IDF soldiers arrested based on terrorists’ testimony, army prosecutor admits

10 IDF soldiers were questioned and 9 arrested in a raid on the Sde Teiman detention center used to hold Hamas terrorists.

By World Israel News Staff

Israeli soldiers arrested on suspicion of abusing captured terrorists at an army detention facility in southern Israel were taken into custody based on the testimony of terrorists who had been released back to the Gaza Strip and then contacted by army prosecutors, the IDF’s Military Advocate General acknowledged Tuesday.

Speaking during a hearing of the Knesset’s Foreign Affairs and Security Committee Tuesday morning, the army’s top prosecutor said that prosecutors had reached out to terrorists who had been released back to the Gaza Strip to gather testimony for an investigation into claims of abuse by reserve soldiers guarding terrorists held at the Sde Teiman detention center in southern Israel.

On Monday, undercover military police officers raided Sde Teiman, questioning 10 reserve soldiers, of whom nine were placed under arrest.

The nine soldiers are slated to be brought brought before a judge on Tuesday for an extension of their remand.

The soldiers are accused of abusing several captured terrorists.

One terrorist who was later returned to the Gaza Strip filed a complaint with the United Nations relief agency UNRWA, accusing soldiers of sexually abusing him and a second terrorist.

Another terrorist was reportedly hospitalized as a result of abuse suffered while being detained at Sde Teiman.

The arrests drew outrage from a number of right-wing lawmakers and government ministers, and led to protests outside Sde Teiman and an additional IDF facility.

Following the revelation Tuesday that the IDF’s top prosecutor had relied on testimony by terrorists to initiate Monday’s raid, the wife of one of the arrested soldiers lambasted the army’s handling of the case.

“It is a shame,” she told i24NEWS. “We have three children. It is a shame that they have to experience this. He hasn’t been home since October 7th. He feels that he is on a mission for his country.”

Prosecutors, she continued, “trust a terrorist with blood on his hands. My husband and his friends risk their lives every day in Sde Teiman.”

Efraim Demri, who is representing one of the accused soldiers, said army prosecutors are “treating them like terrorists; these are bizarre accusations – they never happened.”