[Pnews] Naqab prison - brutality of Israeli special unit forces - attack prisoners and destroy their belongings

[Prisoner News]

http://www.addameer.org/news/follow-naqab-prison-visit-exposes-brutality-israeli-special-unit-forces 



  Follow up: Naqab prison visit exposes brutality of Israeli special
  unit forces

09 February 2017

Over the past week, Israeli Prison Service (IPS) special unit forces, 
called the /Metzada/, have carried out violent raids in the Nafha and 
Naqab prisons, both located beyond the Green Line. On 1 February 2017, 
the /Metzada/ raided section 16 of the Naqab prison, attacking the 
prisoners and destroying their belongings. The prisoners were also 
subjected to physical beatings and some were transferred to other 
sections within the prison after one prisoner allegedly attempted an 
attack. Violent attacks and searches continued on 2 February in section 
13 of the Naqab prison after the IPS closed off all sections of the prison.

Addameer’s attorney, Farah Bayadsi, visited Naqab Prison on 8 February 
2017 to gather a detailed outlook of the attack. The prisoners expressed 
their shock of the brutality of the /Metzada/ raids that took place on 
Wednesday, 1 February 2017. One of the affected prisoners stated, /“At 
approximately 19:45 pm on Wednesday, I was in section 16 of Negev Prison 
when I heard loud screams coming from all the sections, and a few 
minutes later, a huge force of IPS special unit forces (Metzada) raided 
our section, entered every room. Each room was raided by 8 special unit 
forces, along with guards and a police dog.” /During the raid, prisoners 
were shackled with their hands behind their backs in a painful way, 
forced to sit on their knees, and were brutally beaten all over their 
body parts, with focused beatings on chests and faces. Additionally, 
prisoners were verbally assaulted, humiliated and were exposed to other 
violations including, throwing tear gas canister inside their rooms, 
which caused suffocation, blurry vision, and nausea to all prisoners.

Furthermore, the prisoners were taken to an outside yard by the prison 
guards and violently forced to face the ground. The /Metzada/ forces and 
the prison guards continued to insult, humiliate and beat the prisoners’ 
bodies with different tools and stepping on their heads.

The prisoners were kept outside in the very cold weather until 3 am, 
where some of them were not properly dressed. Later, prisoners were 
taken to the bathrooms section, where they were searched and their heads 
were smashed against the toilets. A prisoner described this by saying 
“the attack was cruel, brutal and can under no circumstances be justified.”

In addition to the aforementioned extreme violations, the IPS imposed a 
number of punitive and restrictive measures against the prisoners 
including, isolation, confiscation of property and electric devices, 
limited access to toilets, denial of family visits and access to the 
prison canteen for a month, as well as prohibiting them from washing 
their clothes that were saturated with tear gas.

One of the prisoners reported to Addameer’s attorney that most of the 
prisoners suffered severe injuries as a result of the brutal and violent 
attack against them. The injuries varied from suffocation, blurry 
visions, swollen bruised eyes, broken teeth and /Shabeh/ (the victim is 
forced to sit/stand in stressful and very painful positions). It is 
worth mentioning that none of the prisoners have received proper medical 
treatment despite their continuous requests to the IPS.

Palestinian prisoners and detainees in Israeli prisons suffer from a 
multitude of violations of their rights under international humanitarian 
law and international human rights law. They are routinely subjected to 
physical and psychological torture and other cruel, degrading and 
inhuman forms of treatment and punishment. The widespread ill-treatment 
that has been documented in Israeli prisons amounts to violations of the 
Fourth Geneva Convention Relative to the Protection of Civilians in 
Times of War, and the 1948 International Convention Against Torture, 
which was ratified by Israel in 1991. The 1955 United Nations Standard 
Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners, the Body of Principles for 
the Protection of All Persons under Any Form of Detention or 
Imprisonment adopted in 1988.

Addameer strongly condemns the international silence on the continued 
violations of the rights of Palestinian prisoners and detainees, 
particularly the right to freedom from degrading, inhumane treatment, 
and from torture and ill-treatment. In closing, Addameer calls upon the 
United Nations and the International Criminal Court of to take serious 
steps by imposing sanctions on the Israeli occupation and to pressure it 
to respect its obligations as an occupying power towards Palestinians as 
stipulated under international conventions.

-- 
Freedom Archives 522 Valencia Street San Francisco, CA 94110 415 
863.9977 www.freedomarchives.org
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