A doctor at a Sde Teiman detention facility in the Negev desert in Israel has reported severe conditions for Palestinians detained from Gaza, including limb amputation due to handcuff injuries.
Sde Teiman was established in October 2023 to temporarily detain Hamas members accused of Hamas’s attack on southern Israel, many of whom were released after interrogation.
The unnamed doctor wrote a letter to Israel’s defense minister, health minister, and legal adviser about his experiences at a facility, according to a report on Thursday, April 4, by Haaretz.
“Just this week, two prisoners had their legs amputated due to injuries from leg irons, which unfortunately is a routine event,” he said in a letter.
“From the first days of the medical facility’s operation until today, I have faced serious ethical dilemmas. More than that, I am writing [this letter] to warn you that the facilities’ operations do not comply with a single section among those dealing with health in the Incarceration of Unlawful Combatants Law.”
“This ends in complications and sometimes even in the patient’s death,” he said. “This makes all of us—the medical teams and you, those in charge of us in the Health and Defense ministries, complicit in the violation of Israeli law, and perhaps worse for me as a doctor, in the violation of my basic commitment to patients, wherever they are, as I swore when I graduated 20 years ago.”
The doctor said that the hospital at the facility is not receiving a consistent supply of medicine and equipment.
He further said that the Palestinian detainees at a facility are blindfolded, fed through straws, and defecated in diapers, while all patients are handcuffed by all four limbs.
Most patients are hospitalized due to severe injuries resulting from arrest and prolonged shackling, necessitating repeated surgical intervention, he added.
Israel has occupied the Palestinian enclave since a Hamas surprise attack on October 7 that resulted in the deaths of approximately 1,200 people.
More than 33,000 Palestinians have been killed and 75,700 injured in mass destruction and food shortages, while Israel’s blockade on Gaza threatens its population, especially northern residents.
