Palestinian prisoners from Gaza strapped down, blindfolded, held in diapers: report

Palestinians abducted by Israeli forces in Gaza are being "stripped [...] down of anything that resembles human beings", whistleblowers told CNN in a new investigation.

The pictures obtained by CNN from Sde Teiman, a military base that now also serves as a detention center in the Negev (Naqab) desert, show "rows of men in gray tracksuits are seen sitting on paper-thin mattresses, ringfenced by barbed wire. All appear blindfolded, their heads hanging heavy under the glare of floodlights".

The detainees were not allowed to speak, and therefore mumbled to each other.

"We were told they were not allowed to move," one whistleblower said. "They should sit upright. They’re not allowed to talk. Not allowed to peek under their blindfold."

Guards were reportedly instructed to scream "uscot" ("shut up" in Arabic) and to "pick people out that were problematic and punish them".

The investigation says that doctors sometimes amputated detainees's limbs "due to injuries sustained from constant handcuffing" and that underqualified medics were called to perform medical procedures. Some wounds were even left to rot.

The prisoners were placed under heavy physical restraint in the detention center, while the wounded ones are strapped to their beds in a field hospital, wearing diapers and fed through straws. Detainees were also often beaten.

"[The beatings] were not done to gather intelligence," another whistleblower said. "They were done out of revenge. It was punishment for what they (the Palestinians) did on October 7 and punishment for behavior in the camp."