Palestinian prisoners "tortured" during Ramadan

The Israeli prison service “deliberately tortures” Palestinian prisoners during the fasting month of Ramadan, it has been claimed. Reports from “Free”, the Centre for the Study of Prisoners and Human Rights, describe prisoners in transit being forced to break their fast while handcuffed so tightly that some were unable to move properly. The accusations have been made against the Alnhacon Unit responsible for transporting prisoners between prisons.

According to the Director of the Centre, Fouad Khuffash, the Alnhacon Unit is known for its harsh treatment of prisoners and the wide latitude it is given to mistreat them, often for the most trivial of reasons.

One prisoner is reported to have told the Free Centre that more than twenty prisoners in Ramle prison were detained while being transported from the Negev prison to Ofer, where they awaited the arrival of their transportation buses. After being kept for eight hours in the intense heat, they asked the guards if they could break their fast before getting on to the buses. “They refused,” he said, “so there was a clash with the guards and they tied us up and told us to eat Iftar while handcuffed.” The officers, it is claimed, refused to untie the handcuffs on those men who had difficulty eating and just told them to hurry up.

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Prisoners accuse the Alnhacon Unit’s officers of torturing them “deliberately” in transit without taking into consideration the situation of those for whom fasting is a religious obligation and who are shackled in intense summer heat.

Mr. Khuffash called upon human rights organizations and the government ministries dealing with prisoners in the West Bank and Gaza Strip to end the abuse of prisoners by the Alnhacon Unit and improve the conditions for transporting prisoners.