Disturbances broke out at the Israel Defense Forces’ Sde Teiman detention facility on Monday after Military Police officers arrested nine reservists who were guarding Hamas terrorists as part of a probe into an incident of alleged abuse of a prisoner.
Physical confrontations erupted when Military Police officers raided Sde Teiman, located in the Negev, by order of Military Advocate General Maj. Gen. Yifat Tomer-Yerushalmi.
“Following a suspicion of serious abuse of a detainee who was held in the prison facility, an investigation by the Military Police was opened by order of the Military Advocate General’s Office,” the IDF said.
One terrorist was evacuated by the Military Police to Beersheva’s Soroka Medical Center with bruises on his buttocks, according to Israel Hayom.
The report cited a statement by a soldier who was present during the raid: “I publish this with tears of rage and frustration—the IDF against IDF soldiers. The Military Police, wearing masks, came to arrest the 100-strong force of fighters guarding the Nukhba terrorists, disarmed them, took their cellphones and arrested them with violence and tear gas.”
The “Victory Generation” reservist movement subsequently announced that hundreds of soldiers were on their way to Sde Teiman and would block the base’s entrance in an effort to “put an end to this disgrace.”
National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, who heads the Otzma Yehudit Party, also traveled to the southern base to join the protest. “Military prosecutor, hands off the reservists!” Ben-Gvir tweeted.
Video footage posted to social media showed activists and right-wing lawmakers breaching the fence of the military detention facility.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu condemned the riot, issuing a statement urging an “immediate calming of the spirits at Sde Teiman.”
President Isaac Herzog tweeted: “Civilians breaking into a military base—certainly when it is done with the encouragement and involvement of elected officials—is a serious, dangerous, illegal and irresponsible act, which first and foremost harms us as a people and as a country.”
Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee chairman Yuli Edelstein (Likud) announced that he would convene an urgent hearing on Tuesday to discuss the decision to detain the soldiers at Sde Teiman.
“I will not lend a hand to scenes like the one seen today at the base in Sde Teiman,” said Edelstein. “A situation in which masked military policemen raid an IDF base is not acceptable to me and I will not allow it to happen again. Our soldiers are not criminals and this contemptible pursuit of our soldiers is unacceptable to me.”