Detained Palestinians Being Abused, Israeli Rights Groups Say

Two Israeli human rights groups alleged Wednesday that dozens of Palestinians at an Israeli detention facility have been mistreated and, in some cases, tortured.

The Associated Press reports:

The report was released at a time of heightened violence. In new bloodshed Wednesday, Israeli troops accidentally shot and killed a fellow soldier as they thwarted a Palestinian stabber in the West Bank, the military said.

The report by the B’Tselem and HaMoked rights groups presented accounts by 116 Palestinian detainees on conditions at the Shikma interrogation facility, run by the Israeli Shin Bet internal security agency.

It said detainees have been incarcerated in small, rank cells, often in isolation. Palestinian detainees told the Israeli rights groups that they were at times exposed to extreme heat or cold, bound to a chair and denied access to a shower for days or weeks. The detainees said they were shouted at and spat on, deprived of sleep and provided little, substandard food, the report found.

“Conditions at the Shikma facility are an inherent part of interrogations there: they serve to weaken both mind and body, complementing the actual interrogation of detainees in the interrogation room,” the report said. “The combination of conditions both in and outside the interrogation room constitutes abuse and inhuman, degrading treatment, at times even amounting to torture.”

Read more here.

—Posted by Alexander Reed Kelly.