JERUSALEM: An Israeli soldier who was found to have struck Palestinian detainees while they were restrained and blindfolded has been sentenced to seven months in jail by an Israeli military court.
The Israeli military on Thursday announced the court had accepted a plea agreement with the soldier, a reservist who it said admitted to having “severely abused” Palestinian detainees at the Sde Teiman military detention center near the border with the Gaza Strip.
“The defendant was convicted of several incidents in which he struck detainees with his fists and his weapon while they were bound and blindfolded,” the military said. It did not name the soldier or detail the charges he was convicted of.
The military statement did not identify where the Palestinian detainees were from, why they had been detained or whether they had since been charged or convicted of crimes or released from detention.
In addition to seven months imprisonment, the court handed the soldier a suspended sentence and demoted him to the rank of private. The military said the soldier had served as a security guard at the detention center but did not say what rank he had held. Israeli media reported the soldier’s jail sentence included time that he had already spent in detention.
The military court found that other masked soldiers had participated in the abuse but that their identities had not been determined, the military said, without saying how many.
The convicted soldier had beaten the detainees in front of other soldiers, some of whom had told him to stop, the military said, adding that a recording of the abuse had been found on the mobile phone of the convicted soldier.
The military has been investigating allegations that soldiers had abused Palestinians from Gaza held in military detention since the start of the war in October 2023. The military on Thursday did not say whether investigations were still ongoing or if any other soldiers had been charged.
In July last year, right-wing Israeli protesters broke into Sde Teiman detention facility and another Israeli military compound after investigators arrived to question soldiers about suspected abuse.
Sde Teiman was opened after the war started and held captured Palestinians from Gaza. Israel last year said it would close the facility.
![]()
Israeli soldier sentenced to 7 months in jail for abusing Palestinian detainees
Short Url
https://arab.news/cxpsg
Israeli soldier sentenced to 7 months in jail for abusing Palestinian detainees
- The court handed the soldier a suspended sentence and demoted him to the rank of private.
- The military said the soldier had served as a security guard at the detention center but did not say what rank he had held
Syrian army extends hold over north Syria, Kurds report clashes
DEIR HAFER: Syria’s army has seized swathes of the country’s north, dislodging Kurdish forces from territory over which they held effective autonomy for more than a decade.
The government appeared to be extending its grip on Kurdish-run areas after President Ahmed Al-Sharaa issued a decree declaring Kurdish a “national language” and granting the minority group official recognition.
The Kurds have said Friday’s announcement fell short of their aspirations, while the implementation of a March deal — intended to see Kurdish forces integrated into the state — has stalled.
Government troops drove Kurdish forces from two Aleppo neighborhoods last week and on Saturday took control of an area east of the city.
On Sunday, the government announced the capture of Tabqa, about 55 kilometers (34 miles) west of Raqqa.
“The Syrian army controls the strategic city of Tabqa in the Raqqa countryside, including the Euphrates Dam, which is the largest dam in Syria,” said Information Minister Hamza Almustafa, according to the official SANA news agency.
The Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), however, said they had “taken the necessary measures to restore security and stability” in Tabqa.
In Deir Hafer, some 50 kilometers east of Aleppo city, an AFP correspondent saw several SDF fighters leaving the town and residents returning under heavy army presence.
Syria’s army said four soldiers had been killed, while Kurdish forces reported several fighters dead. Both sides traded blame for violating a withdrawal deal.
Kurdish authorities ordered a curfew in the Raqqa region after the army designated a swathe of territory southwest of the Euphrates River a “closed military zone,” warning it would target what it said were several military sites.
The SANA news agency reported Sunday that the SDF destroyed two bridges over the Euphrates in Raqqa city, which lies on the eastern bank of the river.
Raqqa’s media directorate separately accused the SDF of cutting off Raqqa city’s water supply by blowing up the main water pipes.
Deir Ezzor governor Ghassan Alsayed Ahmed said on social media that the SDF fired “rocket projectiles” at neighborhoods in government-controlled territories in the city center of Deir Ezzor, Al-Mayadin, and other areas.
The SDF said “factions affiliated with the Damascus government attacked our forces’ positions” and caused clashes in several towns on the east bank of the Euphrates, opposite Al-Mayadin and which lie between Deir Ezzor and the Iraqi border.
- ‘Betrayed’ -
On Friday, Syrian Kurdish leader and SDF chief Mazloum Abdi had committed to redeploying his forces from outside Aleppo to east of the Euphrates.
But the SDF said Saturday that Damascus had “violated the recent agreements and betrayed our forces,” with clashes erupting with troops south of Tabqa.
The army urged the SDF to “immediately fulfil its announced commitments and fully withdraw” east of the river.
The SDF controls swathes of Syria’s oil?rich north and northeast, areas captured during the civil war and the fight against the Daesh group over the past decade.
US envoy Tom Barrack met Abdi in Irbil on Saturday, the presidency of Iraq’s autonomous Kurdistan region said.
While Washington has long supported Kurdish forces, it has also backed Syria’s new authorities.
US Central Command on Saturday urged Syrian government forces “to cease any offensive actions in the areas between Aleppo and al?Tabqa.”
