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CNN interviews released Gaza prisoner who alleges sexual abuse – Israel News

A Palestinian prisoner recounted his experiences of sexual abuse by soldiers in Sde Teiman prison in an interview with CNN published on Sunday. The interview was conducted in a camp in Al-Mawasi in the southern Gaza Strip.

The man, Ibrahim Salem, 34, was arrested on terrorism charges during a raid on a Gaza hospital. Israeli forces told CNN that Salem was arrested on December 12 and held in Sde Teiman for “about a month and a half” before being transferred to another prison for six months. Salem said he was confused why he was arrested and told soldiers at the time that he had “nothing to do with resistance groups.”

He was detained for eight months, during which time he and the other Palestinians said they were treated “like animals.” He was released without charge on August 1.

The Israeli military said the hospital was being used as a Hamas command center, but CNN said this could not be verified.

When CNN published an investigation into Sde Teiman in May, an image of a blindfolded prisoner with his hands above his head was visible at military bases and the prison camp in the Negev region. Wassem Salem, Ibrahim's twin brother, contacted CNN to identify him.

MK ZVI SUKKOT protested last week at the Sde Teiman military base against the detention of reserve soldiers suspected of sexually abusing a detained Hamas terrorist. More and more people believe the law does not apply to them, says the author. (Source: DUDU GREENSPAN/FLASH90)

On July 29, 10 of Sde Teiman's guards were arrested for alleged sodomy and beatings. Two were quickly released and three others were released a few days later after their detention was initially extended by an Israeli investigative court.

According to CNN, Salem said he was repeatedly interrogated and asked about the whereabouts of the hostages and Hamas terrorists, as well as whether he himself was a member.

He said that during interrogations he was often subjected to physical and verbal abuse, such as being doused with hot water or being told that his family had been killed.

Salem said an interrogator showed him a picture that allegedly showed the exhumed remains of six members of his family.

“What is your reason for stealing bodies and desecrating them?” Salem told the interrogator. “These bodies belong to us. We must bury them.”

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Alleged sexual abuse

Salem, however, told CNN that the worst part was the sexual abuse he allegedly suffered.

Before an interrogation he had to strip naked.

“They brought the metal detector and ran it all over our bodies, then they held it over my private parts and hit me there,” he told CNN. Salem said there were usually five to six soldiers present and that they used objects to anally abuse him.

“I bent forward in pain. Then suddenly they stuck a baton in my butt,” he said.

“You expose your body to male and female soldiers who harass you and touch you with objects on your sensitive areas,” he told CNN. “They slap your butt, pull your hair, call you names… it's degrading.”

The Israel Defense Forces said any misconduct was “strictly prohibited” and “against the laws of the Israel Defense Forces.”

Salem's lawyer, Saja Mishreqi, said Salem was being held under Israel's Unlawful Combatants Law, which allows the military to detain people for up to 30 days without a warrant, after which they must be transferred to prison. According to CNN, more than 4,000 Palestinian residents of Gaza have been detained in this way since October 7. The law has been widely criticized for “denying detainees their rights as prisoners of war,” the report said.

After his release on August 1, Salem was returned to Gaza, but was ordered not to return to his home in Jabalya. Instead, he was sent to Khan Yunis. Since then, he has lived in various refugee tents.

According to CNN, he has not been reunited with his family, who are still in the northern Gaza Strip.



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