{"id":67145,"date":"2024-06-06T14:42:05","date_gmt":"2024-06-06T14:42:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/2024\/06\/06\/inside-the-base-where-israel-has-detained-thousands-of-gazans\/"},"modified":"2024-06-06T14:42:05","modified_gmt":"2024-06-06T14:42:05","slug":"inside-the-base-where-israel-has-detained-thousands-of-gazans","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/2024\/06\/06\/inside-the-base-where-israel-has-detained-thousands-of-gazans\/","title":{"rendered":"Inside the Base Where Israel Has Detained Thousands of Gazans"},"content":{"rendered":"<div style=\"text-align:center\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1050\" height=\"550\" src=\"https:\/\/i2.wp.com\/static01.nyt.com\/images\/2024\/06\/03\/multimedia\/00Israel-Gaza-Detention-01-hmkp\/00Israel-Gaza-Detention-01-hmkp-facebookJumbo.jpg?resize=1050,550&amp;ssl=1\" class=\"attachment-post-thumbnail size-post-thumbnail wp-post-image\" alt=\"Inside the Base Where Israel Has Detained Thousands of Gazans\" title=\"Inside the Base Where Israel Has Detained Thousands of Gazans\" \/><\/div><p> <br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div>\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">The men sat in rows, handcuffed and blindfolded, unable to see the Israeli soldiers who stood watch over them from the other side of a mesh fence.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">They were barred from talking more loudly than a murmur, and forbidden to stand or sleep except when authorized.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">A few knelt in prayer. One was being inspected by a paramedic. Another was briefly allowed to remove his handcuffs to wash himself. The hundreds of other Gazan detainees sat in silence. They were all cut off from the outside world, prevented for weeks from contacting lawyers or relatives.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">This was the scene one afternoon in late May at a military hangar inside Sde Teiman, an army base in southern Israel that has become synonymous with <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2024\/01\/23\/world\/middleeast\/israel-gaza-palestinian-detainees.html\" title=\"\">the detention<\/a> of Gazan Palestinians. Most Gazans captured since the start of the war on Oct. 7 have been brought to the site for initial interrogation, according to the Israeli military.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">The military, which has not previously granted access to the media, allowed The New York Times to briefly see part of the detention facility as well as to interview its commanders and other officials, on condition of preserving their anonymity.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Once an obscure barracks, Sde Teiman is now a makeshift interrogation site and a major focus of accusations that the Israeli military has <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2024\/04\/17\/world\/middleeast\/un-report-israel-detainees-abuse.html\" title=\"\">mistreated detainees<\/a>, including people later determined to have no ties to Hamas or other armed groups. In interviews, former detainees described beatings and other abuse in the facility.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">By late May, roughly 4,000 Gazan detainees had spent up to three months in limbo at Sde Teiman, including several dozen people captured during the Hamas-led terrorist attacks on Israel in October, according to the site commanders who spoke to The Times.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">After interrogation, around 70 percent of detainees had been sent to purpose-built prisons for further investigation and prosecution, the commanders said. The rest, at least 1,200 people, had been found to be civilians and returned to Gaza, without charge, apology or compensation.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cMy colleagues didn\u2019t know whether I was dead or alive,\u201d said Muhammad al-Kurdi, 38, an ambulance driver whom the military has confirmed was held at Sde Teiman late last year.<\/p>\n<div data-testid=\"imageblock-wrapper\">\n<figure class=\"img-sz-small css-1189og3 e1g7ppur0\" aria-label=\"media\" role=\"group\"><figcaption data-testid=\"photoviewer-children-caption\" class=\"css-1ybnr6m ewdxa0s0\"><span class=\"css-jevhma e13ogyst0\">Muhammad al-Kurdi in his ambulance worker\u2019s jacket.<\/span><span class=\"css-1u46b97 e1z0qqy90\"><span class=\"css-1ly73wi e1tej78p0\">Credit&#8230;<\/span><span><span aria-hidden=\"false\">via Muhammad al-Kurdi <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cI was imprisoned for 32 days,\u201d said Mr. al-Kurdi. He said he had been captured in November after his convoy of ambulances attempted to pass through an Israeli military checkpoint south of Gaza City.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cIt felt like 32 years,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">A three-month investigation by The New York Times \u2014 based on interviews with former detainees and with Israeli military officers, doctors and soldiers who served at the site; the visit to the base; and data about released detainees provided by the military \u2014 found those 1,200 Palestinian civilians have been held at Sde Teiman in demeaning conditions without the ability to plead their cases to a judge for up to 75 days. Detainees are also denied access to lawyers for up to 90 days and their location is withheld from rights groups as well as from the International Committee of the Red Cross, in what some legal experts say is a contravention of international law.