Haaretz - Hagar Shezaf  

Four Palestinians have died in Israeli prisons, and two have died in Israeli army detention centers since the beginning of the war. Haaretz testified that there were bruises on the bodies of two of them. There are testimonies of violence that preceded their death or medical negligence. In one case, the testimony of a released prisoner, along with an autopsy report conducted by a family doctor, indicates that the cause of death of the administrative detainee was often exposure to violence. However, the cause of death has not been determined. The increase in deaths comes against the backdrop of testimonies provided by prisoners and detainees to lawyers and military courts about the violence they were exposed to in prisons, and based on the testimonies of prisoners who were released as part of the deal with Hamas.

Abdel Rahman Marei, a resident of Qarawat Beni Hassan, died in Megiddo prison on November 13 when he was 33, after being administratively detained in February. Ten days later, a post-mortem was conducted at the Forensic Medicine Institute in Abu Kabir, in the presence of a doctor from Physicians for Human Rights, at the request of his family. According to all the autopsy results in the possession of the doctor and which reached Haaretz, it was found that there were traces of beating on Marhi’s chest, and that his ribs and chest bones were broken.

The report also included external signs of beating on his head, neck, back, buttocks, left hand, and hip. He also wrote that because he was in good health and had no previous illnesses, it was likely that the violence he was exposed to and the signs that appeared on his body caused his death. However, it was noted that the cause of death cannot be determined at this stage, and that further examinations will be conducted later that may shed light on the matter. He also wrote that the police report, which was presented to the Institute of Forensic Medicine, showed that Merhi had been forcefully shackled for six days before his death.

Added to the report is the testimony of a prisoner who was released on November 16 from Megiddo prison. He said that he was with Merhi in the same cell, and he provided his testimony to “Physicians for Human Rights” in a phone conversation after his release. According to him, since the beginning of the war, forces from various units affiliated with the Prison Service have been accustomed to entering the prison on Sundays and Tuesdays every week, handcuffing the prisoners’ hands behind their backs and beating them. He said that he witnessed the beating that Marhi was subjected to a few days before he himself was released. “They handcuffed our hands behind our backs and started the beating party,” according to his testimony, which reached Haaretz. “They provoked one of the prisoners, Mar’i, and insulted his father, who had died a short time ago. Mar'i started screaming, then about 15 members of the force attacked him, surrounded him and beat him severely. The beating continued for five minutes, and they focused their beating on his head, then they took him, and we did not know anything about him after that.” A week later, he said, prisoners received news of his death.

The last prisoner to die while in prison was Thaer Abu Asab, from Qalqilya (38 years old). He died in “Katziot” Prison [Negev Desert Prison] on November 18. Abu Assab has been imprisoned in Israel since 2005 on charges of attempted murder. A few days after his death, his family, through lawyer Suleiman Shaheen, submitted a request to investigate the cause of his death, accompanied by the family doctor, claiming that his death was not natural. On the same day, the state responded that the autopsy was performed two days after his death, because the court approved it to be conducted without informing the family and obtaining their consent due to the difficulty of communicating with residents of the “Territories” [the West Bank] during the war. He also wrote that a final report on the cause of his death has not yet been received.

However, in the last days of the release of security prisoners as part of the exchange deal, testimonies were published that shed light on the circumstances of Abu Assab’s death. Last Friday, the media channel “Al-Quds News Network” published an interview with a prisoner named Muhammad Al-Katnani (18 years old) from the Askar refugee camp in the Nablus area, and he is from “Islamic Jihad.” According to him, he was in the same room with Abu Asab. 

He said that Abu Assab died after being severely beaten by the “Keter” unit of the Prisons Service, which is responsible for disturbing order in prisons. He said in a documented interview published on social networks: “They entered the room and started beating us for no reason. 

They took Abu Asab to the toilets, and beat him on the head with a stick. The jailer saw the bleeding from his head, so he continued to hit him on the shoulder until he broke it. Then he hit him a third time and a piece of his head fell to the ground. “We saw something fall between us.” According to him, the jailers left the room after that. “We didn't know what to do. We did everything to keep him from moving. We asked for someone to come to help us,” Al-Katnani said. “We tried to check his pulse, but he had died by then. We covered it with our hands.” According to him, a prison guard arrived at the scene two hours later and noticed Abu Asab lying on the ground. The guards transferred him on a stretcher, and a few minutes later they informed the prisoners of his death.

