Israeli police ambush, assault, and detain relatives of freed Palestinian prisoner

Ahmad Darwish displays his swollen and bruised elbow. [Image: Ma’an news agency]

52-year-old Ahmad Darwish, pictured with a black eye inflicted by the police beating. [Image: Ma’an news agency]

28-year-old Mansour Darwish, beaten by Israeli police after attempting to welcome his cousin home from prison [Image: Ma’an news agency]

Moussa Darwish was set to be released from Ktziot prison in the Negev region on Sunday after completing a 12-year sentence, but was ambushed by Israeli intelligence officers who were waiting for him outside the prison, and immediately redetained him.

Israeli forces prevented a group of family and friends from approaching Darwish, after they had traveled from Issawiya in East Jerusalem to welcome Darwish. They were notified that Darwish had been taken to Israel’s Russian Compound detention center back in West Jerusalem for interrogation. After several hours, Israeli forces again released Darwish.

However, Darwish’s friends and relatives – Ahmad Darwish, 52, Ibrahim Darwish, 42, Mansour Darwish, 28, Muhammad Ubeid, 25, and Saeb Dirbas, 23 – said that upon their return to Jerusalem, their three vehicles were “ambushed” by Israeli forces who had set up a flying checkpoint at the entrance to the city. They claimed to have been pulled from their vehicles, violently assaulted, and detained by Israeli forces at a checkpoint in occupied East Jerusalem.

In an interview with Ma’an on Wednesday, Mansour Darwish, the former prisoner’s cousin, said that their group encountered a crippling traffic jam caused by the checkpoint.

When we tried to pass the checkpoint, our cars were stopped one after the other. Without even asking for our IDs or driving licenses, they made us step outside, and officers from the Israeli police special Yasam unit started to beat us violently – and we had no idea why.

Mansour highlighted that Israeli forces were heavily deployed in and around the checkpoint while police punched and kicked the five men in the face, chest, behind the ears, and other sensitive areas, also beating them with rifle butts and batons.

The five were then taken to the Russian Compound detention center, and shortly after, Ahmad Darwish, Ibrahim Darwish, and Saeb Dirbas were released. Mansour Darwish and Muhammad Ubeid remained in detention until the following day on Monday.

Mansour Darwish said that after spending the night in detention, he and Ubeid were taken to court on Monday and the judge decided to release them at a bail of 1,500 shekels (approximately $410) each, and placed them under five-day house arrest. He stressed that Israeli officers continued to assault the five men while they were being transported to the detention center and also while they were inside the compound.

At midnight (Monday) when we were referred to a doctor inside the Russian Compound, he refused to treat us even though we had blood running down our faces, which were badly swollen and bruised.

The victims told Ma’an that they would file a complaint against Israeli police to the internal investigations department, highlighting that despite accusations from their interrogators that they had “harassed and attacked police officers, were driving very fast, and disobeyed police orders,” they had been travelling within the speed limit and were not given any police orders throughout the ordeal with which to comply.