Palestinian prisoner reports animal attacks and suicide attempts in Israeli prison

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In the early hours of October 23, Omar Assaf and his wife were sleeping in their home in the occupied West Bank when someone pounded on the door before Israeli soldiers poured in.

The soldiers seemed confused by the sight of the elderly Palestinian they were trying to arrest. “How old are you?” one asked. Mr Assaf replied that he was 74.

“This is older than my father,” said the soldier.

“Is this against the law?” Mr. Assaf replied. He had the foresight to put his heart medication in his pocket before a soldier handcuffed him and put a blindfold over his eyes.

Two weeks after the Hamas-led attack on Israel on October 7, thousands of Palestinians were rounded up and arrested in the West Bank.

Mr Assaf was one of the oldest detainees and his story of six months of detention without charge is a shocking example of Israel’s treatment of Palestinian prisoners since the beginning of the Gaza war.

Between 1978 and 1994, when the Oslo Accords were signed, he was arrested several times and spent eight years in prison as a member of the Marxist-oriented Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine.

Since then, Mr Assaf, who has four grown children, worked for 15 years as a librarian at Birzeit University in Ramallah before teaching Arabic literature and language at a secondary school.

Although he was confused on October 23 as he rode through Ramallah in the back of an Israeli army vehicle, he thought he had some idea of ​​what to expect.

He was one of 8,700 Palestinians arrested after the war began. The vast majority received “Administrative detention”, in which people are held without charge.

But ten days after his detention, Mr Assaf was informed that he was accused of being a leader of the Hamas youth movement.

With a charming but slightly nervous smile, he recounted that moment in his office in Ramallah.

Humiliating experience

The nervous grin did little to hide the challenges of the six months in Ofer Prison, where he shared a six-bed cell with twelve Palestinians.

“When I woke up at night in our cell to go to the bathroom, I would put my feet on the feet of my friends who were sleeping on the floor,” he said. “It was humiliating.”

Due to the small amount of food they received, he lost about a third of his weight, namely 29 kg.

Breakfast consisted of 50 g of labneh and half a teaspoon of jam, followed by two tomatoes, which the twelve cellmates shared. They never received meat, fruit, tea or coffee.

Prisoners had to bark while being attacked by dogs

The cramped conditions at night were difficult to bear, but the hardest times were when the Gaza prisoners in Ward 23, opposite his cell in Ward 24, were visited by special guards.

The Palestinian men, suspected members of Hamas, were blindfolded and handcuffed at the wrists and ankles throughout the day.

Sometimes specialised guards came with dogs. They forced the prisoners to get on all fours and bark when the animals attacked them.

They were frequently beaten with batons and occasionally had rubber bullets fired at them at close range.

The men were also forced to shout slogans in Hebrew as a humiliation, including “Long live Israel” and “God damn Hamas.”

“They were cruel and it was terrifying to watch them,” said Mr Assaf. “One time a prisoner named Lowah Raif was beaten so badly that blood started pouring out of the cells. I was taken to my lawyer and the blood was smeared for 100 metres along the corridor.

“This worried me a lot and made me even angrier at the Israelis who oppress and torture people like this. But there was nothing I could do about it except tell my lawyer.”

One incident that still gives him nightmares was the sight of a prisoner from Bethlehem, driven to the brink by constant worry about his young children, who attempted suicide by jumping from a great height. He survived but suffered serious injuries.

“I will never forget this sight,” said Mr Assaf.

He suffered deep cuts to the back of his head when he fell in prison. The wounds were closed with a medical stapler, but no anesthetic was administered.

The wounds became infected, causing swelling and severe headaches that lasted for two weeks. He said all his hair fell out and grew back grey. Pictures of Mr Assaf from his release in April show him with a full head of grey hair and beard.

Unexpected release

For Palestinians in administrative detention, the term of detention must be reviewed every six months for a maximum of two years.

Mr Assaf was released immediately. He said the authorities may have realised that he was not a leader of a Hamas youth movement.

“I was happy to be released, but two things also made me very sad,” he said. “First, the destruction of Gaza and second, the people I left behind in prison.”

He learned of his arrest after he was seen at a demonstration in the early days of the war demanding an end to Israeli attacks on the enclave. “I told them it was freedom of speech, but they said, ‘We are at war and you shouldn’t do that,'” he said.

Prison disaster

Before October 7, 5,300 Palestinians were in Israeli prisons; now there are over 10,000, say Palestinian groups. Among them are 300 women and girls. At least 800 are children.

Since October 7, 18 inmates have died in prison, but authorities have not released a single one of their bodies. Some of them reportedly had to have their hands amputated because of injuries sustained by the extremely tight handcuffs.

The Red Cross and other aid organizations were denied access to the prisons.

“It is a catastrophe what is happening to the prisoners who are in a really dangerous place and fear not only for their health but also for their lives,” said Qadura Fares, Palestinian Authority Minister for Prisoners and Former Prisoners Affairs. The National.

The National has twice contacted the Israel Prison Service to set out the allegations made by Mr Assaf, but has so far received no response.

Israel has “dramatically expanded” its use of administrative detention against Palestinians in the West Bank, Amnesty International said in November.

There were also warnings about the torture and degrading treatment that prisoners are subjected to in prison.

Updated: May 24, 2024, 08:31