The State Department on Tuesday refused to label Israeli soldiers raping Palestinian prisoners as a war crime.
Said Arikat, a reporter for Al Quds, asked State Department spokesman Vedant Patel about the Israeli soldiers who were detained for raping a Palestinian prisoner at the notorious Sde Teiman detention facility. The Palestinian was transferred to a hospital with damage to his rectum that was so severe he could not walk.
The condition of the prisoner confirms some of the worst allegations about conditions in Sde Teiman. Both Israeli whistleblowers and former Palestinian prisoners have detailed torture and widespread abuse carried out by Israeli soldiers at the facility.