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Eight former detainees, all of whom the military has confirmed were held at the site and who spoke on the record, variously said they had been punched, kicked and beaten with batons, rifle butts and a hand-held metal detector while in custody. One said his ribs were broken after he was kneed in the chest and a second detainee said his ribs broke after he was kicked and beaten with a rifle, an assault that a third detainee said he had witnessed. Seven said they had been forced to wear only a diaper while being interrogated. Three said they had received electric shocks during their interrogations.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Most of these allegations were echoed in <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/document\/detention-and-ill-treatment-unrwa-report-16apr24\/\" title=\"\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">interviews<\/a> conducted by officials from UNRWA, the main U.N. agency for Palestinians, an institution that Israel says has been infiltrated by Hamas, a charge the agency denies. The agency conducted interviews with hundreds of returning detainees who reported widespread abuse at Sde Teiman and other Israeli detention facilities, including beatings and the use of an electric probe.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">An Israeli soldier who served at the site said that fellow soldiers had regularly boasted of beating detainees and saw signs that several people had been subjected to such treatment. Speaking on condition of anonymity to avoid prosecution, he said a detainee had been taken for treatment at the site\u2019s makeshift field hospital with a bone that had been broken during his detention, while another was briefly taken out of sight and returned with bleeding around his rib cage. The soldier said that one person had died at Sde Teiman from trauma injuries to his chest, though it was unclear whether his injury was sustained before or after reaching the base.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Of the 4,000 detainees housed at Sde Teiman since October, 35 have died either at the site or after being brought to nearby civilian hospitals, according to officers at the base who spoke to The Times during the May visit. The officers said some of them had died because of wounds or illnesses contracted before their incarceration and denied any of them had died from abuse. Military prosecutors are investigating the deaths.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">During the visit, senior military doctors said they had never observed any signs of torture and commanders said they tried to treat detainees as humanely as possible. They confirmed that at least 12 soldiers had been dismissed from their roles at the site, some of them for excessive use of force.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">In recent weeks, the base has attracted growing scrutiny from the media, including a CNN report later cited by the White House, as well as from Israel\u2019s Supreme Court, which on Wednesday began to hear a petition from rights groups to close the site. In response to the petition, the Israeli government said that it was reducing the number of detainees at Sde Teiman and improving conditions there; the Israeli military has already set up a panel to investigate the treatment of detainees at the site.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">In a lengthy statement for this article, the Israel Defense Forces denied that \u201csystematic abuse\u201d had taken place at Sde Teiman. Presented with individual allegations of abuse, the military said the claims were \u201cevidently inaccurate or completely unfounded,\u201d and might have been invented under pressure from Hamas. It did not give further details.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cAny abuse of detainees, whether during their detention or during interrogation, violates the law and the directives of the I.D.F. and as such is strictly prohibited,\u201d the military statement said. \u201cThe I.D.F. takes any acts of this kind, which are contrary to its values, with utmost seriousness, and thoroughly examines concrete allegations concerning the abuse of detainees.\u201d The Shin Bet, Israel\u2019s domestic intelligence agency, which conducts some of the interrogations at the base, said in a brief statement that all of its interrogations were \u201cconducted in accordance with the law.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Yoel Donchin, a military doctor serving at the site, said it was unclear why Israeli soldiers had captured many of the people he treated there, some of whom were highly unlikely to have been combatants involved in the war. One was paraplegic, another weighed roughly 300 pounds and a third had breathed since childhood through a tube inserted into his neck, he said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cWhy they brought him \u2014 I don\u2019t know,\u201d Dr. Donchin said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cThey take everyone,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n<h2 class=\"css-13o6u42 eoo0vm40\" id=\"link-1381fc86\">How Detainees Are Captured<\/h2>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Fadi Bakr, a law student from Gaza City, said he was captured on Jan. 5 by Israeli soldiers near his family home. Displaced by fighting earlier in the war, Mr. Bakr, 25, had returned to his neighborhood to search for flour, only to get caught in the middle of a firefight and wounded, he said.