For months, the United Nations, Palestinian and Israeli human rights organizations and local and international media outlets have sounded the alarm about allegations of severe ill-treatment, torture and rape of Palestinians in Israeli detention centers and prisons.

At the center of the allegations is Sde Teiman, a military base in southern Israel where a facility to process suspected fighters was established after the attacks by Hamas on Israel on October 7, 2023.

Two weeks ago, dozens of far-right Israeli ultranationalists, including lawmakers, stormed two military facilities — Sde Teiman and Beit Lid, a military court, in southern Israel. But they weren't protesting the abuse of Palestinian detainees held at Sde Teiman — they were expressing solidarity with nine Israel Defense Forces (IDF) reservists who have been detained for interrogation by military police. 

The reservists are suspected of raping and severely abusing a Palestinian man at Sde Teiman. His injuries were so serious that he had to be hospitalized. This week, Israel's Channel 12 published a video apparently showing the rape of a detainee in the facility. 

The ensuing discussion over the storming of the military base shows how influential Israel's far right has become. While Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called for calm, other politicians openly supported the soldiers' actions and called for them to be granted immunity.

The case has brought to light once again the reported ill-treatment of Palestinians in Israeli detention centers and prisons, allegations of which have multiplied in recent months.

The first testimonies of abuse at Sde Teiman came in December 2023, from whistleblowers, mainly Israeli doctors, who were working at the base. They said many detainees were not told where they were at first.

"Their eyes were covered the whole time. For 24 hours, weeks and months. They were cuffed behind their back the whole time," Naji Abbas, the director of prisoners and detainees department at Physicians for Human Rights Israel, told DW. The organization has published several reports about allegations of ill-treatment in the past months.

"For weeks, or even months, Sde Teiman worked as a black hole. No one knew anything about this place," said Abbas. 

Sde Teiman is where most Palestinian detainees were held without charge and without contact to the outside world, interrogated without legal representation.

Some were reportedly picked up at checkpoints set up by the Israeli military when people had to flee from northern Gaza because of heavy bombing. Israel's ongoing offensive in Gaza has killed at least 39,600 Palestinians, according to the Hamas-run Health Ministry in Gaza.