Gazans reveal horrors of Ofer Camp

Inmates at Israel's shadowy new facility face non-stop abuse — from deadly beatings and electric shocks, to constant handcuffing and skin diseases.

By Oren Ziv December 19, 2024

In February, Rami was arrested by the Israeli army at Gaza’s Al-Shifa Hospital. The 42-year-old Palestinian was taken to the notorious Sde Teiman detention center, where, like thousands of Gazans detained there, he endured severe abuse at the hands of the guards. But he was soon transferred out. “I thought I was being returned to Gaza, but I found myself in another prison,” he told +972 and Local Call. That prison was Ofer Camp — a military facility that Israel established during the current war to hold detainees from Gaza, located between Jerusalem and Ramallah in the occupied West Bank.

Rami described the facility as no less brutal than Sde Teiman. “I was severely tortured,” he said. “We were forced to kneel with our hands tied from sunrise until midnight. Guards beat us on every part of our bodies. I was given electric shocks every two days.” He stressed that such treatment was not exceptional: “All detainees at Ofer were tortured, beaten, and humiliated. We [all] received food only once a day.”

On March 24, after weeks of detention in these conditions, Rami was released back to Gaza; there were no charges filed against him.