The Israeli military says it is dropping charges against five soldiers who were accused of sexually abusing a Palestinian detainee in a purported assault partially caught on camera.
It’s a bombshell development in a case that has divided Israel ever since the country moved to arrest the soldiers at the Sde Teiman military prison, which was set up to hold Palestinians rounded up in Gaza during Israel’s war against the Hamas militant group, in 2024.
The alleged assault occurred on July 5, 2024, according to the indictment against the accused soldiers.
A video of the alleged assault, which was aired by Israeli news, shows soldiers taking a detainee into an area they cordoned off with shields in an apparent attempt to hide their actions. The indictment said the soldiers assaulted the Palestinian prisoner and sodomized him with a knife, causing multiple injuries.
A medical staffer familiar with the case who spoke on condition of anonymity out of fear for his safety said the detainee arrived at a civilian hospital in life-threatening condition with blunt trauma to the abdomen and the chest and fractured ribs.
He said the detainee underwent surgery for a perforated rectum and was released back to Sde Teiman days later.
The arrest of the soldiers prompted fury from hard-line ultranationalists who violently overran the prison in protest. Members of Israel’s far-right government called the investigation into their conduct an affront to their service.
The military’s top legal official acknowledged authorizing the leak of the video to the TV station, and she resigned.
Israel has long been accused of failing to hold its soldiers accountable for crimes committed against Palestinians. The allegations have intensified during the war in Gaza. Israel says its forces act within military and international law and says it thoroughly investigates any alleged abuses.
The Associated Press has investigated allegations of inhumane treatment and abuse at Sde Teiman that predate those in the surveillance video.
