Another fracture appeared in Israeli society this week, with at least one far-right member of the government joining a crowd to storm military bases to stop soldiers from being detained on suspicion of abusing a Palestinian prisoner.
In photos and videos shared on social media, demonstrators waving Israeli flags could be seen at the Sde Teiman detention camp where Palestinian prisoners, including members of Hamas' elite Nukhba force, are known to be held.
Pictured in the crowd was far-right Israeli lawmaker Zvi Sukkot, a lawmaker for the Religious Zionism party — one of the far-right parties upon which Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s fragile coalition government relies. Sukkot's office did not immediately respond to a request from NBC News for comment.
Elsewhere, the Israel Police said protesters had also stormed a separate judicial building on the Beit Lid base in central Israel, where the soldiers were believed to have been taken for questioning.
Lt. Gen. Herzi Halevi, the Israeli military's chief of the general staff, condemned the rioters for “serious, unlawful behaviors bordering on anarchy.”
The protests erupted after the Israeli military announced Monday that the office of its advocate general had ordered an inquiry following “a suspicion of severe abuse of a detainee” at the Sde Teiman facility, which is situated in the Negev desert.
The military said at least nine suspects had been detained for questioning over the alleged incident, spurring outcry among some Israelis.
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 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.
