Lubna Masarwa
Middle East Eye / September 2, 2024
Ayman Abed’s family and medics say there are clear signs he had been tortured and badly beaten in Israeli custody.
Israeli forces detained a 58-year-old Palestinian man on Monday morning, returning him to his family two hours later dead and covered in marks that indicated he had been tortured and badly beaten in custody.
Soldiers raided the house of Ayman Abed in the northern occupied West Bank village of Kafr Dan at around 3.30am, his family told Middle East Eye.
According to Isra Abed, Abed’s daughter, Israeli soldiers took him into custody at 6am, returning shortly after with his dead body.
“We believe they tortured him in a military jeep because it didn’t take a lot of time until they sent him back as a body,” Isra told MEE.
“I saw his body and he had signs of torture on him on his nose, hair, hands and other areas. It’s obvious he went through severe torture, and it’s also clear that he was beaten.”
The Palestinian Red Crescent Society also said Abed’s body displayed signs of torture, and that he had been transferred to a hospital in Jenin, 8km from Kafr Dan.
“My father didn’t suffer from any health issues. He never complained about any health problems,” Isra said. “He has never been detained before or been summoned for interrogation.”
Mohammed Atiq, a journalist from Jenin, told MEE that he saw the body after the Israelis returned it around 8am.
“He had many signs of torture on his face and it’s clear that they brutally beat him. You can see the signs on his chest and other areas,” he said.
MEE has asked the Israeli military for comment.
Two of Abed’s four sons are in Israeli prison. A third is believed to have been wounded in recent fighting in Jenin and is wanted by Israel.
The Palestinian Prisoners’ Club, an NGO supporting detainees in Israeli prisons, said the military had carried out repeated raids on the Abed family home in recent days to pressure his son into surrendering himself.
Isra said the soldiers broke through the door without waiting for her mother to open it and beat her 15-year-old brother, smashing his phone, interrogating him and going through his social media posts.
Since the 7 October Hamas-led attack on Israel and subsequent war on Gaza, Israeli forces have detained around 1,400 Palestinians in the occupied West Bank, according to the Palestinian Prisoners’ Affairs Authority.
Thousands more Palestinians in Gaza have been detained in the same period and have faced appalling conditions. Middle East Eye and other media have reported on various cases of torture, ill-treatment and sexual abuse in Israeli detention facilities.
B’Tselem, Israel’s largest human rights group, has called the Israeli prison system a “network of torture camps”.
In a report published last month, B’Tselem said it had collected testimonies that “clearly indicated a systematic, institutional policy focused on the continual abuse and torture of all Palestinian prisoners held by Israel”.
According to the Palestinian Prisoners’ Affairs Authority and the Prisoners Club, Israeli forces have also carried out extrajudicial “field executions” on dozens of detainees since 7 October, “in addition to executions carried against citizens during the arrest of one of their relatives”.
Israel is currently waging a large-scale military operation in the West Bank, killing at least 17 Palestinians and destroying large parts of Jenin, Tulkarm and Tubas, including critical infrastructure.
Lubna Masarwa is a journalist and Middle East Eye’s Palestine and Israel bureau chief, based in Jerusalem
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Palestinian dies an hour after Israel arrests him from occupied West Bank
Al-Jazeera / September 2, 2024
The 58-year-old man’s body was handed over to the Palestine Red Crescent Society amid intensified Israeli attacks on the Palestinian territory.
Israeli troops have handed the body of a Palestinian man who was arrested about an hour earlier in the occupied West Bank to the Palestinian health authorities.
The Palestine Red Crescent Society said on Monday that it had received the body of 58-year-old Ayman Rajeh Abed, from Kafr Dan village outside Jenin, shortly after he was arrested at dawn on Monday.
The director of the Jenin Government Hospital said the body bore signs of beatings and torture.
The Israeli military said Abed was detained during “counterterrorism” operations and experienced a “cardiac event” on arrival at a detention centre. It added that he was initially treated by medical staff from the military before being transferred to the hospital in Jenin.
“[Israel’s army] is aware of reports that the suspect died during his evacuation by the Red Crescent,” the military said in a statement, adding that details of the incident were under review.
The incident came as Israeli forces expanded their operations in the city of Jenin and the surrounding areas for a sixth day.
Bulldozers continued to dig up streets and major thoroughfares on Monday.
Israel launched the operation, one of the largest in months, last Wednesday, saying Iranian-backed fighter groups were planning to attack civilian targets.
Hundreds of Israeli troops backed by drones and helicopters have taken part in the assault. At least 29 Palestinians have been killed, with Israel claiming they were members of armed factions including Hamas and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad.
Another 121 people have been wounded, according to Palestinian health authorities.
The assault has caused extensive damage to houses and infrastructure in Jenin and the densely-packed refugee camp adjacent to the city.
‘Collective punishment’
Al Jazeera’s Nida Ibrahim, reporting from Kafr Dan, said that Palestinians have described Israel’s actions in Jenin as “collective punishment”.
“They say Israel wants to show that Palestinians would pay a heavy price for supporting armed fighters – those who pick up arms and try to combat Israeli forces while they are raiding Palestinian homes, refugee camps and cities,” she said.
Late on Sunday, a man was killed in the west of Jenin city.
On Monday, the Palestine Red Crescent Society said another man was hit in the chest by gunfire in Qabatiya near Jenin. His condition was described as serious.
Source: Al-Jazeera and news agencies