<\/p>\n<div data-testid=\"imageblock-wrapper\">\n<figure class=\"img-sz-small css-1189og3 e1g7ppur0\" aria-label=\"media\" role=\"group\"><figcaption data-testid=\"photoviewer-children-caption\" class=\"css-1ybnr6m ewdxa0s0\"><span class=\"css-jevhma e13ogyst0\">Fadi Bakr soon after his release.<\/span><span class=\"css-1u46b97 e1z0qqy90\"><span class=\"css-1ly73wi e1tej78p0\">Credit&#8230;<\/span><span><span aria-hidden=\"false\">via Fadi Bakr<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">The Israelis found him bleeding after the fighting stopped, he said. They stripped him naked, confiscated his phone and savings, beat him repeatedly and accused him of being a militant who had survived the battle, he said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cConfess now or I will shoot you,\u201d Mr. Bakr remembered being told.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cI am a civilian,\u201d Mr. Bakr recalled replying, to no avail.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">The circumstances of Mr. Bakr\u2019s arrest mirror those of other former detainees interviewed by The Times.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Several said they had been suspected of militant activity because soldiers had encountered them in areas the military thought were harboring Hamas fighters, including hospitals, U.N. schools or depopulated neighborhoods like Mr. Bakr\u2019s.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Younis al-Hamlawi, 39, a senior nurse, said he was arrested in November after leaving Al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City during an Israeli raid on the site, which Israel considered a Hamas command center. Israeli soldiers accused him of having ties to Hamas.<\/p>\n<div data-testid=\"imageblock-wrapper\">\n<figure class=\"img-sz-small css-1189og3 e1g7ppur0\" aria-label=\"media\" role=\"group\"><figcaption data-testid=\"photoviewer-children-caption\" class=\"css-1ybnr6m ewdxa0s0\"><span class=\"css-jevhma e13ogyst0\">Younis al-Hamlawi<\/span><span class=\"css-1u46b97 e1z0qqy90\"><span class=\"css-1ly73wi e1tej78p0\">Credit&#8230;<\/span><span><span aria-hidden=\"false\">Bilal Shbair for The New York Times<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Mr. al-Kurdi, the ambulance driver, said he had been captured while he attempted to bring patients through an Israeli checkpoint. Israeli officials say that Hamas fighters routinely use ambulances.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">All of the eight former detainees described their capture in similar ways: They were generally blindfolded, handcuffed with zip ties and stripped naked except for their underwear, so that Israeli soldiers could be sure they were unarmed.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Most said they were interrogated, punched and kicked while still in Gaza, and some said they were beaten with rifle butts. Later, they said, they were crammed with other half-naked detainees into military trucks and driven to Sde Teiman.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Some said they had later spent time in the official Israeli prison system, while others said they were brought straight back to Gaza.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">During his month at the site, Mr. Bakr spent four days, on and off, under interrogation, he said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cI consider them the worst four days of my entire life,\u201d said Mr. Bakr.<\/p>\n<h2 class=\"css-13o6u42 eoo0vm40\" id=\"link-51883a94\">How the Site Developed<\/h2>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">During previous wars with Hamas, including the 50-day conflict in 2014, the Sde Teiman military base intermittently held small numbers of captured Gazans. A command center and warehouse for military vehicles, the base was selected because it is close to Gaza and houses an outpost of the military police, who oversee military detention facilities.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">In October, Israel started using the site to detain people captured in Israel during the Hamas-led attack, housing them in an empty tank hangar, according to the site commanders. Once Israel invaded Gaza at the end of that month, Sde Teiman began receiving so many people that the military refitted three other hangars to detain them and converted a military police office to create more space for interrogations, they said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">By late May, they said, the base included three detention sites: the hangars where detainees are guarded by military police; nearby tents, where detainees are treated by military doctors; and an interrogation facility in a separate part of the base that is staffed by intelligence officers from Israel\u2019s military intelligence directorate and the Shin Bet.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Classified as \u201cunlawful combatants\u201d under Israeli legislation, detainees at Sde Teiman can be held for up to 75 days without judicial permission and 90 days without access to a lawyer, let alone a trial.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">The Israeli military says these arrangements are permitted by the Geneva Conventions that govern international conflict, which allow the internment of civilians for security reasons. The commanders at the site said that it was essential to delay access to lawyers in order to prevent Hamas fighters from conveying messages to their leaders in Gaza, hindering Israel\u2019s war effort.