Dogs. Hunger. Humiliation. Beatings. Rape. The testimony of survivors from Sde Teiman, Israel’s torture camp for Palestinians based in the Negev Desert, paint a consistent portrait of inhumanity and savagery with few parallels in modern history. The Real News reports from the Gaza Strip, where Sde Teiman survivor Rafik Hamdi Darwish Yasin shares his experience at 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 Army in Gaza. Later he was transferred to the Israeli military-base-turned-detention-camp Sde Teiman and it was here where he says he was further subjected to multiple forms of physical and psychological torture for a further 25 days.
Rafik Hamdi Darwish Yasin:
I would have preferred they shoot me in Gaza than leave Gaza. We wanted to leave, two of our neighbors left the building; we were surprised by snipers and these two neighbors were killed. So we were besieged for five days until they came in their tanks. They smashed the front of the building, destroyed the stairs, then they entered and took us out. There were people that they didn’t detain; they just killed them in their homes. They entered and told us – I was wearing a jacket – they told me to take the jacket off and to lower my trousers a little. We got dressed, then they blindfolded us and tied our wrists with electric wire from the back.
Narrator:
Leaked CCTV footage from Sde Teiman appears to show Israeli soldiers sexually assaulting an inmate with the help of dogs, and the camp is awash with accusations of both psychological and physical torture.
Rafik Hamdi Darwish Yasin:
Most of the hits were to the head, I lost four teeth. Four teeth from my mouth. They hit the sides, the joints, anywhere it would not be easy to recover from, they would hit. Apart from that, the dogs. The dogs were muzzled, but if the dog stood on you it was like being stabbed five times. The cold, we were sleeping on one blanket and a mat that was less than one centimeter thick. On concrete, and the whole prison where we were was raised around one to one and a half meters in height. It was winter. We were there from November 23 to December 23.
A month? One month, correct. A month that for the prisoner feels like 30 years. 30 days blindfolded, then we were tied, cuffed from behind for five days. Then they cuffed us from the front – even worse. Two plastic ties around each wrist with a metal chain in between. So that your hand – here, look: this is from December, it went all the way to the bone. They killed people in front of us. They used to take people to the top of buildings, tie them with rope to make it look like they were special forces in front of your eyes. What kind of torture is this? Who can tolerate this torture? They would hit you in the head with the rifle, there was a man who was killed as he got off the bus. They whacked him in the head, and he died right there while getting off the bus.
They use their boots. They use dogs. Some would use music. They would lock you in a room and play loud music for three, five hours. 10 hours, 12 hours. I mean… the worst possible. They would force you to sit on your knees. Four hours. Standing, four hours. You would stay standing. Even the medic who would come to treat you, one of their medics – I had these ties here cutting to the bone – on both sides. A medic would come and bandage
your hand today. The day after the next medic would come and tie your wrists so tight that your hand would start bleeding again and would tie it with such pressure so that your wrists become deformed. Even their medics are Nazis.
You can tolerate the physical torture… But the psychological torture and the humiliation. If you understand Hebrew, it becomes much more difficult. Many didn’t understand the humiliating things they were saying. A horde of criminals, and there are levels with them: from those who hate the Palestinian people, to those who want to kill every single Palestinian, to those who would shoot at Palestinians directly. Three levels, and all three are criminals. Every one would show their hatred at a specific level.
The Israeli army, the Israeli intelligence, says that whoever didn’t celebrate on October 7 ate sweets, and whoever didn’t eat sweets gave shelter to Hamas. What has October 7 got to do with me? What did I do on the 6th or 7th of October!? What did I do? I did not take part in this whole story.
Narrator:
Though it’s been almost a year since Rafik was released, the long term effects of that single month of detention remain.
Rafik Hamdi Darwish Yasin:
When I was in prison, I lost 43 kilos. Forty-three kilos in 30 days. 43 kilos, look. You can see how my body is wrinkled. I didn’t go to the toilet for around 6 days from lack of food. I started to bleed in my gut, and I was hospitalized. Now I can’t lift my arm. More than this I can’t lift my arm. To this moment I am on anxiety meds. These are the medications I take for the effects of the detention. These are strong psychological drugs. This one is half a pill at night, you couldn’t take this in the day.
Every day I walk around 15 kilometers, so I can sleep on top of the anxiety meds. I mean, you can say that I have lost my life. We are alive but dead at the same time.
They released us in Karma Abu Salem; of course, they didn’t tell us. They want to steal any joy from you until the last moment; they didn’t tell us we were being released. In Karma Abu Salem we were barefoot, none of us were wearing shoes. We walked for three and a half or four kilometers, walking on asphalt, covered in debris. The feeling of freedom… There wasn’t a lot of happiness. Why? Because we were far from family, and there’s a war that continues, and the blood is still flowing. There’s no reason to celebrate until now. There’s no reason for joy.
You know the time that I used to be able to relax? When I would think of my family. That’s it. I would be able to leave the world I was in. I would remember my son who… I have one son who suffers from autism. I worry about him a lot. Even the buildings, the trees, the buildings, what was their crime? We evacuated the area; why are you bulldozing the buildings? Why are you bulldozing the trees? I mean they want to destroy everything that the Palestinians have built in 50 years.
That’s the sound of strikes.
– That’s the sound of strikes, yes. It’s far away, east of Deir.
– God help us.
– God help us.
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