Gaza man behind leaked photo from Israeli detention site describes his 'torture journey' in custody | CBC News (2024)

WARNING: This article contains details of abuse.

It's a photo that quickly circulated on social media: A man standing at a barbed wire fence, arms behind his head and blindfolded. A group of men sit behind him in rows, also blindfolded. Everyone wears the same grey tracksuit.

The image was taken at Sde Teiman in the Negev desert in southern Israel. Over the last several months, the obscure barracks — a military base partially converted into a detention facility during the Gaza war — have become the centre of accusations that the Israeli military is severely abusing Palestinian detainees.

In fact, due to widespread outcry, the majority of detainees have been transferred out of Sde Teiman.

And the photo, originally leaked to CNN in May, has become emblematic of those alleged conditions.

Freelance videographer Mohamed El Saife,who has been working with CBC from Gaza, tracked down its subject: Ibrahim Salem, a 38-year-old from northern Gaza who was in Israeli detention for eight monthsand was released Aug. 3. He confirmed he was the man pictured. CBC also independently verified that the image was of him.

Salem was held in multiple locations during his detentionand was in Sde Teiman for just 52 days. But, he says, his time there was the worst of his detainment.

Among other allegations, Salem says he was stripped naked, psychologically tormented and beaten. And by the time he was released, the world had seen the photo of him — including his family.

CBC News reached out to the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) for comment on the claims in this story. It referred CBC to a previous press release responding to a New York Times story about Sde Teiman, largely denying allegations of abuse.

"The IDF rejects outright allegations concerning systematic abuse of detainees in the Sde Teiman detention facility, including allegations of sexually abusing detainees, electrocuting detainees and stripping detainees of their clothes during interrogations," the IDF statement said.

Arrested at Kamal Adwan Hospital

Salem was still in northern Gaza in December 2023. He had been sheltering at the Kamal Adwan Hospital after his house was bombed, killing much of his family, including his wife, sister, brother and nephew. His kids were being treated for injuries at the hospital when it was besieged by the IDF on Dec. 11 during asearch for Hamas operatives. That was when he was taken, he says.

"They walked with me a bit and then made me take off all my clothes," Salem told El Saife.

"[I was] completely naked."

He says he was never told what crime he was accused of committing.

WATCH | Man held at notorious Israeli jail speaks about conditions there:

He says he was dragged by his hair and beaten. He was taken to an unknown location, he said, blindfolded with his hands tied behind his back, where he was interrogated.

An officer smashed a plastic chair on his chest, he said, allegedly breaking some of his ribs and causing him to briefly lose consciousness.

The officer screamed at him, accusing him of being involved with Hamas, which Salem denied.

He spent two days in another facility, he says, under similar conditions.After that, he was taken to Sde Teiman, where he says "the torture journey began."

The photo of detainee No. 189

Salem's remaining family recognized him in the leaked photo, he said. But, he says, it didn't tell the full story of what was happening in the moment and the "worst days" of his detainment at Sde Teiman, where he was known as detainee No. 189.

"You're on your knees," he said. "Your hands are handcuffed, your legs are cuffed and you're blindfolded.

"The first 10 or 15 days, my hands were behind my back."

As a form of punishment, he says, detainees were made to stand at a barbed-wire fence for hours, sometimes on one foot, and were tormented psychologically by their handlers.

"You're standing and they're all spitting on you," he said.

If he wanted to go home, or sit down, he says, he was told to repeat insults about his family.

In those moments, Salem says, he begged to not have to say them, and thathe wanted simply to die with dignity.

One day, he said, a soldier ordered him to stand at the fence, blindfolded with his arms up. He says he did this for five hours — and it was in that time that he heard a click. They were taking photos of him.

The image ended up in a CNN article, leaked by the Israeli whistleblower who took the photo. The story detailed similar allegations of abuse at the facility.

Near the end of his detention at Sde Teiman, Salem says he was brought into a room where he was questioned about the Israeli hostages remaining in Gaza.

"[The soldiers were] asking me about the hostages. I'm a hostage," he said.

"You bombed my house, killed the children and my siblings.

"Hostages? I have nothing to do with that."

Months later, he was eventually released from Israeli detention, along with 14 others, in Khan Younis.

A day after his release, Salem sat in a tent in the southern Gaza city, the distance between him and his family massive — split by the war.

Allegations at Sde Teiman

Sde Teiman is one of three military bases partially converted into detention centres after the Israel-Hamas war began. Israel says it is meant to hold and interrogate detainees from Gaza suspected of being involved with Hamas. Many are held without charge or legal representation.

The Israel-Hamas war began on Oct. 7, when a Hamas-led attack on southern Israel killed 1,200 and took over 200 hostages taken into Gaza, by Israeli counts. The ensuing incursion on the Gaza Strip has killed over 39,000, according to Palestinian figures.

Israeli law stipulates that Palestinians from Gaza can be held at military prisons, without a detention order, trial or charge, for over a month, according to The Associated Press.

Allegations of abuse from former detainees at Sde Teiman have become widespread over the last several months, particularly after Israel's Channel 12 aired leaked surveillance footage that it said showed Israeli soldiers sexually assaulting a male Palestinian detainee.

The IDF has previously declined to comment on the video, but military police arrested 10 soldiers suspected of being involved in the alleged assault. (Five are no longer under investigation.) The arrests triggered protests from far-right Israelis, including some lawmakers.

The majority of the detainees have been transferred out of Sde Teiman — just 28 remain, according to state filings viewed by the AP.

And since June, human rights groups have been fighting in court to have Sde Teiman closed. On Wednesday, the Israeli Supreme Court weighed a petition to do so.

State attorneys said reports of poor conditions were inaccurate, and that detainees were given food, water, regular showers and access to medical treatment. They said detainees were blindfolded and handcuffed over staff safety concerns.

LISTEN | Human rights groupalleges abuse of detained Palestinians common:

The court gave the state a week and a half to give more information about conditions at the prison.

B'Tselem, a Jerusalem-based non-profit, released a report last week based on the testimony of 55 former Palestinian detainees at Israeli facilities and the "inhuman conditions" they were held in since Oct. 7.

"Their testimonies uncover a systemic, institutional policy focused on the continual abuse and torture of all Palestinian prisoners," it said.

What's next for Salem

On the day CBC spoke to Salem, he was still calling family and friends to tell them he had survived. Grateful to be alive, he said his release was a surprise.

Salem was released a ways away from where he was picked up by IDF forces in December.

"They threw me at the border near Kissufim and started shooting at me," he said.

Then, they told him to run.

"Don't stop or look behind you," he said they told him.

"Go to Gaza."