JERUSALEM

Israel's attorney general has demanded Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to close the Sde Teiman desert detention camp “immediately,” according to local media on Thursday.

Gali Baharav-Miara's request follows a petition by Israeli human rights organizations to the Supreme Court to close the detention camp after local and international reports of widespread abuses against Gazan detainees.

The request “directly contradicts the position of National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, who publicly called for harsher detention conditions, especially in the Sde Teiman prison,” Maariv newspaper said.

"From the beginning, the facility's purpose was to hold detainees from Gaza for a short period before transferring them to prisons,” Maariv said. However, “due to prison overcrowding and the detainee crisis, there are still detainees in Sde Teiman.”

The newspaper said Israel's behavior regarding the detention facility changed after the petition by the Association for Civil Rights in Israel (ACRI) to the Supreme Court and investigations about abuses against Palestinian detainees.

In May, the ACRI, Physicians for Human Rights (PHR), the Center for the Defense of the Individual (HaMoked), and the Committee Against Torture in Israel (PCATI) filed a petition to the Supreme Court demanding an end to the torture of detainees in the Sde Teiman detention center and the closure of the facility after numerous appeals by organizations to the government and the military went unanswered.

“Evidence has mounted on what is allegedly happening at the facility which reveals an unimaginable reality of surgeries performed without anesthesia," the organizations said in a joint statement at the time.

The statement pointed to “holding detainees in painful positions for days and handcuffing that leads to amputation, blindfolding for long periods, even when providing medical treatment... holding detainees in diapers, beatings, and abuse.”

Since the Israeli offensive on Gaza started on Oct. 7, Israel is estimated to have detained hundreds of Palestinians from the Gaza Strip in Sdei Teiman, amidst extensive human rights violations.

Israel, flouting a UN Security Council resolution demanding an immediate cease-fire, has faced international condemnation amid its continued brutal offensive on Gaza since an Oct. 7, 2023 attack by the Palestinian group Hamas.

More than 38,000 Palestinians have since been killed, mostly women and children, and over 87,400 others injured, according to local health authorities.

Over eight months into the Israeli war, vast tracts of Gaza lie in ruins amid a crippling blockade of food, clean water, and medicine.

Israel stands accused of genocide at the International Court of Justice, whose latest ruling ordered it to immediately halt its military operation in the southern city of Rafah, where over a million Palestinians had sought refuge from the war before it was invaded on May 6.

*Writing by Rania Abu Shamala