Almost 2 weeks later, probe opened into far-right rioters who broke into military bases
Police and IDF confirm investigation into storming of Sde Teiman and Beit Lid facilities by protesters decrying arrest of soldiers suspected of abusing Palestinian terror detainees
Almost two weeks after ultranationalist mobs and several elected officials broke into two military bases to disrupt legal proceedings against reservist soldiers suspected of abusing Palestinian terrorist detainees, authorities said Saturday evening for the first time that an investigation had been opened into the matter.
The Israel Police and the Criminal Investigations Division of the military police both confirmed that the police-led probe had been launched into those who on July 29 broke into the Sde Teiman and Beit Lid bases, who included two MKs and a government minister, Hebrew media said Saturday.
Far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir claimed, speaking to Channel 14, that the Shin Bet had pressured Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara to order the police investigation. Sources in the Shin Bet were cited by the Walla news site as denying the minister’s claim.
No arrests have been made yet and no suspects have been summoned for questioning in the politically fraught saga.
Several appeals had been made to Baharav-Miara and the police shortly after the incident to begin criminal proceedings.
Any decision regarding whether to prosecute the minister and the MKs involved in the incident will have to be brought to the attorney general for a decision.
Dozens of activists broke into the Sde Teiman military base on July 29 after military police arrived at the site to detain 10 IDF reservist soldiers suspected of committing severe abuse against Palestinian security prisoners held at the detention center on the base.
Among those to enter the base without authorization were MK Nissim Vaturi of the ruling Likud and MK Zvi Sukkot of the Religious Zionism party, along with National Heritage Minister Amichay Eliyahu of Otzma Yehudit.
Around 1,200 activists turned up a short while later at the Beit Lid military base, where the 10 reservist soldiers had been brought for a remand hearing at a military court. Of them, five have since been released from custody.
Video footage showed the protesters confronting and attacking soldiers while inside the base.
Requests to open criminal proceedings against the protesters, including the public officials, came immediately.
Labor MK Efrat Rayten requested that same day that the attorney general open an investigation into Vaturi and Sukkot for breaking into Sde Teiman.
Later that week, the Movement for Quality Government in Israel (MQG), a watchdog group, sent a letter to Baharav-Miara, Israel Police Acting Commissioner Avshalom Peled, and the head of the police investigations and intelligence department, demanding that criminal proceedings be brought against the coalition and government officials, along with other protesters who broke into the military bases.
Leaked footage broadcast by Channel 12 on Tuesday purported to show IDF servicemen sodomizing a Palestinian detainee at Sde Teiman. The footage showed soldiers taking aside one of the detainees, who had been lying face down on the floor, then surrounding him with riot shields while they allegedly committed the abuse. The detainee was subsequently taken away for medical treatment for severe injuries.
Sde Teiman detention facility was set up in the immediate aftermath of the October 7 onslaught in which about 3,000 Hamas-led terrorists burst across the border into southern Israel, killing some 1,200 people and taking 251 hostages, mostly civilians. The facility was originally meant to be a preliminary processing point for terror suspects captured by the IDF.
