Israeli military indicts 5 reservists accused of sexual, physical abuse of Palestinian detainee [Video]

Israel’s military said Wednesday that its prosecutor has filed indictments against five reservists who are accused of severely abusing a Palestinian prisoner at a notorious desert military prison.

The five reservists were serving in the Sde Teiman prison in the Negev desert on July 5, 2024, when the Palestinian prisoner suffered cracked ribs, a punctured lung and a torn rectum as a result of their alleged abuse.

The soldiers are accused of inflicting the abuse during a search of the victim, according to the indictment. At the time, the victim was cuffed at the hands and ankles and blindfolded.

Sde Teiman — the military detention facility in southern Israel that held many Palestinians detained in Gaza over the nearly 16-month long war with Hamas — was the subject of calls by rights groups to shut it down, claiming that conditions at the facility are grave and that abuse by Israeli soldiers is …