Oren Ziv
In February,
Rami was arrested by the Israeli army at Gaza’s Al-Shifa Hospital. The
42-year-old Palestinian was taken to the notorious Sde Teiman detention center,
where, like thousands of Gazans detained there, he endured severe abuse at the
hands of the guards. But he was soon transferred out. “I thought I was being
returned to Gaza, but I found myself in another prison,” he told +972 and Local
Call. That prison was Ofer Camp — a military facility that Israel established
during the current war to hold detainees from Gaza, located between Jerusalem
and Ramallah in the occupied West Bank.
Detainees at Ofer Prison, near Jerusalem, occupied West Bank, August 28, 2024. (Chaim Goldberg/Flash90)
Rami described
the facility as no less brutal than Sde Teiman. “I was severely tortured,” he
said. “We were forced to kneel with our hands tied from sunrise until midnight.
Guards beat us on every part of our bodies. I was given electric shocks every
two days.” He stressed that such treatment was not exceptional: “All detainees
at Ofer were tortured, beaten, and humiliated. We [all] received food only once
a day.”
On March 24,
after weeks of detention in these conditions, Rami was released back to Gaza;
there were no charges filed against him.
+972 and Local
Call obtained testimonies from 19 Palestinians, some of whom are current
detainees who spoke through their lawyers at the Israeli human rights group
HaMoked, and others who were previously held at Ofer Camp and released back to
Gaza. They revealed conditions that are “similar, and in some cases identical”
to those at Sde Teiman, as attorney Nadine Abu Arafeh from HaMoked explained.
Palestinians in
Ofer report being handcuffed and, in some cases, shackled by their feet for 24
hours a day — even while sleeping, eating, and using the restroom — with the
exception of a brief shower that is allowed, at most, once a week. They also
describe facing regular beatings by guards — on one account, to death — along
with ongoing humiliation, extreme overcrowding, and a lack of basic hygiene.
Gazans held at
Ofer Camp, which is adjacent to the long-standing prison of the same name, are
among the Palestinian detainees Israel classifies as “unlawful combatants.” As
such, they go through a very brief legal procedure: normally, this consists of
a three-minute hearing conducted via Zoom, where they are accused of
“supporting terror,” and following which their detention is extended for
another six months or until “the end of the war.”
According to
HaMoked, 1,772 “unlawful combatants” are held in Israeli jails under the
jurisdiction of the Israel Prison Service (IPS) as of December 2024. While the
military has not disclosed the exact number detained at Ofer Camp, estimates
suggest that hundreds are currently being held there.
Initially,
lawyers for Palestinian detainees expected that Ofer Camp would serve as a
temporary transit facility, holding detainees briefly before transferring them
to Ofer Prison or other civilian prisons overseen by the IPS. And although the
IPS recently boasted of toughening conditions for Palestinian detainees,
lawyers had hoped that the increased scrutiny of civilian prisons might lead to
somewhat more humane living conditions. However, despite claims by the Israeli
military that detainees are “projected to be transferred to the IPS,” HaMoked
continues to meet with detainees who have been held at Ofer Camp since May
2024.
‘One of the
young men detained with us was killed’
In May,
following mounting revelations of severe abuse against detainees at Sde Teiman
— including cases of death and even rape — a group of five Israeli human rights
organizations filed a petition with the High Court of Justice, arguing that the
conditions in the facility violated existing Israeli law. Ultimately, the court
sided with the petitioners and ruled in September that “detention of
individuals in the Sde Teiman facility, or any detention facility, must comply
with the requirements of the law.”
Although the
court stopped short of ordering the closure of Sde Teiman, the facility was
gradually converted into a transit camp. In recent months, Palestinian
detainees have simply been screened at Sde Teiman before being sent back to
Gaza or moved to Ofer Camp. But the abuse hasn’t stopped: it has merely been
relocated.
“The testimonies
of detainees who were held or are still being held in Ofer Camp indicate that
the state is disregarding the recent High Court ruling regarding detention
conditions at the Sde Teiman facility,” Abu Arafeh of HaMoked explained.
According to one
Palestinian who was held at Sde Teiman and later transferred to Ofer, the main
difference between the two facilities is that at Ofer, detainees are allowed to
stand in their cells, whereas at Sde Teiman they were forced to kneel all day long.
