Israeli whistleblower felt 'complicit in war crimes' after Sde Teiman visit

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An Israeli physician who reported abuses against Palestinian detainees described the conditions at the Sde Teiman centre for Gazans in southern Israel, as evidence that severe human rights abuses have taken place at the centre piles up.

The source told The National they felt “complicit in war crimes” after a visit to a field hospital attached to the centre.

Sde Teiman holds "terrorist suspects," most of whom are thought to be classified as unlawful combatants, which allows Israeli authorities to bypass the rights afforded to prisoners of war, according to NGO Physicians for Human Rights Israel, which researches medical abuses at Sde Teiman. As one of the Israeli military's detention centres, it is intended to hold suspects for a maximum of 45 days before they are transferred to the prison service or released.

“Once we got inside, we were immediately asked to speak anonymously. Each physician should not ask the name of other physicians,” said the source. “There were maybe 15 beds on the side of the tent. One thing you noticed was that everything was relatively clean and very quiet.”

The physician said that every detainee had “each arm and leg handcuffed to the sides of the bed”. Every one was blindfolded, and “all the patients I interacted with were naked besides a diaper [nappy] and a fleece blanket for little warmth. Besides that, they were completely exposed,” said the source, who is one of many whistleblowers.

“The thing I recall the most is dealing with blindfolded patients. You don’t look them in the eye, it’s just someone lying on a bed, unable to move, unable to see. You don’t talk to him, you don’t ask him how he’s doing, you just ask if he has pain.”

A report released in April by Physicians for Human Rights Israel said the field hospital at the centre was set up because civilian hospitals in Israel refused to admit Gazan detainees after the war broke out in October.

It said that “medical staff working in [Sde Teiman] face a significant risk of committing severe violations of medical ethics” and that the centre should be closed. It is unclear how many detainees have passed through.

Israel's Channel 12 recently published a video that purportedly showed soldiers sexually assaulting a detainee, an incident that the US State Department described as “horrific”. It was the latest example of alleged abuse at the facility, which is causing disquiet in Israel’s medical community, the source said.

Although the physician was critical of many colleagues who appeared to tolerate abuse, they drew attention to an open letter signed by more than 1,300 medical professionals calling for Sde Teiman to be closed. Despite that, the source still believed the wider medical profession was complicit in war crimes.

“If you accept something like Sde Teiman as a physician, it means you are setting the bar as low as it can get.”

The source, who treated Israeli patients during the Hamas attack on Israel on October 7, said that “it’s not easy to treat someone who you know could have done the worst things imaginable. All of us were extremely emotionally charged.”

“I think that you still need to recognise that there’s some humanity in someone you might consider your enemy. I think October 7 doesn’t justify by any means breaking medical ethics.”

Also in August, Israeli legal experts called on the public to stand by the country’s judicial system amid anger that military authorities are investigating five soldiers accused of sexually abusing a Gazan detainee at Sde Teiman.

Despite the severity of the allegations, scores of campaigners and politicians have criticised legal officials and called for the investigations to stop. Demonstrators have gathered outside the home of Israel's military advocate general Maj Gen Yifat Tomer-Yerushalmi, prompting police to increase her security. Crowds even broke into Sde Teiman soon after the arrests were made at the end of last month.

“I think I’ve lost almost all hope of change coming from within Israel,” said the source.

“I hope that external pressure might get Israel to change some of its ways. I don’t think Israeli physicians are above judgment or above public opinion and the discourse you find today. We’re very much part of it.”

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