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">After an initial interrogation at Sde Teiman, detainees still suspected of having militant ties are usually transferred to another military site or a civilian prison. In the civilian system, they are supposed to be formally charged; in May, the government said in a submission to Israel\u2019s Supreme Court that it had started criminal proceedings against \u201chundreds\u201d of people captured since Oct. 7, without giving further details about the exact number of cases or their status. There have been no known trials of Gazans captured since October.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Experts on international law say Israel\u2019s system around initial detention is more restrictive than many Western counterparts in terms of the time it takes for judges to review each case, as well as in the lack of access for Red Cross staff.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Early in its war against the Taliban in Afghanistan, the United States also delayed independent review of a detainee\u2019s case for 75 days, said Lawrence Hill-Cawthorne, a law professor who wrote an <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/opil.ouplaw.com\/display\/10.1093\/law\/9780198749929.001.0001\/law-9780198749929\" title=\"\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">overview<\/a> of the laws governing detention of nonstate combatants. The U.S. shortened that delay in 2009 to 60 days, while in Iraq cases were reviewed within a week, the professor said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Israel\u2019s decision to delay judicial review of a case for 75 days without providing access to lawyers or the Red Cross \u201clooks to me like a form of incommunicado detention, which itself is a violation of international law,\u201d Professor Hill-Cawthorne said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">After Mr. Bakr disappeared suddenly in January, he said, his family had no way of finding out where he was. They assumed he was dead.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<h2 class=\"css-13o6u42 eoo0vm40\" id=\"link-520e4555\">Where the Detainees Live<\/h2>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Inside Sde Teiman, Mr. Bakr was held in an open-sided hangar where he said he was forced, with hundreds of others, to sit handcuffed in silence on a mat for up to 18 hours a day. The hangar had no external wall, leaving it open to the rain and the cold, and guards watched him from the other side of a mesh fence.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">All the detainees wore blindfolds \u2014 except for one, known by the Arabic word \u201cshawish,\u201d which means sergeant. The shawish acted as a go-between the soldiers and the prisoners, doling out food and escorting fellow prisoners to a block of portable toilets in the corner of the hangar.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Weeks later, Mr. Bakr said, he was appointed as a shawish, allowing him to see his surroundings properly.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">His account broadly matches that of other detainees and is consistent with what The Times was shown at the site in late May.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">The commanders at the site said detainees were allowed to stand up every two hours to stretch, sleep between roughly 10 p.m. and 6 a.m. and pray at any time. For a brief period in October, they said, detainees were allowed to take off their blindfolds and move around freely within the hangars. But that arrangement ended after some detainees became unruly or tried to unlock their handcuffs, the commanders said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Exhausted after the journey to Sde Teiman, Mr. Bakr fell asleep soon after his arrival \u2014 prompting an officer to summon him to a nearby command room, he said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">The officer began beating him, Mr. Bakr said. \u201cThis is the punishment for anyone who sleeps,\u201d he recalled the officer saying.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Others described similar responses to minor infractions. Rafiq Yassin, 55, a builder detained in December, said he was beaten repeatedly in his abdomen after trying to peek from underneath his blindfold. He said he began vomiting blood and was treated at a civilian hospital in the nearby city of Beersheba. Asked about the claim, the hospital referred The Times to the health ministry, which declined to comment.<\/p>\n<div data-testid=\"imageblock-wrapper\">\n<figure class=\"img-sz-small css-1189og3 e1g7ppur0\" aria-label=\"media\" role=\"group\"><figcaption data-testid=\"photoviewer-children-caption\" class=\"css-1ybnr6m ewdxa0s0\"><span class=\"css-jevhma e13ogyst0\">Rafiq Yassin<\/span><span class=\"css-1u46b97 e1z0qqy90\"><span class=\"css-1ly73wi e1tej78p0\">Credit&#8230;<\/span><span><span aria-hidden=\"false\">Bilal Shbair for The New York Times<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">The Israeli soldier who witnessed abuses at a hangar said one detainee was beaten so hard that his ribs bled after he was accused of peeking beneath his blindfold, while another was beaten after talking too loudly too often.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">The Times did not witness any beatings during the visit to the hangar, where some detainees were seen praying while others were assessed by paramedics or brought by the shawish to wash in a sink at the back of the hangar. One man could be seen peeking beneath his blindfold without immediate punishment.