Another detainee who spoke to a HaMoked said that the main “improvement” at
Ofer compared to Sde Teiman is that “there’s a Quran in the cell, and we’re
allowed to pray.”
One crucial
difference, however, is that while Sde Teiman received some international
scrutiny, very little is known about what is occurring at Ofer, and it has
received almost no coverage in the international media.
Rafiq, a
59-year-old from northern Gaza, was arrested in November 2023. After spending a
week at Sde Teiman, he was transferred to Ofer. “We all suffered the same level
of torture, humiliation, and insults,” he told +972 and Local Call. “They
treated us as if we would never see our families in Gaza again. I thought I
would leave prison dead.
“One of the
young men detained with us was killed during his release: [the soldiers] struck
him on the head, and he died immediately,” he continued. “I lost 43kg during my
detention due to the lack of food. The only comfort I had was thinking about my
family, which helped me dissociate from the reality of imprisonment.”
After spending
about a month inside Ofer, Rafiq was released back to Gaza, but has continued
to suffer from his experiences there. “My hands are paralyzed because of the
torture, and I am taking heavy psychiatric medications. I walk dozens of
kilometers every day to exhaust myself so I can sleep. I lost my life because
of that detention.”
Handcuffed day
and night — even in the bathroom
Based on
testimonies provided to HaMoked, Abu Arafeh explained, detainees at Ofer Camp
endure “harsh conditions far removed from the minimum standards required to
meet their basic needs. This indicates violations of their rights as detainees
and as human beings, creating the impression that, in many cases, these
conditions amount to torture.”
All but two
detainees who were recently held at Ofer described being kept in handcuffs
while inside their cells. A 28-year-old inmate said detainees’ hands are
unshackled only “for half an hour a week, for a shower,” and another reported
that being in handcuffs 24 hours a day caused his hands to feel “numb.”
A 48-year-old
father of three, who was arrested in March 2024 at his home in Gaza City, said
he was told by Israeli soldiers: “We know you have no connection to October 7,
but we know you have information about Hamas and its operatives.” He was
transferred to Ofer Camp, where he remained handcuffed “all day and night.”
According to the
testimonies, humiliation and violence are part of daily life in Ofer, with
guards beating detainees for their own amusement. A 23-year-old prisoner
testified that, compared to Sde Teiman, “in the room, we are permitted to
stand,” but “every time I move from one section to another, they beat me.”
“Every time the
guards walk through the corridor, the detainees have to lie face down on the
floor, and anyone who does not comply is punished and beaten on the hands,” a
32-year-old detainee said. “The officers curse at us all day.”
Many detainees
spoke about poor and inadequate food, with identical daily meals primarily
consisting of four slices of white bread with a teaspoon of jam, cheese, or
chocolate spread, with no source of protein. “Sometimes there’s labneh or
cheese, occasionally a small amount of tuna,” one prisoner testified. “Other
than that, there’s nothing — no eggs, meat, or chicken.”
“The food
arrives in terrible condition,” one detainee currently held at Ofer said. “In
the morning, we get three slices of bread, one of them with a bit of jam.
Previously, we got five slices, but recently the amount has been reduced. In
addition to the bread, each person gets one tomato.”
A 32-year-old
Gazan detainee who was arrested at Al-Shifa Hospital testified that “all
prisoners have lost 20-30kg.” Detainees also reported that prison cells are
extremely overcrowded, with many suffering from skin diseases due to the poor
hygiene conditions.
A 28-year-old
father of two, who was arrested in March 2024, also at Al-Shifa, said that 16
people were held in a cell designed for 12. “The others don’t have mattresses,
so we take turns,” he explained. Those without a bed are forced to sleep on
two-centimeter thick mattresses placed on the cell floor.
“Once a week,
we’re allowed to change underwear and shower with cold water,” he added.
“Clothes are not changed. Every one to two weeks, we’re given a single roll of
toilet paper for all the detainees. Soap is only provided during the shower.”
There is no
laundry service in Ofer, so detainees are forced to wash their single allotted
piece of clothing — a gray tracksuit that some have been wearing for four
months — in the cell’s sink or toilet. Showers are allowed once every one to
three weeks, according to some testimonies, during which prisoners may receive
a new pair of underwear.
