Gaza health authorities have confirmed that at least 135 mutilated bodies of Palestinian martyrs returned by Israel were held at the notorious Sde Teiman detention camp, a desert facility long accused of torture, abuse, and extrajudicial killings.

Officials at Gaza’s Health Ministry and Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis revealed that each of the returned bodies carried official Israeli documentation in Hebrew, proving that they had been kept at the Sde Teiman military base in the Negev desert — a site already infamous for holding Palestinian detainees in inhumane conditions.

Dr. Munir al-Bursh, Director General of Gaza’s Health Ministry, said: “The document tags inside the body bags clearly show that the remains were held at Sde Teiman. Some tags even confirm that DNA tests were carried out there. These were not just numbers — they were human beings, tortured and killed in captivity.”

Evidence of systematic torture

Graphic evidence obtained by medical teams and verified by eyewitnesses paints a chilling picture of systematic torture and cold-blooded execution.

Doctors examining the returned bodies at Nasser Hospital reported that many victims were found blindfolded, handcuffed, and with ropes tied around their necks. Several bore marks of gunshots at point-blank range and crushing injuries consistent with being run over by Israeli tanks.

A number of photographs seen by medical staff — too horrific to publish — show that some victims’ hands were bound behind their backs, and their faces disfigured beyond recognition.

Dr. Eyad Barhoum, administrative director of Nasser Medical Complex, said: “None of the bodies carried names — only codes. They were stripped of identity, dignity, and life. This is not just war. This is murder under detention.”

Sde Teiman: A desert of death

The Sde Teiman base, located deep in the Negev, has become a symbol of Israel’s darkest war crimes. Once described as a “holding facility,” it is now widely seen as a modern-day concentration camp, where Palestinians are detained, tortured, and often killed in silence.

A Guardian investigation last year exposed how detainees were kept in cages, blindfolded, handcuffed, and even shackled to hospital beds — forced to wear diapers and denied basic human rights. The Israeli army was later forced to launch an internal investigation into the deaths of 36 prisoners at the facility, but the findings remain hidden from public view.

According to Israeli media, the occupation forces are currently holding nearly 1,500 Palestinian bodies at Sde Teiman — a grotesque violation of international law and human decency.

Crimes under the cover of “truce”

The return of the 135 bodies took place as part of a U.S.-brokered truce agreement, under which Hamas returned the remains of Israeli hostages who died during the war, and Israel in turn transferred some of the Palestinians it had killed or detained.

Yet Palestinian doctors say the condition of the bodies — mutilated, bound, and bearing torture marks — leaves no doubt that many were executed during detention rather than killed in combat.

Health officials in Gaza have called on international organizations and human rights courts to open an immediate investigation into Israel’s war crimes at Sde Teiman, warning that what has been revealed so far is only a fraction of the horror.

“This is not just a massacre — it is the industrial-scale murder of prisoners,” said one Palestinian medic. “Israel turned detention into death camps, and the world remains silent.”

Call for justice

As images of the refrigerated trucks carrying the bodies to Khan Younis spread across Gaza, families gathered in grief and outrage. Many have no confirmation of who among the dead are their loved ones — only codes, body bags, and the stench of injustice.

Global human rights defenders are now demanding that the United Nations and the International Criminal Court investigate the Sde Teiman atrocities and hold Israeli commanders accountable for what they describe as “Nazi-style crimes against humanity.”

While Israel continues to claim it operates within “military law,” the evidence from Gaza tells a different story: a regime of torture, dehumanization, and deliberate extermination of Palestinians.

The return of the mutilated bodies from Sde Teiman stands as a grim testament to Israel’s brutality — and to the urgent need for the world to confront the genocide unfolding before its eyes. (ILKHA)