Far-right protesters have stormed two army bases in Israel after the military police detained nine soldiers as part of an investigation into the alleged “serious abuse” of a Palestinian prisoner at the Sde Teiman prison camp.
The unrest began on Monday after protesters broke into Sde Teiman after the military police arrived to detain the soldiers for questioning. The military prison camp has been the subject of legal challenges by human rights groups seeking to have it closed down following multiple reports of serious abuse of Palestinian prisoners.
Protesters then broke into a second base later on the same day in Beit Lid, home to the military courts, where the soldiers had been transferred for questioning, prompting the army to deploy additional soldiers to protect the facilities and restore order.
Herzi Halevi, the head of Israel’s military, visited the Beit Lid base on Monday night in an attempt to calm the situation and condemned the break-ins, which he said were “not acceptable in any way”.
“The arrival of rioters and attempts to break into bases are serious, unlawful behaviours bordering on anarchy, harming the [Israeli military], the security of the state and the war effort,” he said.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu issued a statement two hours after the initial incident, calling for calm and saying that under no circumstances should anyone break into military bases. As of Tuesday morning, he had yet to comment on or condemn the unrest that had occurred since.
Yoav Gallant, defence minister, appealed for the public to let the legal authorities do their jobs. “Even in difficult times, the law applies to everyone — nobody may trespass into [Israel Defense Forces] bases or violate the laws of the state of Israel,” he said.
The Israeli military said its advocate general ordered the investigation into the suspects because of “suspected serious abuse of a detainee” at Sde Teiman, where militants involved in Hamas’s October 7 attack on Israel, as well as Palestinians captured during the ensuing war, are being held. It added that nine suspects had been transferred for questioning by the military police.
Israeli media reported that the detainee had been sexually abused, with the Haaretz newspaper reporting that he had been forcibly sodomised and taken to hospital with severe injuries that left him unable to walk.
The Association of Rape Crisis Centers in Israel expressed horror at the reports of abuse, saying there “are never any circumstances to justify the use of this sickening practice, not even against the worst of our enemies”.
Lawyers representing some of the soldiers said in a statement that the investigation into their clients was “outrageous” and a “disgrace”, and demanded that it be closed immediately.
Several ministers from Netanyahu’s Likud party, including economics minister Nir Barkat and justice minister Yariv Levin, have slammed the military advocate general, and far-right politicians reacted with outrage to the detentions.
Bezalel Smotrich, the ultranationalist finance minister, posted a video on X, saying that the soldiers were “heroic warriors” and that they should not be arrested like “criminals”.
Itamar Ben-Gvir, Israel’s national security minister, who was convicted in 2007 of incitement to racism, wrote: “Take your hands off the reservists!”
However, opposition politicians expressed shock at the storming of the two military compounds, with far-right ministers and lawmakers among those who broke into Sde Teiman, and armed and masked men among the demonstrators at Beit Lid.
Yair Lapid, head of Yesh Atid, Israel’s largest opposition party, said the country was “not on the edge of the abyss, we are in the abyss” and that “all red lines were crossed today”.
“[Members of parliament] 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. A dangerous fascist group threatens the existence of the state of Israel,” he said.
