Military police raid Sde Teiman detention facility over allegations that terrorist was abused by guards.
By World Israel News Staff
At least nine IDF soldiers were arrested Monday, after clashes broke out between soldiers and military police during a surprise raid on a detention facility in southern Israel used to house Gaza terrorists captured during the ongoing war with Hamas.
Plainclothes military police officers descended on the Sde Teiman detention facility in the Negev Monday afternoon as part of an investigation into allegations of abuse by soldiers serving as guards of terrorists captured in Gaza.
The investigation was reportedly launched in response after a 41-year-old terrorist released from Sde Teiman recently due to overcrowding and returned to the Gaza Strip filed a report with The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA), claiming he and another prisoner were physically abused.
In a separate incident, another terrorist was reportedly hospitalized as a result of his treatment at Sde Teiman.
At the outset of the raid, soldiers working at the facility clashed with the undercover officers, while some soldiers suspected of wrongdoing attempted to flee.
In a statement released Monday, the IDF confirmed that there was an allegation of “serious abuse” and that an investigation had been launched, though no details were included regarding the raid itself.
“Following a suspicion of serious abuse of a detainee who was held in the detention facility in Sde Teiman, an investigation by the military police was opened by order of the military attorney’s office.”
A number of coalition lawmakers and ministers slammed military prosecutors, Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, and senior army officials over the raid.
“The scene of Military Police coming to arrest our best heroes in Sde Teiman is nothing less than shameful,” National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir said. “I recommend that the Defense Minister, Chief of Staff, and military authorities support the soldiers and learn from the Israel Prisons Service, summer camp and tolerance for terrorists are over. The soldiers need complete backing.”