Canine. Starvation. Humiliation. Beatings. Rape. The testimony of survivors from Sde Teiman, Israel’s torture camp for Palestinians primarily based within the Negev Desert, paint a constant portrait of inhumanity and savagery with few parallels in trendy historical past. The Actual Information experiences from the Gaza Strip, the place Sde Teiman survivor Rafik Hamdi Darwish Yasin shares his expertise by the hands of his Israeli captors.
Producer: Belal Awad, Leo Erhardt
Videographer: Ruwaida Amer, Mahmoud Al Mashharawi
Video Editor: Leo Erhardt
Transcript
Narrator:
In November 2023 Rafik Hamdi Darwish Yassin was detained by the Israeli Military in Gaza. Later he was transferred to the Israeli military-base-turned-detention-camp Sde Teiman and it was right here the place he says he was additional subjected to a number of types of bodily and psychological torture for an additional 25 days.
Rafik Hamdi Darwish Yasin:
I’d have most popular they shoot me in Gaza than depart Gaza. We needed to go away, two of our neighbors left the constructing; we had been shocked by snipers and these two neighbors had been killed. So we had been besieged for 5 days till they got here of their tanks. They smashed the entrance of the constructing, destroyed the steps, then they entered and took us out. There have been folks that they didn’t detain; they simply killed them of their houses. They entered and informed us – I used to be carrying a jacket – they informed me to take the jacket off and to decrease my trousers somewhat. We acquired dressed, then they blindfolded us and tied our wrists with electrical wire from the again.
Narrator:
Leaked CCTV footage from Sde Teiman seems to point out Israeli troopers sexually assaulting an inmate with the assistance of canine, and the camp is awash with accusations of each psychological and bodily torture.
Rafik Hamdi Darwish Yasin:
Many of the hits had been to the top, I misplaced 4 tooth. 4 tooth from my mouth. They hit the edges, the joints, wherever it could not be straightforward to recuperate from, they might hit. Aside from that, the canine. The canine had been muzzled, but when the canine stood on you it was like being stabbed 5 instances. The chilly, we had been sleeping on one blanket and a mat that was lower than one centimeter thick. On concrete, and the entire jail the place we had been was raised round one to at least one and a half meters in top. It was winter. We had been there from November 23 to December 23.
A month? One month, right. A month that for the prisoner looks like 30 years. 30 days blindfolded, then we had been tied, cuffed from behind for 5 days. Then they cuffed us from the entrance – even worse. Two plastic ties round every wrist with a steel chain in between. In order that your hand – right here, look: that is from December, it went all the best way to the bone. They killed individuals in entrance of us. They used to take individuals to the highest of buildings, tie them with rope to make it appear to be they had been particular forces in entrance of your eyes. What sort of torture is that this? Who can tolerate this torture? They’d hit you within the head with the rifle, there was a person who was killed as he acquired off the bus. They whacked him within the head, and he died proper there whereas getting off the bus.
They use their boots. They use canine. Some would use music. They’d lock you in a room and play loud music for 3, 5 hours. 10 hours, 12 hours. I imply… the worst potential. They’d drive you to sit down in your knees. 4 hours. Standing, 4 hours. You’d keep standing. Even the medic who would come to deal with you, one in all their medics – I had these ties right here chopping to the bone – on each side. A medic would come and bandage
your hand right now. The day after the following medic would come and tie your wrists so tight that your hand would begin bleeding once more and would tie it with such stress in order that your wrists turn into deformed. Even their medics are Nazis.
You may tolerate the bodily torture… However the psychological torture and the humiliation. For those who perceive Hebrew, it turns into rather more tough. Many didn’t perceive the humiliating issues they had been saying. A horde of criminals, and there are ranges with them: from those that hate the Palestinian individuals, to those that wish to kill each single Palestinian, to those that would shoot at Palestinians instantly. Three ranges, and all three are criminals. Each one would present their hatred at a particular degree.
The Israeli military, the Israeli intelligence, says that whoever didn’t have a good time on October 7 ate sweets, and whoever didn’t eat sweets gave shelter to Hamas. What has October 7 acquired to do with me? What did I do on the sixth or seventh of October!? What did I do? I didn’t participate on this complete story.
Narrator:
Although it’s been virtually a 12 months since Rafik was launched, the long run results of that single month of detention stay.
Rafik Hamdi Darwish Yasin:
After I was in jail, I misplaced 43 kilos. Forty-three kilos in 30 days. 43 kilos, look. You may see how my physique is wrinkled. I didn’t go to the bathroom for round 6 days from lack of meals. I began to bleed in my intestine, and I used to be hospitalized. Now I can’t elevate my arm. Greater than this I can’t elevate my arm. To this second I’m on anxiousness meds. These are the medicines I take for the consequences of the detention. These are sturdy psychological medication. This one is half a capsule at evening, you couldn’t take this within the day.
Every single day I stroll round 15 kilometers, so I can sleep on high of the anxiousness meds. I imply, you possibly can say that I’ve misplaced my life. We’re alive however useless on the identical time.
They launched us in Karma Abu Salem; in fact, they didn’t inform us. They wish to steal any pleasure from you till the final second; they didn’t inform us we had been being launched. In Karma Abu Salem we had been barefoot, none of us had been carrying footwear. We walked for 3 and a half or 4 kilometers, strolling on asphalt, lined in particles. The sensation of freedom… There wasn’t quite a lot of happiness. Why? As a result of we had been removed from household, and there’s a warfare that continues, and the blood continues to be flowing. There’s no motive to have a good time till now. There’s no motive for pleasure.
You recognize the time that I used to have the ability to calm down? After I would consider my household. That’s it. I’d have the ability to depart the world I used to be in. I’d bear in mind my son who… I’ve one son who suffers from autism. I fear about him loads. Even the buildings, the timber, the buildings, what was their crime? We evacuated the realm; why are you bulldozing the buildings? Why are you bulldozing the timber? I imply they wish to destroy every thing that the Palestinians have in-built 50 years.
That’s the sound of strikes.
– That’s the sound of strikes, sure. It’s distant, east of Deir.
– God assist us.
– God assist us.