This is a story of the IDF brass messing up royally the detention of thousands of Nukhba terrorists – a failure that resulted in impossible conditions at the Sde Teiman detention center, followed by the IDF Command’s go-to solution: punish the soldiers on base for the incompetence of their commanders.
On October 7, the Hamas Nukhba force (the name means Elite – DI) invaded Israel, killing more than 1,200, mostly civilians. Shin Bet interrogations of captured Nukhba terrorists revealed that they had been ordered to kill everyone they saw and carry out atrocities against civilians including women and children; and they would be richly rewarded for bringing hostages back to Gaza.
On Monday, masked IDF MPs raided the Sde Teiman detention center and arrested ten reservist soldiers on suspicion of a group homosexual abuse of a Nukhba prisoner who had been rushed to the hospital the day before with severe rectal injuries. The source of the military police information was the prisoner, a Nukhba terrorist with a rich history of rape and murder of innocent civilians.
The raid and arrests raised a wave of protest in Israel, and dozens of mostly right-wing Israelis, including several MKs, drove down to the Negev to storm the base. By then the soldiers had already been transported to a base in Beyt Lid in Samaria. Many protesters then drove to the base to demand the soldiers’ release.
Israel’s “mainstream” media who routinely support and praise acts of lawbreaking on the part of leftist anarchists aimed at toppling the Netanyahu government, expressed shock at the right’s “hooliganism.” There was one hilarious online exchange when MK Gideon Sa’ar tweeted: “This anarchy must be stopped at once,” and MK Simcha Rothman replied with a picture of Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara and her infamous statement regarding the Kaplan force: “There is no effective protest without disturbing public order.” Rothman added: “Your appointment. Talk to her directly. We’re all behind you.”
THE COMMITTEE TO EXAMINE PRISON CONDITIONS OF NUKHBA TERRORISTS
The advisory committee on the conditions of imprisoned terrorists, chaired by retired judge Major General Ilan Schiff, finished its work and submitted its conclusions this week to the Chief of Staff Major General Herzi Halevi.
The committee was asked to deal with the conditions of incarceration of the Nukhba terrorists following international pressure and serious claims that Israel did not comply with international conventions as required by international law. The international criticism was mainly concerning the conditions of detention of the terrorists, who were described as sitting handcuffed with flannel rags over their eyes under tank sheds all day.
The committee determined that the terrorists were given basic conditions, considering the circumstances, and the inability of the IDF to absorb them in a more secure manner and with professional personnel. The IDF was forced to improvise its detention facilities, where security is problematic in tank sheds and tents.
The committee also determined that the terrorists were not supposed to stay in temporary facilities such as Sde Teiman under the authority of the army for long periods of time. The terrorists were supposed to be in the possession of the IDF for a total of 10-15 days and then be moved to Israel Prisons Service facilities. But, alas, those were not ready to take in thousands of dangerous terrorists.
And so, the main recommendation of the committee is that the Nukhba prisoners be transferred to the IPS and the Sde Teiman base be emptied of terrorists.
How did Henny Youngman put it? A man tells his doctor, it hurts me when I do this, so the doctor says, don’t do this.
Shut down the facility, and send all the terrorists to permanent, secure detention facilities. How come they hadn’t thought about it before?
Instead, last May, the Military ProsecutorMajor General Yifat Tomer-Yerushalmi reported that the military police were investigating 70 cases of abuse of prisoners in IDF detention centers, the rough conditions there, and the death of several Hamas terrorists while in detention.
When in doubt, the commanders prosecute the soldiers.
In short, the IDF was given an impossible mission, it failed, and now the reservists must pay for the sins of their commanders. It truly was an impossible mission: given the thousands of terrorists who were streaming into the detention facilities, it was difficult to meet all the prescribed conditions in a proper prison. And since the makeshift center lacked proper locked cells, the soldiers couldn’t quite release them from their handcuffs or remove their blindfolds, because, you know, they are killers sworn to their god to keep on killing.
The female soldiers on base reported to the committee about sexual comments from the terrorists, even though they guarded the terrorists only from a distance. What else could the IDF do with this lethal scum?
Perhaps what was needed in this case was a string of quiet field executions. You pick up the Nukhba guy, interrogate him until he runs out of fingernails, then take him on a walk in the Negev from which he won’t return. But these are only the fantasies of an old man about justice for baby killers, what do I know?