“When there were
cases of scabies in the cell, we were allowed to shower once a week,” recounted
one prisoner who has been in Ofer Camp since April. “But after they recovered,
we returned to the awful routine. There are no toothbrushes, and soap in the cell
is only available sometimes.”
A prisoner from
Gaza City testified that he was left handcuffed when going to the bathroom and
wasn’t allowed to clean himself. For showers, he said, they are given “less
than three minutes,” adding that he had to bathe using “floor-cleaning
detergent.”
‘I dream of
seeing sunlight’
Disturbingly,
some of the detainees only discovered that they were being held in Ofer Camp
during meetings with lawyers from HaMoked — weeks or even months after arriving
at the facility.
A 66-year-old
father of four, who was arrested at his home in Rafah in May 2024, was taken to
Sde Teiman and later to Ofer. “Only [since late October] do I know I’m in
Ofer,” he told his lawyer. “I had a hearing via Zoom. They told me I’m detained
until the end of the war, accused of being affiliated with a terrorist
organization. I’m a schoolteacher, not connected to Hamas or any hostile
activities against Israel.”
For detainees,
meeting with a lawyer may be the only opportunity they have to leave their
cells. “There are no papers or pens, so we can’t file complaints,” noted one
detainee, who was arrested in Khan Younis in February. “We try to make requests
through the shawish [a Hebrew-speaking prisoner assigned to liaise with the
guards], but the situation doesn’t improve. I dream of seeing sunlight, even
just once.”
But lawyers’
visits have also come at a steep cost for other detainees. One 26-year-old
testified that when a lawyer meets with one prisoner, all the others in the
cell are taken out and shackled, blindfolded, and forced to lie down for the
duration of the visit. “I pray that [the lawyers] don’t come to visit us,” he
said. “This is the nightmare of all the detainees.”
Facility are
those who have been found to be involved in terrorist activity and have
undergone a judicial review conducted before a District Court judge.” The
spokesperson rejected “claims of systematic abuse of detainees, including
through violence or torture” at Ofer, noting that abuse is “against the law and
IDF orders” and that the facility is “regularly filmed and is under the
supervision of commanders.”
The spokesperson
also claimed, contrary to the testimonies, that detainees at Ofer receive
blankets, a mattress, hygiene products, clothing, three meals a day, and
“appropriate medical care.” While “most detainees are not held in handcuffs,”
the spokesperson added, in certain cases “an individual decision is made to
handcuff a detainee, in a way that does not prevent him from eating, showering,
or using the bathroom.”
Ruwaida Amer,
Belal Awad and Leo Erhadt
Dogs. Hunger.
Humiliation. Beatings. Rape. The testimony of survivors from Sde Teiman,
Israel’s torture camp for Palestinians based in the Negev Desert, paint a
consistent portrait of inhumanity and savagery with few parallels in modern
history. The Real News reports from the Gaza Strip, where Sde Teiman survivor
Rafik Hamdi Darwish Yasin shares his experience at the hands of his Israeli
captors.
Transcript
Narrator:
In November 2023
Rafik Hamdi Darwish Yassin was detained by the Israeli Army in Gaza. Later he
was transferred to the Israeli military-base-turned-detention-camp Sde Teiman
and it was here where he says he was further subjected to multiple forms of
physical and psychological torture for a further 25 days.
Rafik Hamdi
Darwish Yasin:
I would have
preferred they shoot me in Gaza than leave Gaza. We wanted to leave, two of our
neighbors left the building; we were surprised by snipers and these two
neighbors were killed. So we were besieged for five days until they came in
their tanks. They smashed the front of the building, destroyed the stairs, then
they entered and took us out. There were people that they didn’t detain; they
just killed them in their homes. They entered and told us – I was wearing a
jacket – they told me to take the jacket off and to lower my trousers a little.
We got dressed, then they blindfolded us and tied our wrists with electric wire
from the back.
Narrator:
Leaked CCTV
footage from Sde Teiman appears to show Israeli soldiers sexually assaulting an
inmate with the help of dogs, and the camp is awash with accusations of both
psychological and physical torture.
