The New York Times (NYT) conducted a three-month investigation into the military hangar at Sde Teiman, an Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) army base in the south of Occupied Palestine, revealing the harrowing conditions faced by Gazan detainees.

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The detainees, numbering around 4,000 since the aggression began on October 7, are held in restrictive conditions. Handcuffed and blindfolded, they sit in rows, forbidden from speaking louder than a murmur or moving without permission.

Isolated from the outside world, these individuals have no contact with lawyers or family members. Most detainees are initially interrogated at Sde Teiman, and many are later moved to specialized prisons for further investigation and prosecution. However, around 1,200 civilians have been identified and released back to Gaza without charges or compensation.

The abuse of detainees in the camp has garnered a bad reputation worldwide, even being dubbed as "Israel's Guantánamo Bay."

Former detainees have reported various forms of abuse, including beatings, sexual assault, electric shocks, and being forced to wear only diapers during interrogations. Muhammad Al-Kurdi, a 38-year-old ambulance driver, described his detention as a harrowing experience.

“I was imprisoned for 32 days... It felt like 32 years.” Al-Kurdi was captured in November while trying to pass through an IOF checkpoint with his ambulance convoy.

The UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) has supported these allegations through interviews with hundreds of returning detainees, who reported widespread abuse at Sde Teiman and other detention facilities.

An IOF soldier who served at Sde Teiman confirmed seeing detainees beaten, stating that some soldiers "regularly boasted of beating detainees." He also mentioned witnessing a detainee treated for a broken bone and another returning from an interrogation with rib injuries. The IOF soldier added that one detainee died from chest trauma, though it was unclear if the injury occurred before or during detention.

Despite assurances from military doctors that they observed no signs of torture and efforts to treat detainees humanely, 35 detainees have died either at Sde Teiman or after being transferred to nearby hospitals. Military prosecutors are investigating these deaths, with some officers attributing them to pre-existing conditions.

The conditions at Sde Teiman have garnered increasing attention from the media, human rights groups, and Israeli Occupation's Supreme Court, which is considering a petition to close the site. In response, the Israeli Occupation government has pledged to reduce the number of detainees at Sde Teiman and improve conditions.

The IOF issued a statement denying systematic abuse, asserting that any acts of detainee mistreatment are contrary to their values and strictly prohibited. "The [IOF] takes any acts of this kind, which are contrary to its values, with utmost seriousness, and thoroughly examines concrete allegations concerning the abuse of detainees," the statement read. Shin Bet, the occupation’s domestic intelligence agency, also maintained that their interrogations adhere to legal standards.

Yoel Donchin, a military doctor at the site, expressed confusion over the detention of many individuals who seemed unlikely to be combatants. He described treating a paraplegic detainee, another weighing roughly 300 pounds, and a third who had a breathing tube since childhood. “Why they brought him, I don’t know,” Donchin said. “They take everyone.”

 - Detainee testimonies -

Fadi Bakr, a 25-year-old law student from Gaza City, recounts a traumatic encounter that began on January 5. Captured by IOF soldiers near his family home, Bakr had returned to his neighborhood to search for flour. Amid the chaos, he was wounded and found bleeding by the IOF.

“They stripped me naked, took my phone and savings, and beat me repeatedly,” Bakr stated. Accused of being a militant survivor of the battle, he recalled being threatened, “Confess now or I will shoot you.” Despite his pleas, "I am a civilian," Bakr's protests were ignored.

Captured detainees described a consistent pattern of treatment: blindfolded, handcuffed with zip ties, and stripped to their underwear to ensure they were unarmed. "I consider them the worst four days of my entire life," said Bakr, who spent four days under interrogation at Sde Teiman.

At the base, detainees like Bakr were forced to sit handcuffed in silence on mats for up to 18 hours a day in an open-sided hangar exposed to the elements. Guards watched from behind a mesh fence. Only one detainee, referred to as "shawish" (sergeant), was unblindfolded to distribute food and escort prisoners to portable toilets. Bakr eventually became a shawish, gaining the ability to see his surroundings.

Site commanders claimed detainees were allowed to stand and stretch every two hours, sleep between 10 PM and 6 AM, and pray at any time. For a short period in October, detainees could remove their blindfolds and move freely within the hangars, but this privilege was revoked after some detainees became unruly, according to Israeli Occupation claims.

Exhausted upon arrival, Bakr fell asleep quickly, only to be punished. “This is the punishment for anyone who sleeps,” he recalled an officer saying before beating him.

Furthermore, Bakr and other detainees mentioned the infamous "disco room," the interrogation room that plays excruciatingly loud music played to keep detainees awake. “It was so painful that blood began to trickle from inside my ear,” Bakr said, describing the experience as a form of torture.

The IOF, however, claimed that the music was "not high and not harmful," and was played to prevent detainees from conferring with each other. NYT was not shown this area of the complex during their visit.

Stripped down to just a diaper, Bakr was then taken to another room for questioning. He was accused of being a member of Hamas and was shown photographs of militants for identification. The interrogators also inquired about the whereabouts of hostages and a senior Hamas leader who lived near Bakr’s family home. “When I denied any connection to the group or knowledge of the men, I was beaten repeatedly,” he said.

Other detainees reported similar punishments. Rafiq Yassin, a 55-year-old builder, was beaten in his abdomen for trying to peek from under his blindfold, resulting in him vomiting blood and needing treatment at a civilian hospital in Beersheba.

Muhammad Al-Kurdi, an ambulance driver, was captured while attempting to bring patients through an IOF checkpoint. He highlighted the dangers faced by medical personnel, as IOF officials claim Hamas fighters often use ambulances for cover.

Younis Al-Hamlawi, a senior nurse, shared a similarly harrowing account. He recalled a female IOF officer ordering two soldiers to lift him and press his rectum against a metal stick fixed to the ground. “The stick penetrated my rectum for roughly five seconds, causing it to bleed and leaving me with unbearable pain,” Al-Hamlawi said.

A leaked draft of a UNRWA report corroborated this account, citing a 41-year-old detainee who described a similar ordeal. The report also mentioned another detainee who allegedly died after an electric stick was inserted into his anus.

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Al-Hamlawi also described being forced to sit in an electric chair. “I was shocked so often that, after initially urinating uncontrollably, I then stopped urinating for several days,” he said. Like Bakr, he was forced to wear only a diaper to prevent soiling the floor.

Ibrahim Shaheen, a 38-year-old truck driver detained in early December, recounted being shocked approximately six times while in an electric chair. “Officers accused me of concealing information about the location of dead hostages,” Shaheen said.