AN international human rights group on Monday released details of the interrogation and assault of a Palestinian teenager during his arrest in June by Israeli forces in East Jerusalem.
Muhammad Mustafa, 15, from al-Issawiya was detained during a house raid on June 15, Defence for Children reported. He was taken to the Russian compound detention centre off Jaffa Street, where he was accused of throwing rocks and Molotov cocktails at Israeli forces, charges he denied.
‘The detective yelled at me and accused me of throwing rocks and Molotov cocktails and closing the streets of al-Issawiya,’ Mustafa said. ‘Around an hour later he took me out of the room to the hallway and started slapping me on the face and hit me on my leg twice with his foot and around three minutes later he took me back to the interrogation room.’
Mustafa said that the interrogation continued for four hours while he was sitting on an iron chair until he confessed that he threw a rock. He pointed out that the paper he signed was in Hebrew, a language he does not understand. The teenager appeared in an Israeli court the following day without his parents and his detention was extended to June 18.
After the court session, Mustafa was taken back to the Russian compound and strip searched. He was not allowed to eat, drink or use the bathroom. ”On the second day of my detention, before being presented to another court on another case – as I was detained on Janunary 1, 2015 for throwing rocks – I was held in a waiting room inside the compound with two people wearing civil outfits,’ Mustafa said.
‘They suddenly started hitting me all over my body with their hands and legs, I fell to the ground and I attempted to defend myself but I felt dizzy and one of them hit me on the head with something like a screwdriver and I went unconscious.’ The next day, he was interrogated for about 10 minutes regarding his assault in the waiting room, and was later interrogated again for around 30 minutes regarding rock throwing before he was allowed to use the toilet and brought food and water.
Mustafa was released on June 21, but was sentenced to house arrest and banned from entering al-Issawiya. He is currently staying with his sister in Sur Bahir until his next court session, which is scheduled for July 9.
In 2014, Defence for Children reported that 93 percent of children detained by Israeli forces were denied access to legal counsel, while others endured prolonged periods of solitary confinement for interrogation purposes, a practice that amounts to torture under international law. A local prisoners’ rights group, Addameer, has long reported that treatment of Palestinian detainees by Israeli forces tantamount to torture is ‘widespread and systematic’.
Seven Palestinians were arrested by Israeli forces in detention raids across the Hebron and Bethlehem districts in the southern West Bank overnight Sunday, local sources and the Israeli army said. Khalil Khalid al-Balasi, 22, and Abdul Majid al-Titi, 25, were detained in al-Arrub refugee camp north of Hebron, after Israeli forces stormed their homes, locals said.
In Idhna west of Hebron, Israeli forces ransacked a number of houses belonging to the Tumizi family and detained Jaber Deeb al-Tumizi. Israeli troops also raided Beit Ummar village north of Hebron, where they broke into the home of Fathi Fakhri Ikhlayil. An Israeli special forces officer reportedly beat his son Yousuf, 21, before arresting him and taking him to an unknown place.
Israeli forces also detained Tamer Suliman Ali abu Ayyash, 22, at al-Karama border crossing while en route from Jordan to Beit Ummar. An Israeli army spokeswoman could only confirm one arrest in southern Hebron. She said that two more Palestinians were arrested near Bethlehem. She said that they had been arrested for ‘illegal activities’ and ‘violence’ towards Israeli soldiers or civilians.
Israeli forces routinely detain Palestinians throughout the West Bank and East Jerusalem, often on the pretext of perceived security threats, and Addameer estimates that 40 per cent of the Palestinian male population has been arrested at some point. Nearly 6,000 Palestinian prisoners are currently being held in Israeli jails.
• A senior Fatah official said on Sunday that talks are ongoing to form a unity government, despite objections by Hamas that the process lacks a cross-party consensus. Amin Maqboul, a senior official in Fatah, said that ‘talks have not failed, and we’re still seeking to form a unity government despite Hamas preconditions’.
Fatah will continue to discuss the matter with Hamas, he added, and the consensus government formed following a reshuffle last week will stick to its schedule of the reconstruction of Gaza. ‘It is a government for both the West Bank and Gaza strip which looks forward to rebuilding war-torn Gaza and solving its problems, but Hamas is setting preconditions which widen the gap between Gaza strip and the West Bank,’ Maqboul said.
According to the official, Hamas has demanded that any new unity government pay the salaries for all civil servants of the former Hamas government, an issue dating back to 2014 when the unity government was first formed. Maqboul said that the demand contradicts what was agreed between Hamas and Fatah as part of the reconciliation deal in April 2014.
Moussa Abu Marzouk, a senior Hamas official, said last week that Hamas would reject any reshuffle without the consensus of all political parties, and that the Hamdallah-led government has neglected Gaza in every way possible. Hamas leadership has largely rejected the Fatah-led PLO takeover of the government forming process, arguing that any unity government should be a non-political entity, carrying out tasks agreed upon by all factions.
The Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine (DFLP) warned on Sunday that a new unity government formed without the support of all Palestinian factions would deepen the divide between the West Bank and Gaza Strip. The leftist party said that a cabinet reshuffle currently being carried out within the government was not enough, and urged Hamas to think wisely about its preconditions for a new unity government rather than complicating the already difficult situation.
Tensions are running high between Hamas and Fatah after Palestinian Authority security forces detained 100 Hamas affiliates in the West Bank. Adnan Dmeiri, spokesman for the PA security services, has said the arrests were for ‘security reasons’ and will continue as long as there is a threat, denying that Palestinians were being detained for their political affiliations.
Representatives of Palestinian factions including Hamas, Islamic Jihad and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine held a joint press conference in Gaza City on Saturday to express their condemnation of the arrests.
• The military wing of Islamic Jihad has set up a watchtower near the Israeli border in Gaza, a senior leader reported on Sunday. The leader, who only named himself as Abu Ahmad, said that the al-Quds Brigades set up the tower in the Abu Reida area on the outskirts of Khuzaa in southern Gaza.
He said it lay opposite an Israeli gate on the border fence used for military purposes, adding that it was eight metres high and 500 metres from the border. ‘In al-Quds Brigades we believe that the equation has changed and the rules of the conflict have changed in favour of (the Palestinian) resistance,’ Abu Ahmad said. He added that al-Quds Brigades insisted on defying the Israeli occupation.
‘This is a message notifying (the Israeli) occupation that we are coming closer and closer, with our eyes focused on the (Israeli) borders, and not on what is going on in the Arab world,’ he said, apparently in reference to a violent insurgency in Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula, which Egypt has accused some Palestinian factions of supporting. Israeli forces have repeatedly opened fire on Palestinians from the border fence since the ceasefire agreement signed August 26, 2014 that ended a devastating 50-day Israeli military offensive against the Gaza Strip.
In May alone, there were a total of 51 incidents of shootings, incursions into the coastal enclave, and arrests, according to the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights. This included 41 shootings, which left nine injured, including one minor. The attacks come despite Israeli promises at the end of the ceasefire to ease restrictions on Palestinian access to the border region near the ‘security buffer zone’.
Islamic Jihad’s ‘watchtower’ comes several months after the military wing of Hamas reported that it had rebuilt a number of military bases near the Israeli border in Gaza. Al-Qassam Brigades said in March that it had recovered from Israel’s offensive and was ‘not afraid’ of confronting the occupation again. The offensive left more than 2,200 Palestinians dead, mostly civilians, and nearly 70 Israelis, mostly soldiers.
