The Associated Press
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BREAKING: The Israeli military says it is dropping charges against five soldiers who were accused of sexually abusing a Palestinian detainee.

Israeli military drops charges against soldiers charged with abusing Palestinian prisoner
The Israeli military says it is dropping charges against five soldiers who were accused of sexually abusing a Palestinian detainee in an encounter partially caught on camera.
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10:41 AM · Mar 12, 2026

World News
Israeli military drops charges against soldiers accused of sexually assaulting Palestinian detainee

By JULIA FRANKEL
Updated 1:08 PM EDT, March 12, 2026
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JERUSALEM (AP) — Israel’s military on Thursday said it was dropping charges against five soldiers accused of sexually assaulting a Palestinian detainee in an alleged assault partially caught on camera.

The decision closed a case that has bitterly divided the country since the soldiers were arrested in 2024 at the notorious Sde Teiman military prison, prompting anger from members of the far-right government and hard-line ultranationalists who violently overran the prison in protest. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu hailed Thursday’s announcement, while human rights groups accused the military of whitewashing one of the gravest instances of abuse in the country’s network of wartime prisons.

Sde Teiman was set up after Oct. 7, 2023, to hold Palestinians rounded up in Gaza during Israel’s war against the Hamas militant group. The secretive facility quickly gained notoriety as employees and Palestinians freed from detention described scenes of abuse and torture. Those allegations gained steam after Israeli news broadcast a leaked video that appeared to show soldiers sexually assaulting a Palestinian prisoner.

The soldiers were accused of dragging the Palestinian on the floor, tasering him, and sexually assaulting him by stabbing him in the rectum, causing multiple injuries, according to the indictment. He was taken to an Israeli hospital with fractured ribs and blunt trauma to the abdomen and the chest and underwent surgery for a perforated rectum before being returned to the prison.

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