Israeli soldiers accused of gang-raping Palestinian detainee sue state for $6 million

Three Israeli reservists accused of gang-raping a Palestinian detainee at the Sde Teiman military prison are suing the Israeli state for 18 million shekels, around $6 million, after the army dropped all charges against them earlier this year.

The soldiers, from the Israeli military’s “Force 100” reserve unit, which guards Palestinians detained during the Gaza genocide, filed the lawsuit through the right-wing legal aid group, Honenu, against 17 defendants, Israel’s Ynetnews reported.

These include the Israeli state, the army, the military police and Israel police, the attorney general, Gali Baharav-Miara, the former military advocate general, Yifat Tomer-Yerushalmi, and the Channel 12 journalist Guy Peleg, who first broadcast footage of the assault.

The men were among five reservists indicted in February 2025 over an assault on 5 July 2024, during which the blindfolded, handcuffed detainee was kicked, stomped on, beaten with clubs, dragged along the ground and repeatedly tasered, including on his head, for around 15 minutes, according to the indictment.

Read: 10 Israeli soldiers detained for abusing Gazan detainee at Sde Teiman Prison

One soldier also stabbed the detainee near his anus with a sharp object, tearing his rectum. The detainee suffered seven broken ribs, a punctured lung and extensive internal injuries, and needed surgery on his large intestine and a stoma, later removed.

The assault was captured on camera and became public after surveillance footage was leaked and broadcast by Channel 12 in August 2024, prompting outcry in Israel and internationally. The UN human rights office called the footage “shocking.”

Israel’s military advocate general, Itay Offir, dropped the charges against the five reservists, citing a “lack of key evidence” after the detainee returned to Gaza, which he said had affected the prospects of a fair trial. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu welcomed the decision, saying Israel “must pursue its enemies, not its heroic fighters.”

Amnesty International’s senior director for research, advocacy and policy, Erika Guevara-Rosa, called the decision “yet another unconscionable chapter in the Israeli legal system’s long-standing history of granting impunity to perpetrators of grave crimes against Palestinians”, adding that Netanyahu’s response illustrated the system’s “unwillingness or inability” to prosecute crimes under international law. The Public Committee Against Torture in Israel said the decision amounted to a “whitewash” that gave soldiers “a license to rape.”

Almost six months later, three of the reservists are now seeking compensation over the same case. The lawsuit accuses the state, the army and the named officials of false suspicion of a sexual offence, wrongful arrest, leaking investigation material, defamation and covering up the leak inquiry.

Damages sought include 1.5 million shekels ($500,000) over what they claim is the false suspicion of a sexual offence, 450,000 shekels ($150,000) for 15 days of what the soldiers call wrongful detention, 3 million shekels ($1 million) for defamation, 1 million shekels ($330,000) for what they call a wrongful indictment, and 500,000 shekels ($165,000) over the handling of the leak investigation, alongside further unspecified damages that make up the 18 million shekel total.

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