A Palestinian prisoner recounted his experiences of sexual abuse at the hands of soldiers in Sde Teiman prison facility in an interview with CNN, published on Sunday. The interview was conducted at a camp in Al-Mawasi, southern Gaza.
The man, Ibrahim Salem, 34, was arrested in a raid on a Gazan hospital and accused of terrorism. The IDF told CNN that Salem was detained on December 12 and held at Sde Teiman for “approximately a month and a half” before being moved to a different prison for six months. Salem said he was confused as to why he was arrested, telling soldiers at the time that he had “nothing to do with resistance groups.”
He was held for eight months, during which time he said he and the other Palestinians were treated “like animals." He was released without charge on August 1.
The IDF said that the hospital was being used as a Hamas command center. CNN said it could not verify this.
When CNN published an investigation into Sde Teiman in May, the Negev military bases and detention center included a picture of a blindfolded prisoner with his hands above his head. Wassem Salem, Ibrahim’s twin brother, approached CNN to identify him.
On July 29, 10 of Sde Teiman’s guards were arrested for a mix of alleged sodomy and beatings. Two were quickly released and three more were released some days later after their detention was initially extended by an IDF pretrial court.
Salem said he was repeatedly interrogated and asked about the whereabouts of the hostages, Hamas terrorists, and whether he was a member, according to CNN.
He alleged that the interrogations often involved physical and verbal abuse, including hot water being poured on him or being told that his family had been killed.
Salem said an interrogator showed him a picture of what they said were exhumed remains of six family members of his family.
“On what grounds do you take away bodies and desecrate them?” Salem recalled telling the interrogator. “These bodies are ours. We need to bury them.”
Alleged sexual abuse
However, Salem told CNN that the most pernicious was the sexual abuse he allegedly suffered.
Before an interrogation, he would be made to strip naked.
“They would bring the metal detector and run it all over our bodies, then they would hover it over private parts and hit me there,” he said to CNN. Salem said that five to six soldiers were typically present during this, and that they would sodomize him with objects.
“With the pain, I would lean forward. Then suddenly, they would push it (a baton) into my butt,” he said.
“You’re exposing your body to male and female soldiers who harass you and touch you with objects on your sensitive parts,” he told CNN. “They hit you on your butt, pull you by the hair, call you obscenities … it’s humiliating.”`
The IDF said that any misconduct that occurred is “strictly prohibited” and “contrary to IDF law.”
Salem’s lawyer, Saja Mishreqi, said that Salem was held under Israel’s Unlawful Combatants Law, which permits the military to detain people for up to 30 days without a detention order, after which they must be transferred to prison. According to CNN, this has allowed over 4,000 Palestinian residents of Gaza to be detained since October 7. The law has received significant criticism for “depriving detainees of their rights as prisoners of war,” according to the report.
Following his release on August 1, Salem was returned to Gaza, but was instructed not to return to his home in Jabalya, and instead was sent to Khan Yunis. He has since moved through different displacement tents.
He has not reunited with his family, who remain in the northern Gaza Strip, according to CNN.