Tortured children prisoners share their stories about detention in Israeli prisons
Ramallah (QNN)- Lawyers from the Committee of Prisoners’ and Former Prisoners’ Affairs narrated testimonies of Palestinian children prisoners held in Megiddo jail, in which the children said that they were subjected to torture by Israeli forces during arrest and interrogation.
Muhammad Shaheen (17 years old), from Duheishah refugee camp in Bethlehem, said he was arrested from his house at dawn. An Israeli soldier attacked him and put him in a military Jeep. The soldiers did not stop eating and slapping Shaheen the whole way. He as taken to Petah Tikva interrogation center, where he was interrogated while being tied to a chair (shabeh) and beaten for long periods.
The lawyers said an Israeli interrogator hit the child’s head against the wall several times. The Israelis also turned on the air conditioning in Shaheen’s already cold and dirty cell for 16 days before he was sent to Megiddo jail.
In another testimony, Karam Ishbeitah (17 years old) was arrested from his house after breaking into it and breaking its door at dawn. He was taken outside his house before severely beating him then they put him inside a military Jeep and took him to Tzofim settlement, where they held him in a military camp’s courtyard for long hours before sending him to the Jalameh interrogation center. He was subjected to torture during interrogation, as he was held in a very dirty cell for 14 days. Ishbeitah contracted COVID-19 virus while inside the interrogation center and his health deteriorated, which pushed the Israelis to send him to the jail’s clinic then to Megiddo jail.