Occupied Jerusalem- Speaking about harsh testimonies and tragic circumstances, lawyer Khaled Mahajna from the city of Umm al-Fahm in the Palestinian interior revealed the reality and scenes experienced by Gazan prisoners in the secret detention center “Sde Teman” in the Negev desert.
Mahajneh, a lawyer for the Prisoners’ and Ex-Prisoners’ Affairs Authority and the Palestinian Prisoners’ Club, recounted, in an interview with Tel Aviv Tribune Net, the conditions that more than a thousand prisoners from the Gaza Strip are experiencing inside this prison, which he was able to visit, on Wednesday, and met the prisoner journalist Muhammad Saber Arab, who was arrested before More than 100 days from Al-Shifa Hospital in the Gaza Strip.
Mahajna conveyed the testimonies and testimonies of Gazan prisoners in the secret detention camp, as told to him by prisoner Arab, and the testimonies dealt with the daily suffering in the absence of captivity, between the flames of the desert sands and the series of abuse, torture, and various types of attacks that the prisoners face from Israeli soldiers.
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You are the first lawyer to be able to visit the Sde Teman detention center. What were the procedures and time it took to obtain the approval of the Israeli authorities for your request?
More than a month ago, I submitted a request to the Israeli occupation authorities to visit the detention center and meet the prisoner journalist Muhammad Saber Arab (42 years old), who has been detained for about 4 months.
I sent dozens of messages and made extensive contacts with the Israeli authorities and various security agencies, where they informed me of the initial approval for my visit to the prison, in exchange for conditions that include inspection, strict surveillance, and accompaniment during the visit. After more than a month of reviews and communications, the date was set for ten in the morning on Wednesday. June 19 of this year.
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Where is this secret prison located, and can you describe it from the outside and what it looks like?
“Sde Teman” detention center is located in the heart of the Negev Desert, very far from any residential communities, and is located in an isolated area cut off from the world, as if the detention center existed in outer space.
While I was traveling to the detention center, accompanied by the trainee lawyer Marah Amara, and when I arrived on the outskirts of the city of Rahat in the Negev, I received a call from the prison administration and they informed me that it was forbidden to enter the prison with civilian vehicles. They asked me to stop my car and walk, and after walking for more than 10 minutes, they intercepted me and my colleague Jib. A soldier with 3 soldiers inside, and they asked us to come up, then we went towards the detention center.
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Describe to us the moment you entered the prison. What did it look like from the inside?
After traveling in the jeep for about 20 minutes, we entered the prison. Although I have been working on issues related to prisoners for more than a decade and visiting them in Israeli prisons, this is the first time I have seen such a prison.
“Sde Teman” looked like a military camp or barracks and not an ordinary prison. Many tanks and armored vehicles were spread everywhere, as well as military equipment. There were soldiers everywhere spread among the sand dunes.
The detention facility extends over large areas, and is divided into 4 sections for the detention and detention of Gazan prisoners. In each section there are 4 barracks made of tin and tin, which are like a barn, and in each one 100 prisoners from Gaza are detained, without humanitarian conditions and without the necessities of life.
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Since he is a “military detainee,” was the visit under strict restrictions and supervision by soldiers from the occupation army?
True, I was transferred in a military jeep and guarded by soldiers to an isolated place cut off from the world. The visit took place under strict restrictions and supervision, and I was subjected to examinations and procedures that I had not previously been subjected to as a lawyer during my visits to occupation prisons to meet with prisoners.
I was taken to a room specially prepared for civilians visiting the prison. When I arrived there, there were a number of masked soldiers. They stripped me of my personal belongings, prevented me from accessing my phone, and conducted careful searches of my body and clothes. They warned me of any attempt to disrupt order during the interview with journalist Arab.
The treatment procedures were abusive and retaliatory, and even contradicted international conventions and laws in force during visits to prisoners and detainees in war. I refrained from discussing soldiers and military personnel, and refrained from objecting to the abusive treatment, because my goal was to meet with someone on behalf of the prisoners in this detention center, but I insisted on submitting papers. And a pen, so they approved my request after subjecting it to security checks.
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How was your meeting with the prisoner, journalist Muhammad Arab, and what were the circumstances and duration of the visit, and did the administration allow filming and documenting the meeting?
I stayed in the room for 15 minutes waiting for prisoner Arab to enter, during which the masked soldiers informed me for the second time that the visit was being monitored and documented, and that any movement on my part that would “harm the security of Israel and the detainee” would lead to the visit being stopped immediately.
