250 Palestinian political prisoners injured during Naqab Israeli occupation jail raid

PLC member: 250 Palestinian prisoners injured during Negev jail raid

Date: 22 / 10 / 2007 Time: 10:42

Bethlehem – Ma'an –

The wardens at the Naqab (Negev) Desert Israeli occupation jail on Monday morning ransacked and threw gas canisters into Palestinian political prisoners' tents, and severely beat them, reported the Palestinian Centre for Studies.

More than 250 prisoners have been reported injured

The centre has been investigating developments in the situation since the early hours of Monday morning.

Tents in two sections of the prison compound were torched, said the centre, completely demolishing all the belongings of the detainees.

Prisoners telephoned the centre to report that an Israeli Nehshon unit stormed the Palestinian sections of the jail at 2am armed with clubs, shields, sonic bombs and tear gas canisters.

The tents were set ablaze by the gas canisters and sonic bombs.

Later on Monday Palestinian Legislative Council (PLC) member Issa Ahmad 'Abd al-Hamid Qaraqi, the prisoners' committee's rapporteur of the prisoners' committee in the PLC told Ma'an that more than 250 prisoners were injured, some of them seriously. He said that "the brutal suppression reached eight prison compounds, and special Israeli forces chained the prisoners and attacked them."

Qaraqi said that some of the wounded had not yet been evacuated to hospitals. He reported that prisoners sustained broken legs, as well as chest, eye, and head injuries.

Acording to Qaraqi', the aggression lasted from midnight to 5am.

Israeli soldiers carry out “Nazi repression” against Prisoners at Kitziot

PIC, [ 22/10/2007 - 04:36 PM ]

From Khalid Amayreh in Occupied East Jerusalem

Crack Israeli soldiers on Monday ganged up on hundreds of helpless Palestinian detainees, beating them with plastic clubs and rifle butts, and showering them with rubber-coated bullets and tear-gas grenades, causing several critical injuries among the detainees.

The “Gestapo-like assault,” using the words of one of the detainees, occurred early Monday at the notorious Kitziot detention camp in the heart of the Naqab (Negev) desert where 2300 Palestinian political prisoners are detained in extremely harsh conditions.

Many of the detainees are held without charge or trial, mainly as a punishment for their political opposition to the Israeli occupation and its apartheid regime in the occupied territories.

According to Abu Muhammed, a detainee at the camp, hundreds of Israeli soldiers from the Nachshon unit, which is specialized in repressing prisoners, stormed the detention wards and assaulted the sleeping detainees, using plastic clubs, live ammunition, tear-gas and stun grenades, causing various bodily injuries to as many as 52 detainees.

At least 9 prisoners sustained serious injuries, with one detainee, identified as Muhammed Sati al Ashqar, being in serious conditions.

According to Abu Muhammed, the more seriously injured were transferred to the Soroka Hospital in Beer Sheva. No word has been reported on their conditions.

Following the brutal assault, as many as 1200 detainees were hand-cuffed and leg-fettered without any explanation.

Another detainee said detainees lost their belongings and cloths and tents which were gutted by fire started as a result of the explosions of stun grenades.

In a terse statement, the Israeli Prison Authority said the brutal repression of the detainees was in reaction to the prisoners’ refusal to allow prison guards to carry out a midnight raid during which the detainees are subjected to humiliating frisking and stripping of clothes.

Palestinian officials in Gaza and the West Bank called on the international community to condemn the “Israel’s Nazi practices against our prisoners,” carried out in violation of the most basic human values and international norms.

According to Isam Bakr, Secretary of the Supreme Council for the Defense of Palestinian Prisoners in Israeli jails, at least one detainee was a in a life-threatening situation.

“He was subjected to brutal beating and he is likely to be in a life-threatening condition.”

Bakr said the brutal assault on prisoners was indiscriminate and targeted prisoners from all political orientations, including Fatah and Hamas.

Bakr said protests would be organized tomorrow (Tuesday) in Ramallah and other parts of the occupied territories against the “criminal assault on our prisoners and detainees.”

Note: There has been a report that Muhammed Sati Ashgar is clinically dead, due to a severe brain hemorrhage resulting from beating on the head.

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