العربية
HE
العربية
HE
On May 23, 2024, five human rights organizations – the Association for Civil Rights in Israel, HaMoked, Physicians for Human Rights-Israel, the Public Committee Against Torture and Gisha – petitioned the High Court of Justice (HCJ) to stop the holding of detainees in the Sde Teman Detention Center and to close the detention facility. The Sde Teman Detention Center has been operated by the military since the start of the war as a facility for detaining suspected “unlawful combatants” from the Gaza Strip. Reportedly, more than 1,000 detainees were held there in corral-like conditions, without beds or any other facilities. Testimonies revealed an extremely harsh reality, including beatings and abuse, surgeries performed without anesthesia, holding detainees for days on end in painful positions, holding detainees handcuffed and blindfolded around the clock, including such severe handcuffing that led to amputations, blindfolding detainees even while relieving themselves or receiving medical treatment, and holding some detainees in diapers. The petition argued that the declaration of the Sde Teman facility as a "place of detention" under the Incarceration of Unlawful Combatants Law required that inmates be held under appropriate conditions that would not harm detainees’ dignity and health, and would comply with Israel's obligations regarding detainees’ rights under both Israeli and international law. The petition argued that the severe violation of the detainees' rights renders the deprivation of liberty unconstitutional and makes it unlawful to continue holding detainees in the facility.
A hearing on the petition was held on June 5, 2024. That same day, the State submitted a notice informing that due to the unprecedented number of detainees, detainees had been held in Sde Teman for long periods of time, contrary to the facility’s original purpose. The State declared that it now intended to resume operating the site as a facility for absorption, interrogation and initial screening. Accordingly, the number of detainees held there as “unlawful combatants” was gradually reduced. On June 11, 2024, the State updated that in two weeks the number of detainees held there would stand at about 160, and also that the existing infrastructure would be upgraded and rebuilt. The State also cited the Prime Minister’s instruction whereby the military and the Israel Prison Service (IPS) must find an immediate solution to transfer from the facility those held there for 14 days or more, and that the Minister of National Security, in coordination with the Ministry of Finance, must urgently present a plan to create space for thousands of additional detainees.
On June 16, 2024, the petitioners filed a notice with the Court, insisting that detainees could not be held in Sde Teman, even for short periods. Therefore, on July 15, 2024, the HCJ issued an order nisi, compelling the State to justify within 10 days “why should it not be ruled that the operation of the Sde Teman Detention Facility be conditional on meeting the stipulations set in the Incarceration of Unlawful Combatants Law” and the attendant regulations. On July 18, 2024, the State updated that additional staff positions had been added to the IPS and a new tent wing had been built in Ketziot detention facility, to which 140 detainees would be transferred in three phases, so that by July 22, 2024, only 40 detainees would remain in Sde Teman.
A further hearing in the case was held on August 7, 2024. Following violent attempts by ultra-nationalist activists to disrupt the hearing, the Court decided to give the State until August 15, 2024 to update about the number of detainees held in Sde Teman and the adaption of the new facilities under construction in Sde Teman to the established provisions. Finally, on September 1, 2024, the State submitted a supplemental notice, announcing that 24 detainees were held at that time in Sde Teman and that the infrastructure there was being upgraded to meet the “core” pertinent legal stipulations, as determined by a military-appointed committee.
On September 9, 2024, the Court ruled that the State must operate the facility according to the provisions established in the Incarnation of Unlawful Combatants Law and the attendant regulations. The principal opinion, written by Deputy President Vogelman, dismissed the State’s claim that in principle, it was permissible to exercise powers in the facility in a manner that deviates from the provisions of the Law and regulations. It was ruled that even should the State seek to revise the regulations, it must abide by them so long as they stand. It was further ruled that should the regulations be amended, they must comply with Israel’s obligations under international humanitarian law. Deputy President Vogelman clarified that “protection of the rule of law – even in days of a harsh war – is a clear expression of the difference between a democratic country that is fighting for its life, and terrorist organizations that seek to annihilate it”. Therefore, it was ruled that “we have reached the conclusion that the petition must be granted, in the sense that it be established in an absolute order that subject to the issues reviewed in the framework of other petitions (among them the matter of contact with foreign entities [i.e., the suspended ICRC prison visits], considered in HCJ 1537/24), the holding of detainees in the Sde Teman facility must comply with the requirements of the law”.