The administration allocated 45 minutes for the visit, and the prisoner Arab was brought in, accompanied by masked soldiers who were fluent in the Arabic language. He was handcuffed and blindfolded, with his head down and unable to move. He was dragged by the soldiers who sat him on a chair, then remained at the door to watch the events unfold. The visit and the conversation that took place between us.
I sat opposite the prisoner Arab, who was separated from me by a glass wall and an iron grill as well. The soldiers removed the blindfold from his eyes. This was the first time he had seen the light in more than 100 days. He did not know that he was detained in “Sde Teman,” and for the first time he met a civilian in this prison. Military prison.
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What testimonies did Arabs give you about what they are exposed to, and about the reality of prisoners and the conditions of their detention?
The first question that the prisoner Arab asked me was: Where is he? Who am I that I came to meet? When I told him that I was a lawyer, he did not believe me and said, “Who knows, maybe you are an investigator or a collaborator with the Israeli army.”
Then I told him that I was visiting him with the authorization of Al-Arabi TV (his employer) and his family, and that I had been working for many years with the Prisoners’ Affairs Authority and the Prisoners’ Club, and I conveyed my greetings and greetings to his family, and that they were all fine, and they were all staying at his brother Ashraf’s house.
After he was certain of my sincerity, and we exchanged the funniest conversation that strengthened his confidence, the prisoner Arab burst into tears and said, “For the first time in 100 days, I see the light, and I see in front of me a civilian, not a soldier or a soldier. They arrested me last March, during my journalistic work in a hospital.” Healing, and since then, I and other Gazan prisoners have been isolated from the world, and we do not know where we are.”
The prisoner Arab recounted horrific, horrific and shocking testimonies and testimonies from the Gazan detainees in “Sde Teman”, about everything related to the conditions of detention and conditions of detention, as they were arrested from Gaza, stripped of their clothes and loaded onto large military vehicles while they were naked for several hours, and were thrown into an isolated place. .
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How many Gazan prisoners were detained at Sde Teman?
Every day, prisoners from Gaza are brought to the secret detention center in the Negev Desert, and according to estimates, more than a thousand detainees are detained in the place, where the military prison administration keeps the detainees shackled, handcuffed, and blindfolded 24 hours a day, and whoever tries to remove the blindfold is subject to punishment.
The vast majority of Gazan prisoners have been detained in the place for more than 8 months, and were not allowed to replace the clothes they wore at the moment of their arrest from the Gaza Strip. Before the visit, prisoner Arab was allowed to change his pants, while he remained in a jacket that he had not changed for 50 days. The clothes that the prisoners wear have a smell. It is very foul, and has become rotten and an incubating environment for filth, diseases, and epidemics that ravage their bodies.
In one ward, which has an area of only tens of square metres, 100 prisoners are detained, and each one of them is provided with a bracelet bearing his own number, as prisoners are not dealt with by names but by numbers.
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What are the conditions of detention of prisoners? What are they exposed to around the clock by the prison administration?
According to testimonies and testimonies reported by Arabs, the prisoners are held in inhuman and degrading conditions. They remain handcuffed and blindfolded inside the iron cell for 24 hours, and are guarded around the clock by heavily armed soldiers, accompanied by police dogs that roam among the prisoners, who are subjected to a series of torture. Abuse, torture, astonishment, and insult to dignity.
Prisoners lie on the floor to stay and sleep, and the prison administration does not provide them with blankets or beds. They sleep on the floor and use their shoes as pillows to sleep, while the toilet is part of the place and a scene related to the conditions of detention.
Prisoners are prohibited from exchanging conversations, and are prohibited from performing prayers and practicing any religious rituals. Anyone who violates this will be punished. They are also prohibited from sleeping during the day, as they are allowed to sleep from 12 midnight until five in the morning.
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What does the life of prisoners look like in light of the practices they are exposed to?
Their living conditions are like hell, as they are surrounded by armed soldiers and police dogs around the clock, and according to what prisoner Arab reported, the detainee is allowed to use the bathroom for only one minute, and anyone who exceeds the time exposes himself to punishments, which amount to beatings, abuse, torture, sexual assault and even rape in… If a lot of penalties accumulate.
As for bathing, the prisoner is allowed to do it once a week, for a period of one minute, in the bathroom adjacent to the toilet. Accordingly, many detainees avoid entering the bathroom, either for fear of punishment, or because of malnutrition and the inability to excrete feces. Due to lack of food, Gazan prisoners suffer from chronic constipation.
