were a paraplegic, a man weighing 300 pounds, and another who, since childhood, has had to breathe with the assistance of a tube in his neck. ^[7]

Sde Teiman is divided into two sections: enclosures and a field hospital. ^{[1] [2]} An additional structure exists where interrogations take place. ^[7]

In December 2023, Haaretz reported that hundreds of Palestinians from Gaza were being detained in Sde Teiman and that some of them had died for unknown reasons. The detainees were interrogated, blindfolded, and handcuffed, while the lights were kept on at all times. ^[8]

On 7 March 2024, Haaretz reported that 27 prisoners from Gaza had died in Israeli custody since the beginning of the Israel-Hamas war, including some from Sde Teiman. ^[9] In May, prison officials told The New York Times that some 4,000 Gazans have been detained at Sde Teiman since October 2023. Of these, 70% had been detained for further investigation, 1200 had been repatriated to Gaza, and 35 had died. ^[7]

In May 2024, three anonymous Israeli employees of the camp spoke to CNN as whistleblowers, during which they corroborated and expanded upon reports of abuse and poor conditions revealed by multiple detainees who were later released. The whistleblowers detailed enclosures where detainees are blindfolded and not allowed to speak or move. Images leaked to CNN show rows of men wearing gray tracksuits with blindfolds, each sitting on an exceptionally thin mattress, surrounded by a barbed-wire fence. ^{[2] [10]}

Punishments include beatings and for prisoners to raise their hands in a stress position, sometimes zip-tied to a fence, for upwards of an hour. ^{[2] [10]} In what one released detainee called "the nightly torture," guards would conduct routine searches with dogs and sound grenades while prisoners were sleeping. ^[2] The detainees are reportedly kept on a diet of one cucumber, some slices of bread and a cup of cheese a day. ^[1] Several prisoners since returned to Gaza reported to UNWRA and the New York Times that a metal stick was used to inflict injury by penetrating the anus of detainees under interrogation and multiple prisoners reported the use of electric shocks, sometimes being forced to "sit in a chair wired with electricity". ^{[7] [11]}

Khaled Mahajneh, a lawyer who visited the detention center, stated that the conditions were "more horrific than anything we’ve heard about Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo." He stated that he went to the detention center seeking information on a reporter named Muhammad Arab from Al Araby TV who had been detained while covering the Al-Shifa Hospital siege. Khaled described the reporter as being "unrecongnizable", and said that he had testified of prisoners being routinely abused, of guards openly sexually assaulting prisoners, and of multiple prisoners having died from torture. ^[12]

An Amnesty International report released in July 2024 included accounts of abuse from Sde Teiman detainees that were consistent with earlier reports. Amnesty interviewed a 14-year-old child who stated that interrogators had beaten him, burned him with cigarettes, and kept him blindfolded and handcuffed. ^[13]

In April 2024, Haaretz obtained a letter written by a doctor at a field hospital at Sde Teiman to Israel's attorney general, defense minister, and health minister. ^{[14] [15]} The doctor wrote that "inmates are fed through straws, defecate in diapers and are held [in] constant restraints, which violate medical ethics and the law." ^{[14] [15]} The doctor alleged that understaffing and inadequate care led to complications and deaths, describing amputations due to handcuff injuries as "routine." ^{[14] [15]} A separate medical source who visited Sde Teiman corroborated the letter to CNN. ^[15] The source also characterized systemic dehumanizing of detainees, alleging that officials are told not to use prisoners' names but rather their serial numbers. ^[15]

Whistleblowers to CNN echoed previous accounts of wounded detainees physically restrained to beds, wearing diapers, fed through straws, and blindfolded. ^[2] They further alleged that medical procedures are frequently performed by underqualified employees, operations are often done without anesthesia, and patients are refused pain relievers. ^{[1] [2]} Some of the detainees were reportedly arrested in hospitals in Gaza while undergoing treatment. ^[1] According to the whistleblowers, the medical team were told to not document treatments or sign papers, corroborating April 2024 reporting by Physicians for Human Rights in Israel that anonymity is employed to hinder potential investigation; ^{[2] [10] [16]} during the 2024 New York Times visit, the newspaper noted that three doctors attributed their use of anonymity to fear of retribution from "Hamas and their allies". ^[7] Whistleblowers further stated that patients were shackled to their beds and surgeries were performed without adequate painkillers. ^[17]

In response to allegations made by the whistleblowers, the IDF stated that they treat detainees "appropriately and carefully," and that "incidents of unlawful handcuffing are not known to the authorities." ^{[1] [2]} Maj. Gen. Yifat Tomer-Yerushalmi, the military advocate-general, stated that military police investigations have been opened into allegations of misconduct at Sde Teiman. ^{[18] [19]}

John Kirby stated that the US was "deeply concerned" by CNN's report but expected to receive "good answers" from Israel. ^[20] Alice Jill Edwards, United Nations Special Rapporteur on Torture and Unlawful Combatants, called for an investigation. ^{[21] [22]}

On 23 May 2024, Israeli human rights groups petitioned the High Court of Justice to close the detention center at Sde Teiman. ^[23] On June 5, the Israeli government told the court that they were planning to transfer most prisoners out of Sde Teiman; ^[21] Amnesty International noted in July that "little appears to have changed". ^[13]

In the wake of reports of abuse of detainees, in an interview on 25 May 2024, a female IDF soldier claimed women guards in Sde Teiman experience regular sexual harassment from prisoners, who have blown kisses their way, made suggestive remarks and spat on the floor in their presence. ^[24]

On 29 July 2024, the Israeli military police detained nine Israeli soldiers for questioning as part of an investigation of a suspected abuse of a Palestinian prisoner, whom The Times of Israel reported "signs of serious abuse, including to his anus". ^[6] In response, far-right politicians, including Heritage Minister Amichay Eliyahu and Knesset Member Zvi Sukkot urged their supporters to protest at Sde Teiman against the nine soldiers' detention. ^[25] Sukkot, Eliyahu, and Knesset Member Nissim Vaturi joined other right-wingers in illegally breaking into Sde Teiman, while hours later the Israeli military's Beit Lid base was also broken into by far-right activists as the nine soldiers were being detained there. ^[25]

Various right-wing politicians have condemned the Israeli soldiers' detention: Justice Minister Yariv Levin said that "harsh pictures of soldiers being arrested" were "impossible to accept"; National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir said that the soldiers' detention was "shameful" and asked for "the military authorities to back the fighters … Soldiers need to have our full support"; Economy Minister Nir Barkat declared: "I support our fighters", while criticizing the events as a "show trial"; Transportation Minister Miri Regev commented that the arrests of Israeli soldiers were "dangerous" during war, and warned against military prosecutions that were "appeasing our enemies". ^[26]

• Camp 1391
• Human rights violations against Palestinians by Israel
• Mass detentions in the Israel–Hamas war
• Palestinian prisoners in Israel
• Torture during the Israel–Hamas war

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