Far-Right Israelis Mob Bases After Soldiers Arrested for Allegedly Raping Palestinian

Far-right Israelis including government officials stormed two military bases late on Monday, sparking clashes with troops and police over the arrest of Israel Defense Forces reservists who allegedly gang-raped a Palestinian prisoner.

Hundreds of protesters broke into the notorious Sde Teiman base in the Negev Desert in an attempt to stop the detention of nine reserve troops accused of sodomizing a Palestinian jailed there. According to the Israeli newspaper Haaretz, the victim is hospitalized with severe injuries and is unable to walk.

The nine suspects were then taken to the Beit Lid army base, which was also mobbed by at least dozens of demonstrators.

Base invaders included armed and masked members of Force 100, the military unit tasked with guarding prisoners at Sde Teiman. One of the nine arrested soldiers is reportedly a major in Force 100.

High-ranking Israeli government officials also took part in Monday's riots, including Heritage Minister Amichai Eliyahu of the Otzma Yehudit, or Jewish Power, party. Members of the Knesset, Israel's Parliament, including Yitzhak Kroizer and Limor Son Har-Melech (Otzma Yehudit), Zvi Sukkot (Religious Zionism), and Tally Gotliv (Likud), were also present.

"The military advocate general is a criminal. The people of Israel will fight against enemies from outside and enemies from within," Har-Melech said during the protest.

Journalists including a woman who works for the state broadcaster Kan said they were attacked while covering the riot.

Yair Lapid (Yesh Atid), the Israeli opposition leader, called for the arrest and imprisonment of Knesset members who took part in invasions.

"This is not a riot, this is an attempted coup by an armed militia against a weak prime minister who is unable to control his government," Lapid said on social media.

"We are not on the brink of the abyss, we are in the abyss. All red lines were crossed today," he added. "MKs and ministers who participate in the invasion of violent militias into military bases are a message to the state of Israel: They are done with democracy, they are done with the rule of law."

Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant (Likud) urged Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (Likud) to investigate allegations that National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir (Otzma Yehudit) thwarted police intervention against the rioters.

"Backing and active participation of elected officials in riots at army bases, while issuing harsh statements against senior army officers, is a severe and extremely dangerous phenomenon that harms security, social cohesiveness, and Israel's international reputation," Gallant said.

Netanyahu said he "strongly condemns the break-in."

Ben-Gvir, on the other hand, condemned what he called the "shameful" detention of the nine soldiers, whom he described as "our best heroes."

He acknowledged that conditions inside Israeli prisons "have indeed worsened," adding, "I am proud of that."

Echoing Ben-Gvir, Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich (Religious Zionism) called the nine detained reservists "heroic warriors."

In a heated Knesset exchange, Ahmad Tibi of the Arab Movement for Renewal party asked Likud MK Hanoch Milwidsky if raping Palestinian prisoners is "legitimate."

"Yes! If he is a Nukhba everything is legitimate to do him!" Milwidsky thundered, referring to an elite Hamas commando unit.

Erez Tadmor, a former speechwriter for Netanyahu, claimed that Sde Teiman prisoners may have raped themselves.

The Public Committee Against Torture in Israel denounced the alleged rape of the Palestinian prisoner in Sde Teiman.

"Since the beginning of the war, we claimed that the Sde Teiman was operating as an 'ex-territory', and the soldiers stationed there were acting outside any law—first in their treatment of detainees, and now towards military law enforcement agents," the group said.

"Instead of absolute condemnation, some Israeli far-right leaders have rallied to support the suspects of abuse, which is emblematic of the root causes that enable such abuse to happen in the first place," the group added.

Orit Sulitzeanu, executive director of the Association of Rape Crises Centers in Israel, told Haaretz she is "shocked" by the Sde Teiman rape allegation.

"There will never be any circumstances that would justify the use of this sickening practice, not even against the worst of our enemies," he said. "Sexual harm and sexual abuse are serious crimes and we must not remain silent when they happen."

Former prisoners including children and Israeli whistleblowers at Sde Teiman—often called "Israel's Guantánamo Bay"—have described rampant torture and abuse at the facility, which is used to imprison Palestinians captured in the Gaza Strip. According to their testimonies, prisoners have been raped, electrocuted, mauled by dogs, burned with cigarettes, severely beaten, starved, and subjected to 24-hour shackling sometimes leading to amputations.

The New York Times reported last month that one former Sde Teiman prisoner said he was forced to "sit on something like a hot metal stick and it felt like fire," and that another detainee "died after they put the electric stick" up his anus.

IDF officials told Haaretz last month that the IDF is investigating the in-custody deaths of dozens of detainees, including 36 who died or were killed at Sde Teiman since October.

Palestinians formerly held at Sde Teiman said groups of 10-20 Israeli civilians were allowed to record torture sessions in which the men, stripped nearly naked, were beaten with metal batons, electrocuted, and had hot water poured over their heads. The ex-prisoners said some of the Israelis laughed while filming their torture.

On Tuesday, Israel's High Court of Justice said it will hold a second hearing on August 7 regarding a petition seeking to close Sde Teiman over alleged torture and abuse committed there, The Times of Israel reported.

Also on Tuesday in a separate case from the nine arrests, an IDF reservist identified as Staff Sgt. Yisrael Zakaria Hajbi was indicted for allegedly using "severe violence against the detainees he was entrusted with guarding" at Sde Teiman and filming the abuse.