Riot Erupts as IDF Soldiers Arrested for Suspected Detainee Abuse
Officials from the criminal investigation division detained nine reserve soldiers at the Sde Teiman facility on Monday, suspecting them of abusing a Palestinian detainee held at the facility. The detainee had been brought to a hospital with severe injuries, prompting a police investigation into the alleged abuse.
As investigators arrived at the facility, a riot ensued, with attempts made to allow some of the suspected soldiers to escape. The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) released a statement saying, “Following a suspicion of serious abuse of a detainee who was held in the detention facility in Sde Teiman, an investigation by the military police was opened by order of the military attorney’s office.”
The situation escalated further when far-right lawmakers and activists breached the IDF’s Sde Teiman base, including Zvi Succot of the ultranationalist Otzma Yehudit party.
The raid has drawn significant criticism from several Members of the Knesset (MKs) within the coalition. Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee Chairman MK Yuli Edelstein (Likud) announced plans to convene an “urgent debate” regarding the “soldiers’ arrests and the conduct of the Military Advocate General and the Military Police.”
“I will not give a hand to the scenes as they were seen today at the Sde Teiman base,” Edelstein said. “A situation where masked military police officers conduct a raid on an IDF base is not acceptable to me, and I will not allow it to happen again. Our soldiers are not criminals, and this disgraceful persecution of our soldiers is unacceptable to me.”
