Israeli soldiers convicted of torturing and sexually assaulting a Palestinian detainee at the notorious Sde Teiman torture site have publicly defended their crime and demanded gratitude for their actions.
The soldiers, who wore black masks to conceal their identities, made their remarks during a press conference held outside the Supreme Court in West Jerusalem on Monday.
"I stand here today because I am tired of silence. Instead of appreciation, we received accusations — instead of thanks, there was silence," Israeli Channel 7 quoted one of the accused soldiers, who was identified by the initial "A".
"We were not allowed to respond or explain; we were given a show trial before cameras, and you had already decided who was guilty."
Boasting about his actions, he said, "We will not remain silent. We will keep fighting for justice and for our families. Maybe you tried to break us, but you forgot that we are the strength of a hundred men."
The case dates back to July 2024, when Israeli soldiers tortured a Palestinian prisoner from besieged Gaza inside Sde Teiman in southern Israel.
Five reservists have been formally charged since the video was leaked. Among the charges they faced was using a "sharp object" to stab detainee near the rectum.
Video showing rape and torture
On Monday, a Tel Aviv court extended the detention of former military prosecutor Yifat Tomer-Yerushalmi for three days after she authorised the release of the video showing the rape and torture, sparking global outrage.
Tomer-Yerushalmi resigned on Friday, saying she allowed the publication of the footage "to counter false propaganda against law enforcement agencies in the army."
The Israeli daily Haaretz reported that Israel released the assaulted detainee in October and returned him to Gaza, though no confirmation has been made by Hamas or Palestinian prisoner institutions.
There are currently over 10,000 Palestinians in Israeli prisons, including women and children, who face torture, starvation, and medical neglect, conditions that have caused numerous deaths, according to Palestinian and Israeli human rights organisations.
In October 2024, a UN commission found that thousands of Palestinian detainees were subjected to "widespread and systematic abuse" in Israeli military camps and detention facilities that amounted to a "war crime and crime against humanity of torture".
Israeli journalist Yoana Gonen, writing in Haaretz, criticized the soldiers' portrayal as heroes, calling them "a symbol of today's Israel — a nation marked by shame and disgrace."
Gonen wrote under the title "What did we really want? To torture quietly without the world finding out and making us uncomfortable," referring to the leak as "perhaps the most serious propaganda attack against Israel since its founding," while ignoring the documented crimes in the footage.
"Two years of indiscriminate destruction in Gaza, soldiers posting war crimes on TikTok, ministers boasting of torture, journalists calling for genocide — yet only the propaganda leak reminded the system that the law is supposed to apply," he said.
"The exposure of the brutal abuse... at the Sde Teiman detention site dealt a heavy blow not only to Israel's image but also to its legitimacy and that of the Israel Defense Forces (Israeli military)," wrote the Yedioth Ahronoth newspaper in an editorial on Sunday.
Suspended genocide
Since October 2023, Israeli forces have killed nearly 70,000 Palestinians, predominantly women and children, and wounded over 170,000 others in Gaza during its suspended genocide.
Some 11,000 Palestinians are feared buried under rubble of annihilated homes, according to Palestine's official WAFA news agency.
Experts, however, contend that the actual death toll significantly exceeds what the Gaza authorities have reported, estimating it could be around 200,000.
During the genocide Israeli troops pulverised neighbourhoods, dug up mass graves, destroyed cemeteries, bombed shops and businesses, flattened hospitals and morgues, ran tanks and bulldozers on dead bodies, tortured jailed Palestinians with dogs and electricity, subjected detainees to mock executions, and even raped many Palestinians.
Exhibiting sadistic behaviour during the genocide, Israeli soldiers taunted some Palestinian prisoners by claiming they were playing football with their children's heads in Gaza.
Israeli troops have live streamed hundreds of videos of soldiers looting Palestinian homes, destroying children's beds, setting homes on fire and laughing, wearing undergarments of displaced Palestinians and stealing kids' toys.
In their mission to erase Palestine, Israeli troops have killed a record number of babies, medics, athletes, and journalists — unprecedented in any war in this century.
Brokered by US President Donald Trump, the October 10 ceasefire has been breached by Israeli strikes repeatedly in which some 250 Palestinians have been killed and scores wounded.
