Israel - February 2025

On 6 February, a reservist in the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) was convicted by a military court for abusing Palestinian detainees at the Sde Teiman facility between January and June 2024. The reservist admitted to repeatedly assaulting bound and blindfolded detainees under his custody, using his fists, a baton, and a rifle. He also forced the detainees to imitate animal sounds, recording these humiliations on his mobile phone. The court sentenced him to seven months in prison, with 80 days deducted for time already served in pre-trial detention. While this is the first conviction related to abuse allegations at the facility, rights groups have condemned the sentence as insufficient to deter similar incidents in the future. Investigations into other claims of torture and abuse at the facility are still ongoing. On 19 February, military prosecutors indicted five more IDF reservists accused of sexually abusing a Palestinian detainee.

Sources: Israel Defense Forces (1), Israel Defense Forces (2), Reuters, The Jerusalem Post