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Like the other former detainees, Mr. Bakr recalled receiving three meager snacks on most days \u2014 typically bread served with small quantities of either cheese, jam or tuna, and occasionally cucumbers and tomatoes. The military said that the food provisions had been \u201capproved by an authorized nutritionist in order to maintain their health.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">According to several former detainees, it was not enough. Three said they lost more than 40 pounds during their detention.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Some medical treatment is available on site. The commanders brought The Times to an office where they said medics screened every detainee on arrival, in addition to monitoring them every day in the hangars. Serious cases are treated in a nearby cluster of tents that form a makeshift field hospital.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Inside those tents, patients are blindfolded and handcuffed to their beds, in accordance with a health ministry document outlining policies for the site, which was reviewed by The Times.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">During the visit, four medics at the hospital said those measures were necessary to prevent attacks on the medical staff. They said that at least two prisoners had tried to assault medics during their treatment.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">But others, including Dr. Donchin, said that in many cases the handcuffs were unnecessary and made it harder to treat people properly.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Two Israelis who were at the hospital last year said that its staff members were much less experienced and more poorly equipped during earlier phases of the war. One of them, who spoke on condition of anonymity to avoid prosecution, said that at the time patients were not given enough painkillers during painful procedures.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Physicians for Human Rights, a rights group in Israel, said in a <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.phr.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/5954_medical_ethics_Report_Eng.pdf\" title=\"\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">report<\/a> in April that the field hospital was \u201ca low point for medical ethics and professionalism.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">The hospital\u2019s current leadership acknowledged that it had not always been as well-equipped as it has become, but said its staff was always highly experienced.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Dr. Donchin said in some respects the treatment at the field clinic was now \u201ca little better\u201d than in Israeli civilian hospitals, mainly because it was staffed by some of the best doctors in Israel. Dr. Donchin, a lieutenant colonel in the military reserve, was a long-serving anesthesiologist at a major hospital in Jerusalem and now teaches at a leading medical school.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">The facilities and equipment seen by The Times included an anesthesia machine, an ultrasound monitor, X-ray equipment, a device for analyzing blood samples, a small operating theater and a storeroom containing hundreds of medicines.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Doctors serving at Sde Teiman who spoke to The Times said they were also told not to write their names on any official documentation and not to address each other by name in front of the patients.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Dr. Donchin said that officials feared they could be identified and charged with war crimes at the International Criminal Court.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">During The Times\u2019s visit, three doctors said they did not fear prosecution but sought anonymity to prevent Hamas and their allies from attacking them or their families.<\/p>\n<h2 class=\"css-13o6u42 eoo0vm40\" id=\"link-5123549a\">How the Interrogations Work<\/h2>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Roughly four days after his arrival, Mr. Bakr said he was called in for interrogation.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Like others who spoke to The Times, he remembered being brought to a separate enclosure that the detainees called the \u201cdisco room\u201d \u2014 because, they said, they were forced to listen to extremely loud music that prevented them from sleeping. Mr. Bakr considered it a form of torture, saying it was so painful that blood began to trickle from inside his ear.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">The Israeli military said that the music was \u201cnot high and not harmful,\u201d played within earshot of Israelis and Palestinians alike, and was meant to prevent the detainees from easily conferring with each other before interrogation. The Times was not shown any part of the interrogation complex, including the area where music was played.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Wearing nothing but a diaper, Mr. Bakr said, he was then brought to a separate room to be questioned.