SDE TEIMAN DETENTION CAMP — Israel Defense Forces Chief of Staff Eyal Zamir authorized five soldiers accused of sexually assaulting a Palestinian detainee at the Sde Teiman detention camp to return to reserve service after charges against them were dropped. The soldiers, from the Force 100 unit assigned to guard military prisons, are being reinstated while an internal military inquiry into their conduct continues.

Some of the reservists have returned to active duty, including deployment to combat roles. According to an Israeli army statement, "The investigation does not prevent them from continuing to serve. The command-level investigation will be completed as soon as possible."

Israel's top military lawyer dropped all charges against the soldiers last month, closing the case. The soldiers had been charged with aggravated assault and causing severe injury after footage broadcast by Israeli television showed them abusing a Palestinian man in Sde Teiman. According to the military's indictment, soldiers stabbed the detainee with a sharp object near his rectum, causing cracked ribs, a punctured lung and an internal tear.

Military Advocate General Itay Offir said the indictments were scrapped partly because of complexities in the evidentiary structure and difficulties arising from the detainee's release to the Gaza Strip. Yoel Donchin, a doctor at the facility, said he was initially so shocked by the Palestinian inmate's condition that he assumed it was the work of a rival armed group.

In a statement, Amnesty International called the reinstatement "yet another unconscionable chapter in the Israeli legal system's long-standing history of granting impunity to perpetrators of grave crimes against Palestinians." The organization also said that since the start of the conflict in Gaza, and despite what it described as overwhelming evidence of widespread torture and abuse, including sexual violence, against Palestinians in Israeli detention centers, only one Israeli soldier has so far been sentenced over torturing a Palestinian detainee.

Palestinians released from Israeli detention have reported suffering widespread abuse while in custody. A February report by the Committee to Protect Journalists cited dozens of formerly detained Palestinian journalists describing routine beatings, starvation and sexual assault in Israeli custody.