Protesters storm Israeli military bases after soldiers detained for alleged abuse of Palestinian prisoners
The exact details of the alleged abuse were not immediately clear. The IDF did not immediately respond to NBC News’ request for further information.
Some videos shared on social media appeared to show clashes breaking out between demonstrators and Israeli soldiers and officers at the Sde Teiman facility. NBC News was not immediately able to independently verify the footage.
Israel Police said in a statement officers had sought to enforce “law and order professionally, while allowing the freedom of demonstration and protest.”
Both Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and President Isaac Herzog condemned the incident.
“The invasion of a military base by civilians, especially when done with the encouragement and involvement of public officials, is a serious, dangerous, illegal, and irresponsible act that primarily harms us as a people and as a state,” Herzog said in a statement shared on X on Monday.
Netanyahu was nonetheless criticized by opposition leader Yair Lapid, meanwhile, who accused him of failing to rein in members of his own government. “Whoever brings criminals into his government should not be surprised when he loses control over them,” he said.
Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, who leads the Religious Zionism party of which Sukkot is a member, said he fully supported civil protest against what he described as “the terrible injustice towards the reservists in the Sde Teiman.”
But he called on demonstrators to obey the law and “not to break into the bases” or confront authorities.
The detention of several Israeli reservists comes weeks after U.N. Special Rapporteur on Torture, Alice Jill Edwards, urged the Israeli government in late May to investigate multiple allegations of “torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment” against detained Palestinians.
At the time, the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights said it appeared that no effective measures had been taken by Israeli authorities to investigate the allegations.
