I assure the children that Ahmad is fine, that he’s coming back soon, but to live through this war, the constant displacement, the bombing and also have to fight to know where your husband is, not to hear his voice, is like a war within the war.
–Alaa Muhanna, interview with Amnesty International
Horrific testimonies continue to emerge from Palestinian civilians captured by Israeli forces in Gaza and taken to Sde Teiman, Israel’s makeshift torture facility.
Our latest visual illustrates the testimony of Fadi Bakr, a law student from Gaza City, who was captured by Israeli soldiers in early January and spent more than 30 days in Sde Teiman. He was then released without charge back into Gaza to face an ongoing genocide.
By the end of May, approximately 4,000 Palestinians from Gaza, many arbitrarily rounded up from their homes, UN shelters, or while fleeing south, had spent up to three months in Sde Teiman. They were held hostage under Israel’s “Unlawful Combatants law,” where they are denied access to lawyers and their location is kept secret from rights groups and the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC). This form of incommunicado detention is a flagrant violation of international law and may amount to enforced disappearance. At least 36 Palestinians have died at Sde Teiman that we know of so far in the context of systemic torture and medical neglect.
The abuse of Palestinian detainees is not limited to Palestinians from Gaza. In the West Bank, Israel has arrested 9,430 Palestinians since October 7, of which 3,380 are held under administrative detention without charge or trial, and subjected to torture and inhumane and degrading treatment.