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Anonymous ID: fb0766 July 2, 2024, 1:50 p.m. No.21128415   🗄️.is đź”—kun   >>8421

https://www.cnn.com/2024/06/05/middleeast/israel-top-court-sde-teiman-hearing-intl/index.html

Israel phasing out use of desert detention camp after CNN investigation detailing abuses

Israel has transferred hundreds of Palestinian detainees out of the shadowy detention facility of Sde Teiman in Israel’s Negev desert, a state attorney told Israel’s Supreme Court on Wednesday during a first-ever hearing about the facility where prisoners from Gaza have allegedly been held under conditions of extreme abuse.

State attorney Aner Helman told the court that 700 inmates had been moved to Ofer military facility in the occupied West Bank, with another 500 set to be transferred in the weeks to come. Around 200 detainees will remain in Sde Teiman, said Helman, who added that the state would provide an update on their status within three days.

The hearing comes in response to a petition by the Association for Civil Rights in Israel (ACRI) and other human rights groups, which drew heavily on CNN reporting about the makeshift prison to make a case for it to be shut down.

During a tense exchange, one of the Supreme Court justices, Judge Barak Erez, pressed the state’s legal team on the legality of the way the facility was being run. “The question is whether or not the Israeli law for the imprisonment of unlawful combatants applies or not. That you did not answer,” said Erez.

Avi Segal, an attorney representing the right-wing, Israeli legal organization Shurat HaDin which had asked to join the procedure, said the hearing was based on “newspaper rumors.”

“The court should be worried about setting up a hearing, and even asking for a response to petitions based on newspaper rumors,” said Segal.

CNN’s investigation, in which Israeli whistleblowers as well as Palestinian former detainees and eyewitnesses described horrific conditions at the facility, including continuous blindfolding and handcuffing, sparked an international outcry.

The White House called the allegations detailed in CNN’s report “deeply concerning” and said it was reaching out to Israeli officials for answers. Germany’s Foreign Office condemned the reported practices and said it was campaigning for the International Committee of the Red Cross to access the camp and other prisons.

In the wake of CNN’s investigation, United Nations Special Rapporteur on Torture and Unlawful Combatants, Alice Jill Edwards, called for Israel to investigate allegations of torture and mistreatment of detained Palestinians.