France’s President Emmanuel Macron and the president of Iraqi Kurdistan, Nechirvan Barzani, also called for de-escalation and a ceasefire.
- Presidential decree -
Sharaa’s announcement on Friday marked the first formal recognition of Kurdish rights since Syria’s independence in 1946.
The decree stated that Kurds are “an essential and integral part” of Syria, where they have suffered decades of marginalization.
It made Kurdish a “national language” and granted nationality to all Kurds — around 20 percent of whom were stripped of it under a controversial 1962 census.
The Kurdish administration in Syria’s northeast said the decree was “a first step” but “does not satisfy the aspirations and hopes of the Syrian people.
In Qamishli, the main Kurdish city in the country’s northeast, Shebal Ali, 35, told AFP that “we want constitutional recognition of the Kurdish people’s rights.”
Nanar Hawach, senior Syria analyst at the International Crisis Group, said the decree “offers cultural concessions while consolidating military control.”
“It does not address the northeast’s calls for self-governance,” he said.
Also Saturday, the US military said a strike in northwest Syria had killed a militant linked to a deadly attack on three Americans last month.
The government appeared to be extending its grip on Kurdish-run areas after President Ahmed Al-Sharaa issued a decree declaring Kurdish a “national language” and granting the minority group official recognition.
The Kurds have said Friday’s announcement fell short of their aspirations, while the implementation of a March deal — intended to see Kurdish forces integrated into the state — has stalled.
Government troops drove Kurdish forces from two Aleppo neighborhoods last week and on Saturday took control of an area east of the city.
On Sunday, the government announced the capture of Tabqa, about 55 kilometers (34 miles) west of Raqqa.
“The Syrian army controls the strategic city of Tabqa in the Raqqa countryside, including the Euphrates Dam, which is the largest dam in Syria,” said Information Minister Hamza Almustafa, according to the official SANA news agency.
The Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), however, said they had “taken the necessary measures to restore security and stability” in Tabqa.
In Deir Hafer, some 50 kilometers east of Aleppo city, an AFP correspondent saw several SDF fighters leaving the town and residents returning under heavy army presence.
Syria’s army said four soldiers had been killed, while Kurdish forces reported several fighters dead. Both sides traded blame for violating a withdrawal deal.
Kurdish authorities ordered a curfew in the Raqqa region after the army designated a swathe of territory southwest of the Euphrates River a “closed military zone,” warning it would target what it said were several military sites.
The SANA news agency reported Sunday that the SDF destroyed two bridges over the Euphrates in Raqqa city, which lies on the eastern bank of the river.
Raqqa’s media directorate separately accused the SDF of cutting off Raqqa city’s water supply by blowing up the main water pipes.
Deir Ezzor governor Ghassan Alsayed Ahmed said on social media that the SDF fired “rocket projectiles” at neighborhoods in government-controlled territories in the city center of Deir Ezzor, Al-Mayadin, and other areas.
The SDF said “factions affiliated with the Damascus government attacked our forces’ positions” and caused clashes in several towns on the east bank of the Euphrates, opposite Al-Mayadin and which lie between Deir Ezzor and the Iraqi border.
- ‘Betrayed’ -
On Friday, Syrian Kurdish leader and SDF chief Mazloum Abdi had committed to redeploying his forces from outside Aleppo to east of the Euphrates.
But the SDF said Saturday that Damascus had “violated the recent agreements and betrayed our forces,” with clashes erupting with troops south of Tabqa.
The army urged the SDF to “immediately fulfil its announced commitments and fully withdraw” east of the river.
The SDF controls swathes of Syria’s oil?rich north and northeast, areas captured during the civil war and the fight against the Daesh group over the past decade.
US envoy Tom Barrack met Abdi in Irbil on Saturday, the presidency of Iraq’s autonomous Kurdistan region said.
While Washington has long supported Kurdish forces, it has also backed Syria’s new authorities.
US Central Command on Saturday urged Syrian government forces “to cease any offensive actions in the areas between Aleppo and al?Tabqa.”
France’s President Emmanuel Macron and the president of Iraqi Kurdistan, Nechirvan Barzani, also called for de-escalation and a ceasefire.
- Presidential decree -
Sharaa’s announcement on Friday marked the first formal recognition of Kurdish rights since Syria’s independence in 1946.
The decree stated that Kurds are “an essential and integral part” of Syria, where they have suffered decades of marginalization.
It made Kurdish a “national language” and granted nationality to all Kurds — around 20 percent of whom were stripped of it under a controversial 1962 census.
The Kurdish administration in Syria’s northeast said the decree was “a first step” but “does not satisfy the aspirations and hopes of the Syrian people.
In Qamishli, the main Kurdish city in the country’s northeast, Shebal Ali, 35, told AFP that “we want constitutional recognition of the Kurdish people’s rights.”
Nanar Hawach, senior Syria analyst at the International Crisis Group, said the decree “offers cultural concessions while consolidating military control.”
“It does not address the northeast’s calls for self-governance,” he said.
Also Saturday, the US military said a strike in northwest Syria had killed a militant linked to a deadly attack on three Americans last month.
Latest updates
© 2026 SAUDI RESEARCH & PUBLISHING COMPANY, All Rights Reserved And subject to Terms of Use Agreement.