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Political chaos erupted in Israel after military police arrested nine soldiers over “substantial abuse” of a Palestinian at a secret detention centre.
Troops confronted military police who arrived to make the arrests at the Sde Teiman facility in southern Israel, while far-right politicians from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's coalition later broke into the military site along with their supporters in protest.
Soldiers at the base took to social media to call on Israelis to come out on to the streets in solidarity with their detained comrades.
The Prime Minister's office called for “an immediate calming” of the situation and condemned the breach of a military base.
The arrests followed an investigation ordered by the military's advocate general into “suspected substantial abuse of a detainee held in the Sde Teiman detention facility”, an army representative told The National.
The soldiers are alleged to have abused a Palestinian detainee so gravely that he is unable to walk, a source told Israeli outlet Haaretz.
National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, who has a long history of siding with Israeli soldiers in disciplinary cases, rushed to the detention centre vowing to support the soldiers and prevent their arrest.
“The spectacle of military police officers coming to arrest our best heroes in the Sde Teiman detention facility is nothing less than shameful,” he said.
Soon after, demonstrators were filmed breaching the fence of the high-security compound, waving Israeli flags and banners while chanting nationalist slogans. Videos posted on X showed member of parliament Zvi Sukkot, from the same far-right faction as Mr Ben-Gvir, rallying protesters and entering the compound..
Army chief Herzi Halevi said he gave his “full support to the military prosecutor's office and military police in the investigation of every incident that is brought to their attention”, and called the breach of Sde Teiman “extremely serious and against the law”.
“We are at war and actions of this kind endanger the security of the country,” he said.
Sde Teiman is a military base in the Negev desert, which the army has used as a detention facility since the war in Gaza began on October 7. Details about the facility are scarce, but reports say it includes holding areas and a medical section.
It was supposed to be only a temporary holding facility for people suspected of terror offences but has now grown into Israel’s largest detention centre.
Since the outbreak of the war, rights groups have voiced concern about conditions at Sde Teiman, which has allegedly been the site of severe abuse, torture and overcrowding of detainees.
The issue of alleged abuses has been taken to Israel’s High Court after the Association of Civil Rights in Israel urged it to shut the facility.
The military announced in May that it was investigating instances of alleged abuse and torture.
“We must enable professional authorities to carry out the necessary assessments, while ensuring the dignity and respect of our soldiers,” Defence Minister Yoav Gallant said after Monday's arrests.
“Even in difficult times, the law applies to everyone – nobody may trespass into IDF bases or violate the laws of the State of Israel.”
But other high-profile Israeli politicians quickly sided with the accused soldiers.
“A situation where masked military police raid an IDF base is unacceptable to me and I will not allow it to happen again,” said Yuli Edelstein, the head of the Knesset foreign and defence committee.
“Our soldiers are not criminals, and this despicable pursuit of our fighters is not acceptable,” he said.