The food provided to the prisoners is very little, and the meal is limited to dry bread, a few bites of labneh, and a piece of tomato or cucumber. These are the components of the meals that are provided to them daily, while they are not provided with drinking water, and they are allowed to drink from tap water in the toilet. Because of this, they have All the prisoners lost weight, and some of them looked like skeletons due to the starvation policy.
This is the reality of life there in Sde Teman, where there are Gazan prisoners from different social strata, including children, teenagers, young men, men and the elderly, who live a slow death in captivity, and suffer from chronic diseases as a result of medical neglect and denial of treatment. Insects eat away at their bodies. They are no longer able to move or feel their limbs, as their hands are shackled around the clock, and some of them have lost the ability to move.
Prisoners are also subjected to punitive retaliatory measures around the clock, ranging from a series of abuse and torture, severe beatings, and physical and sexual assaults as well. Some of them are subjected to rape, using sharp tools, including rifles. Six cases of rape were recorded during the last month of prisoners who were punished.
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What about the wounded and sick prisoners?
There is a “clinic” consisting of a box made of zinc and tin, and it is specifically designated for wounded prisoners who were arrested in Gaza, and who suffer from injuries as a result of being targeted by Israeli army fire.
There are teams of paramedics and doctors who provide treatment to sick and injured prisoners. They are subjected to surgical operations and the removal of shrapnel from their bodies without any anesthesia. The prisoners could hear their screams while they were subjected to surgical operations that often ended in amputation of limbs.
Not only that, according to what prisoner Arab narrated, sick prisoners are left without treatment or health care, and are deprived of even painkillers. The health conditions of prisoners who have been subjected to surgeries and amputations are also deteriorating, and all of them have wounds that continue to bleed, causing bodily contamination and rotting of the amputated limbs.
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Do cases of martyrdom among prisoners fall within the context of the policy of forced disappearance against Gaza detainees?
Some prisoners were martyred as a result of rape and physical torture, including as a result of deliberate medical negligence. This falls within the context of the policy of forced disappearance adopted by the Israeli authorities against Gaza detainees since the beginning of the war, as the prisoners are subjected to crimes of genocide.
The Israeli authorities refuse to disclose the fate of the prisoners, their numbers, and their places of detention, and it is not unlikely that there will be more secret detention centers in which thousands of Gazan prisoners are held without any legal basis, charges, or trial.
International human rights organizations must put pressure on Israel to reveal the fate of all those it arrested from Gaza during the war, and open an international investigation into the crimes and grave violations committed against Gazan detainees, as an aspect of the ongoing genocide and war crimes against the Palestinian people.
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In light of the lack of a trial and the absence of any charges, can it be said that the scenes and testimonies you reported suggest that the prisoners are experiencing death?
Prisoner Arab told me reality and scenes that the mind cannot comprehend, daily suffering and abuse around the clock. He and other Gazan prisoners are subject to interrogation once or twice, and the questions to him and other prisoners centered around the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) and its military arsenal, its missile capabilities and the tunnel network. .
All the prisoners were presented before the Central Court in Beersheba via the “Zoom” application using the phones of the soldiers in the prison, and all of them had their detention extended indefinitely, under the pretext of “belonging to an unknown military organization.”
What the Israeli authorities did violates international conventions in everything related to the detention of prisoners of war, as they carried out random arrests of Gazans for the sake of revenge, without revealing to human rights institutions the places of their detention, the progress of investigations, trial procedures and extension of detention, or the nature of the suspicions and the truth of the charges against them.
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What message did the Gazan detainees convey to you through the prisoner Arab?
Prisoner Arab revealed these scenes and the reality of death experienced by Gazan prisoners in the Sde Teman prison, despite his knowledge that he would be subjected to abuse, torture, severe beatings, and even rape. The soldiers guarding at the door documented every word.
Prisoner Arab stressed that despite his awareness of the punishment awaiting him, he carries the message of all prisoners and wants to convey it to the whole world, to reveal what Gazan prisoners are exposed to in secret Israeli detention centers in terms of war crimes and genocide, indicating that the prisoners are steadfast and will not yield to any blackmail or threats.
On behalf of all the Gazan detainees in Sde Teman, Arabs sent a message to the international community and all international human rights institutions, calling on them to put pressure on Israel and oblige it to stop dealing with Gazan prisoners with methods and procedures of extermination, and to take immediate and urgent action to save the prisoners from slow death.
