For months, revelations have emerged about the nightmarish transformation of Israel’s Sde Teiman army base, located near the southern city of Be’er Sheva/Bir al-Saba, into a detention center. Stories of the abuse of Palestinians detained by Israeli forces in Gaza echo the notorious American prisons at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba and Abu Ghraib in Iraq, and confirm what many suspected: that Israeli security personnel have been engaging in acts of torture against Palestinians detained since October 7.
According to Haaretz, as of March, at least 27 detainees from Gaza had died in Israeli military facilities since the beginning of the war, including some at Sde Teiman. One of the most recent deaths to be confirmed was Adnan al-Bursh, a Palestinian doctor who was reportedly arrested in December at Al-Awda Hospital in northern Gaza; it was announced this month that al-Bursh had died in Ofer Prison in April. The Israeli authorities have refused to give details about the circumstances of his death.
In December, photographs emerged of thousands of Palestinians who were arrested by Israeli forces in Gaza, stripped naked and handcuffed, and transported by truck to facilities in Israeli including Sde Teiman (it is worth noting that transporting individuals outside of occupied territory is itself a violation of international law). Some of those who were subsequently released described the horrors they endured: a never-ending series of torture, humiliations, and watching friends die. In the words of one former detainee, it was “a journey to hell and back.”
The statement “The writing was on the wall for Israel’s torture of prisoners” suggests that there were clear indications or warning signs that Israel engaged in the torture of prisoners. This could imply that there have been documented cases, reports, or allegations of torture by Israeli authorities in the past, and that there were indicators or evidence that this practice was ongoing or systemic.
Such a statement could also suggest a sense of inevitability or predictability regarding Israel’s treatment of prisoners, implying that there were underlying factors or patterns that made torture a foreseeable outcome.
Overall, the phrase “the writing was on the wall” suggests that signs or indications of Israel’s torture of prisoners were evident or widely known, and that the continuation or revelation of this practice was not unexpected.
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