In October, two others died in prison service detention centers: Omar Daraghmeh (58 years old), a member of Hamas who was administratively arrested two days after the outbreak of the war and detained in Megiddo prison. He died on October 23. Hamas considered his death an assassination. During the arrest procedures, Daraghmeh's lawyer, Ashraf Abu Sneina, told the newspaper that a court session was held on the day of his death, which he attended via video. “The discussion was normal. I asked him: How do you feel? He replied: It's fine. He explained to me that the situation in prison in general is difficult and that the behavior of the Prison Service is violent,” the lawyer said. According to him, a few hours after the session, he was informed of Daraghmeh's death. After his death, the court took a decision to approve the administrative detention order for six months.

The next day, Arafat Hamdan (25 years old) died in Ofer Prison. The Palestinian Prisoners' Authority said that Hamdan was arrested two days before his death. According to his family members, he was diabetic, and they said that the Israeli authorities knew about it. Father Yasser Hamdan, he said

The next day, Arafat Hamdan (25 years old) died in Ofer Prison. The Palestinian Prisoners' Authority said that Hamdan was arrested two days before his death. According to his family members, he was diabetic, and they said that the Israeli authorities knew about it. Father Yasser Hamdan told the newspaper in a conversation that a man from Shin Bet called him and asked him to send medicines. Haaretz spoke with a detainee who was recently released from Megiddo prison. He also suffered from diabetes. According to him, although the prison authorities knew about his illness, he did not receive the medication in an organized manner. “They gave me medication twice when I should have taken it three times a day,” and Dr. Samer, a doctor by profession, said that many of his detainees did not receive the medications they needed.

As Haaretz revealed, two detainees from Gaza died while they were in an army detention camp near Anata, and in Ofer prison in the West Bank. They were Gaza workers. They were arrested after Israel canceled their work permits en masse after October 7, and detained the workers in military detention until they were transferred to the Strip in November. According to testimonies received by Haaretz, Raja Samour (46 years old), a father of four children in Gaza, was suffering from diabetes, and he died because he did not receive the treatment he requested after his arrest in the “Anatot” camp. The second detainee is Majed Zaqoul (32 years old), who - according to Palestinian media reports - was suffering from cancer and lived in the West Bank. Zaqoul's family received news of his death after what he published in the newspaper. While Sammour's family has not yet received any official notification from the authorities about his death. The exact time of their death is unknown; Because the Israeli army did not announce this. Their bodies are still with the army.

The death of prisoners in prisons is in addition to a growing number of testimonies from prisoners who have been released, or written testimonies that have appeared in the minutes of sessions discussing arrests in military courts about the severe violence inflicted on them since the outbreak of the war. In the session held on November 15 regarding an administrative detainee, this detainee said that he had been beaten in Ofer Prison, and that his nose had been broken as a result. He even asked the judge not to end the session without promising him that he would not be beaten again. Due to the complaint against violence, the judge ordered that a copy of the minutes of the session be transferred to the Prison Service and to the Attorney General of the Military Prosecutor’s Office in Judea and Samaria.

The Prison Service responded: “According to the Prison Service’s orders, it was found that the prisoner’s death requires an investigation committee unless there is a police investigation or any other investigative body.” Examinations are now being conducted on prisoners who have died since the beginning of the war, and the procedures have not yet been completed. Therefore, we cannot give details about the circumstances of death at this stage.”

The military spokesman responded: “Two Gazans died while they were in detention in the center of the country. Another detainee died while in prison, and two died while entering the prison, and they died due to a complex health condition upon their arrival to the prison. The circumstances of their deaths are now being investigated. Any allegation raised by lawyers in sessions against violence or any other violation of the rights of accused or suspects is documented in the minutes of the sessions, and appropriate cases are transferred by judicial decision to the Prison Service and other relevant parties for examination.”

Source: Sama News