Whistleblowers Tell CNN Palestinian Prisoners Being Tortured and Beaten in Israeli Prison
Whistleblowers from an Israeli prison alleged Palestinian detainees are being tortured and beaten, according to a new CNN report from chief global affairs correspondent Matthew Chance.
Two Israeli whistleblowers and a Palestinian doctor who treated patients at a facility at the Sde Teiman desert camp spoke to CNN for the report. The whistleblowers alleged Israeli guards abused detainees with physical restraints and beatings.
Doctors were allegedly instructed to amputate the limbs of prisoners due to injuries received from constant handcuffing. Unqualified medics sometimes performed the procedures, the whistleblowers said, which one said amounted to a punishment in and of itself.
One source shared photos inside the Sde Teiman camp showing hundreds of male prisoners blindfolded.
“They stripped them down of anything that resembles human beings,” said one whistleblower, who was a medical worker inside the facility.
“(The beatings) were not done to gather intelligence. They were done out of revenge,” another whistleblower told CNN. “It was punishment for what they (the Palestinians) did on October 7 and punishment for behavior in the camp.”
Whistleblowers said guards were instructed to scream at detainees and beat problematic individuals. Prisoners also allegedly faced “nightly torture” that included unleashing dogs on them while they slept.
“While we were cabled, they unleashed the dogs that would move between us, and trample over us,” said former detainee Dr. Mohammed al-Ran. “You’d be lying on your belly, your face pressed against the ground. You can’t move, and they’re moving above you.”
The Israel Defense Forces responded to the allegations with a denial, claiming that “any allegation of misconduct by IDF soldiers is examined and dealt with accordingly.” Israeli officials denied CNN access to the Sde Teiman facility.
CNN included a 3D video model of a field hospital based on eyewitness accounts inside Sde Teiman. Witnesses claimed Palestinian prisoners were handcuffed to beds, wearing diapers, and had to eat through straws.
“If you imagine yourself being unable to move, being unable to see what’s going on, and being completely naked, that leaves you completely exposed,” a source told CNN. “I think that’s something that borders on, if not crosses to, psychological torture.”
Another whistleblower said he was was ordered to perform medical procedures on detainees for which he was not qualified without the use of anesthesia.
“If they complained about pain, they would be given paracetamol,” he said. “Just being there felt like being complicit in abuse.”
Watch the YouTube video above via CNN.
