NAZARETH (Palestine Foundation Information Center) An Israeli military doctor has provided a horrific testimony on the inhumane conditions of the sick Palestinian prisoners held in the notorious Sde Teiman detention center.
The testimony of the unnamed doctor was published by the Israeli daily, Haaretz, on Friday, revealing that when he arrived at the prison last winter, he found about 20 patients in one tent shackled to old steel beds and blindfolded all the time.
He added that many of the detainees had recently undergone major surgeries or had suffered gunshot wounds, some occurring just hours before their arrival at the detention center, which he described as a stockade.
Several reports have previously spoken of killing, torture, sexual assaults, and other violations against detainees in Sde Teiman.
The Israeli Supreme Court is considering a petition submitted by five Israeli human rights organizations demanding immediate closure of the prison.
The doctor spoke about the suffering of a wounded man who was transferred to prison shortly after undergoing a sensitive surgery, and another who suffered from sepsis without receiving any medical follow-up.
He said that torture in Sde Teiman includes detaining prisoners naked and blindfolded and preventing them from speaking or moving their limbs for long periods that amount to a month.
A recent report issued by the Israeli Information Center for Human Rights in the Occupied Territories, “B’Tselem”, included testimonies given by 55 Palestinian detainees after their release from Israeli occupation prisons, confirming that they were subjected to torture, sexual assault, humiliation, and starvation.
The Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor says that the Sde Teiman camp has turned into a new “Guantanamo” prison, where detainees are held in extremely harsh conditions, inside places resembling chicken coops in the open and without food or drink for long periods of time.