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">The interrogators accused him of Hamas membership and showed him photographs of militants to see if he could identify them. They also asked him about the whereabouts of hostages, as well as a senior Hamas leader who lived near Mr. Bakr\u2019s family home. When Mr. Bakr denied any connection to the group or knowledge of the pictured men, he was beaten repeatedly, he said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Mr. al-Hamlawi, the senior nurse, said a female officer had ordered two soldiers to lift him up and press his rectum against a metal stick that was fixed to the ground. Mr. al-Hamlawi said the stick penetrated his rectum for roughly five seconds, causing it to bleed and leaving him with \u201cunbearable pain.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">A leaked draft of the UNRWA report detailed an interview that gave a similar account. It cited a 41-year-old detainee who said that interrogators \u201cmade me sit on something like a hot metal stick and it felt like fire,\u201d and also said that another detainee \u201cdied after they put the electric stick up\u201d his anus.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Mr. al-Hamlawi recalled being forced to sit in a chair wired with electricity. He said he was shocked so often that, after initially urinating uncontrollably, he then stopped urinating for several days. Mr. al-Hamlawi said he, too, had been forced to wear nothing but a diaper, to stop him from soiling the floor.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Ibrahim Shaheen, 38, a truck driver detained in early December for nearly three months, said he was shocked roughly half a dozen times while sitting in a chair. Officers accused him of concealing information about the location of dead hostages, Mr. Shaheen said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Mr. Bakr also said he was forced to sit in chair wired with electricity, sending a current pulsing through his body that made him pass out.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<h2 class=\"css-13o6u42 eoo0vm40\" id=\"link-6e5bebed\">Released Without Charge<\/h2>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">After more than a month in detention, Mr. Bakr said, the officers seemed to accept his innocence.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Early one morning in February, Mr. Bakr was put on a bus heading to Israel\u2019s border with southern Gaza: After a month of detention, he was about to be released.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">He said he asked for his phone and the 7,200 shekels (roughly $2,000) that had been confiscated from him during his arrest in Gaza, before he reached Sde Teiman.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">In response, a soldier hit and shouted at him, Mr. Bakr said. \u201cNo one should ask about his phone or his money,\u201d the soldier said, according to Mr. Bakr.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">The military said all personal belongings were documented and placed in sealed bags after detainees arrived at Sde Teiman, and returned on their release.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Around dawn, the bus arrived at the Kerem Shalom crossing point, near the southern tip of Gaza.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Like other returned detainees, Mr. Bakr walked for roughly a mile before being greeted by aid workers from the Red Cross. They fed him and briefly checked his medical condition. Then they brought him to a nearby terminal where, he said, he was briefly interrogated by Hamas security officials about his time in Israel.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Borrowing a phone, he called his family, who were still 20 miles away in Gaza City.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">It was the first time that they had heard from him in more than a month, Mr. Bakr said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cThey asked me, \u2018Are you alive?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-798hid etfikam0\">Iyad Abuheweila<!-- --> contributed reporting from Istanbul; <!-- -->Gabby Sobelman<!-- --> from Rehovot, Israel; and <!-- -->Ronen Bergman<!-- --> from Tel Aviv.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<p><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2024\/06\/06\/world\/middleeast\/israel-gaza-detention-base.html\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The men sat in rows, handcuffed and blindfolded, unable to see the Israeli soldiers who stood watch over them from the other side of a mesh fence. They were barred from talking more loudly than a murmur, and forbidden to stand or sleep except when authorized. A few knelt in prayer. One was being inspected [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":67146,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/static01.nyt.com\/images\/2024\/06\/03\/multimedia\/00Israel-Gaza-Detention-01-hmkp\/00Israel-Gaza-Detention-01-hmkp-facebookJumbo.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[722,9467,3451,38,57],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/67145"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=67145"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/67145\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":67147,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/67145\/revisions\/67147"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/67146"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=67145"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=67145"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=67145"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}