Rafik Hamdi
Darwish Yasin:
Most of the hits
were to the head, I lost four teeth. Four teeth from my mouth. They hit the
sides, the joints, anywhere it would not be easy to recover from, they would
hit. Apart from that, the dogs. The dogs were muzzled, but if the dog stood on
you it was like being stabbed five times. The cold, we were sleeping on one
blanket and a mat that was less than one centimeter thick. On concrete, and the
whole prison where we were was raised around one to one and a half meters in
height. It was winter. We were there from November 23 to December 23.
A month? One
month, correct. A month that for the prisoner feels like 30 years. 30 days
blindfolded, then we were tied, cuffed from behind for five days. Then they
cuffed us from the front – even worse. Two plastic ties around each wrist with
a metal chain in between. So that your hand – here, look: this is from
December, it went all the way to the bone. They killed people in front of us.
They used to take people to the top of buildings, tie them with rope to make it
look like they were special forces in front of your eyes. What kind of torture
is this? Who can tolerate this torture? They would hit you in the head with the
rifle, there was a man who was killed as he got off the bus. They whacked him
in the head, and he died right there while getting off the bus.
They use their
boots. They use dogs. Some would use music. They would lock you in a room and
play loud music for three, five hours. 10 hours, 12 hours. I mean… the worst
possible. They would force you to sit on your knees. Four hours. Standing, four
hours. You would stay standing. Even the medic who would come to treat you, one
of their medics – I had these ties here cutting to the bone – on both sides. A
medic would come and bandage
your hand today.
The day after the next medic would come and tie your wrists so tight that your
hand would start bleeding again and would tie it with such pressure so that
your wrists become deformed. Even their medics are Nazis.
You can tolerate
the physical torture… But the psychological torture and the humiliation. If you
understand Hebrew, it becomes much more difficult. Many didn’t understand the
humiliating things they were saying. A horde of criminals, and there are levels
with them: from those who hate the Palestinian people, to those who want to
kill every single Palestinian, to those who would shoot at Palestinians
directly. Three levels, and all three are criminals. Every one would show their
hatred at a specific level.
The Israeli
army, the Israeli intelligence, says that whoever didn’t celebrate on October 7
ate sweets, and whoever didn’t eat sweets gave shelter to Hamas. What has
October 7 got to do with me? What did I do on the 6th or 7th of October!? What
did I do? I did not take part in this whole story.
Narrator:
Though it’s been
almost a year since Rafik was released, the long term effects of that single
month of detention remain.
Rafik Hamdi
Darwish Yasin:
When I was in
prison, I lost 43 kilos. Forty-three kilos in 30 days. 43 kilos, look. You can
see how my body is wrinkled. I didn’t go to the toilet for around 6 days from
lack of food. I started to bleed in my gut, and I was hospitalized. Now I can’t
lift my arm. More than this I can’t lift my arm. To this moment I am on anxiety
meds. These are the medications I take for the effects of the detention. These
are strong psychological drugs. This one is half a pill at night, you couldn’t
take this in the day.
Every day I walk
around 15 kilometers, so I can sleep on top of the anxiety meds. I mean, you
can say that I have lost my life. We are alive but dead at the same time.
They released us
in Karma Abu Salem; of course, they didn’t tell us. They want to steal any joy
from you until the last moment; they didn’t tell us we were being released. In
Karma Abu Salem we were barefoot, none of us were wearing shoes. We walked for three
and a half or four kilometers, walking on asphalt, covered in debris. The
feeling of freedom… There wasn’t a lot of happiness. Why? Because we were far
from family, and there’s a war that continues, and the blood is still flowing.
There’s no reason to celebrate until now. There’s no reason for joy.
You know the
time that I used to be able to relax? When I would think of my family. That’s
it. I would be able to leave the world I was in. I would remember my son who… I
have one son who suffers from autism. I worry about him a lot. Even the
buildings, the trees, the buildings, what was their crime? We evacuated the
area; why are you bulldozing the buildings? Why are you bulldozing the trees? I
mean they want to destroy everything that the Palestinians have built in 50
years.
That’s the sound
of strikes.
– That’s the
sound of strikes, yes. It’s far away, east of Deir.
– God help us.
– God help us.
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