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SvennoJ on 30 July 2024
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Demonstrators try to breach Israeli base after soldiers detained on abuse suspicion

Local media is reporting protests outside of the Beit Lid military base, where Israeli soldiers were transported after they were detained earlier today, suspected of committing violations, including sexual abuse, against Palestinian prisoners at the Sde Teiman prison.

Dozens of Israeli protesters, including far-right members of the Knesset, have clashed with military police after at least nine soldiers suspected of abusing a Palestinian prisoner were detained for questioning from the Sde Teiman detention facility in southern Israel.

The protesters waved Israeli flags and stormed through the facility’s gate on Monday to try to prevent the soldiers’ detention as they chanted “shame”. They defended the soldiers, saying they were doing their duty. Several Israeli civilians rushed to lend support to the soldiers, according to media reports.

Some unsuccessfully tried to break into the facility. One soldier was quoted as saying by the Haaretz newspaper that some members of the military directed pepper spray at the military police who came to detain the soldiers.

Demonstrators also tried to breach the Beit Lid military base, where the soldiers were transported, according to local media.

Translation: Demonstrators tried to break into the entrance to the Beit Lied camp where the soldiers being interrogated by the MDF are detained.

 

Sde Teiman protests an endorsement of ‘brutal abuse of Palestinians’, NGO says

Israeli NGO Breaking the Silence has said that protesters – including far-right politicians who are supporting arrested soldiers suspected of the sexual abuse of a Palestinian detainee at the Sde Teiman prison – are “essentially issuing a full-throated endorsement of unimaginably brutal abuse of Palestinians”.

In a statement on X, the NGO also described the dire conditions in the prison for Palestinian prisoners.

“Tens of dead detainees; Indefinite restraints resulting in amputations; medical procedures with no anaesthesia; sleep deprivation; brutal beatings; sexual torture,” it said.

Israeli protesters storm military court

We’ve been reporting on a backlash in Israel against the detentions and investigation of nine soldiers accused of abusing a Palestinian prisoner at the Sde Teiman prison.

According to Israeli media, protesters have now entered a court building at the Beit Lid military base.

Video shared by Israeli Army Radio shows scenes from the court:



‘All red lines were crossed today,’ Lapid says

Israeli opposition leader Yair Lapid has condemned the violent protests against the detention of nine Israeli soldiers accused of abusing Palestinian prisoners in the Sde Teiman prison and he called on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to sack ministers that joined the demonstrations.

“We are not on the brink of the abyss, we are in the abyss. All red lines were crossed today,” Lapid said on X.

“If Netanyahu does not fire the ministers who participated in these violent raids today, he is not fit to represent the State of Israel.”