Israeli officers have been displeased when Mohammed Nazal, an 18-year-old Palestinian, described his ordeal in Israeli prisons after being launched as a part of a truce agreement with Hamas final week.
{The teenager} from the city of Qabatiya within the occupied West Financial institution informed Arab and Western media how he was crushed and denied medical help, however this was refuted by Israeli authorities who tried to color him as a liar.
His testimonies and medical data have now been verified by a fact-checking company, offering additional proof of the brutal mistreatment Palestinians endure in Israeli prisons that has solely exacerbated for the reason that Israel-Hamas battle started on October 7.
What’s Nazal saying?
Arrested in August and held with out cost, Nazal was amongst greater than 100 Palestinians saved in Israeli prisons – many arbitrarily – and launched as a part of a weeklong truce that ended on Friday.
After his launch, he was interviewed by numerous information shops, together with Al Jazeera, to discuss his time in Israeli prison. He stated jail guards grew considerably extra violent after the battle began.
“He kept beating me for eight minutes with a stick and without caring where it lands,” he informed Al Jazeera of how an Israeli guard tortured him.
“I was covering my head. The stick was aimed here, at my head, but my hands would receive the blow.”
Photos of Nazal with each palms held up by bandages – and his account of the ordeal – went viral. He stated each palms suffered fractures and a number of other fingers on each palms have been damaged. He might have surgical procedures on his street to restoration.
Nazal stated he was “in pain on the floor for a week” in jail after the beatings, however was provided no medical help earlier than his launch was secured in a hostage trade.
What’s Israel saying?
Nazal was solely in a position to speak about his experiences after he was united along with his household by the Pink Cross.
However after his account bought out, Israeli officers sprang to motion.
Ofir Gendelman, a media official in Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s workplace, launched a video that confirmed Nazal didn’t have his palms bandaged when boarding a Pink Cross bus.
That, he stated, meant that his palms “were fine”. And he claimed this exhibits how Palestinians lie about what occurs in Israeli prisons.
That is whereas Israel’s propaganda tactics and unfounded claims have been repeatedly laid naked publicly greater than ever throughout the battle.
PS. Mohammed Nazal is eighteen years outdated in response to Israeli data.
His date of start was incorrectly entered on the hospital’s emergency division as January 1, 2004 (seemingly a default), however the ID quantity is identical as his ID in Israeli data. pic.twitter.com/n7qsZWT94W
— Muhammad Shehada (@muhammadshehad2) November 29, 2023
Is there any proof?
So, is there any proof of the “war zone” Nazal skilled in Israeli prisons, the place Palestinians are stated to be residing in inhumane situations?
The younger man is not the first Palestinian to come forward with such accounts. Most of the Palestinians who have been launched this week introduced the media with comparable accounts of torture, beatings and humiliation.
Practices in Israeli prisons have been completely documented over a very long time, as they have been ongoing for decades, ever since its occupation of Palestinian territories started in 1967, and even earlier than, throughout the British management of the territory.
However Nazal has proof as properly. Arab fact-checking platform Misbar analysed medical data issued by Nazal’s medical doctors on the day of his launch. The data point out that he had fractures on the metacarpal bones – the flat bones in the back of the hand.
Misbar additionally printed X-rays of {the teenager}’s palms, taken on the day of his launch on November 28. Additionally they confirmed a number of fractures, corresponding with outcomes discovered by a medical centre in Ramallah. Images of Nazal after launch additionally confirmed how he displayed appreciable indicators of bruising on his again.
{The teenager}’s medical data have been additionally examined and verified by media shops, together with the BBC.
#Misbar investigated the claims made by Israeli accounts relating to the video footage exhibiting #Mohammed_Nazzal leaving the jail and boarding the Pink Cross bus after his launch.
Extra particulars: https://t.co/uubnouGdnh pic.twitter.com/M2KBc2ayUa
— Misbar (@misbar_en) November 29, 2023
What else is going on in Israeli prisons?
Like hundreds of different Palestinians, Nazal was held below “administrative detention”.
It’s a follow, supported by Israeli legislation, that enables Palestinians to be jailed for six months with out cost or trial. That point span will be repeatedly prolonged for an indefinite interval.
Along with the bodily abuse, rights teams have reported that the Israel Jail Service has taken different measures towards Palestinian prisoners for the reason that begin of the battle.
It has reportedly restricted entry to water, meals, medical care and communal gadgets for prisoners, and has restricted or fully stopped household and lawyer visits.
It has additionally allowed prisoners to be placed on mattresses on jail flooring to allow already overcrowded prisons to soak up extra inmates.
Little one inmates have additionally been documented to expertise the identical dire situations as adults, and plenty of of them undergo Israeli navy courts.
