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Israeli soldier stabs handcuffed Palestinian student in prison

February 10, 2014 at 10:31 am

VIDEO

Officers in the Israeli army stabbed an 18-year-old Palestinian student in handcuffs after arresting him at his home near the city of Qalqilya, in the West Bank.


According to the Israeli news site Walla, Palestinian student Zahir Tabeeb recounted how: “Yesterday at 2 am the Israeli army entered our house in a very inhumane and uncivilised manner. They told me to put on my shoes and then took me out to the road where they brought someone to trace my footsteps. Someone had thrown stones at them and they were accusing me. But even though they were told that there was no evidence against me, and that I was not the culprit, an Israeli soldier insisted on taking me to prison anyway. So I was handcuffed and transferred in an army van to the Haras El-Hodood prison near the village of Ezbet Tabeeb.”

The Palestinian student, who studies in the Department of Law at Al-Najah University in Nablus, added that: “I was questioned for about a half an hour and then put in prison until 3 pm. At that point, two soldiers entered the cell. I did not recognise their faces but they were dressed in army clothes and held knives. One of them started hitting me while shouting accusations and insults at me. He was accusing me of throwing stones in the streets, but I told him I had not thrown any stones. He turned me around so that I was facing the wall and then stabbed me in my back while I was still handcuffed. Later on, an Israeli officer who came by to give me food noted the presence of blood on my shirt and asked me what had happened. When I told him, he took me to the clinic for treatment. Afterwards they returned me to the prison cell. Around four hours later I was released.”

The website reported that after his release, the Palestinian student received further treatment at a hospital in Qalqilya, and indicated that a complaint had been made to the Israeli police so that the circumstances of the stabbing could be investigated.