RAMALLAH, April 3, 2014 – (WAFA) – The Palestinian Prisoners Society reported Thursday that Israeli forces injected a Palestinian prisoner with an unknown substance while arresting him in Beit Jala in Bethlehem, said his uncle.

He said that forces, using police dogs, arrested his nephew Yousef al-Khatib, 26, after storming his uncles’ house in Beit Jala; forces used explosives to detonate the door of the house, which caused severe damages to property.

A syringe was found at the scene where Yousef was arrested, said Khaled al-Katib, Yousef’s uncle.

He added that after being injected with this unknown substance, “Yoused started to breathe heavily and lost consciousness and his face turned blue.”

He noted that the Yousef’s family initially thought that soldiers sprayed gas in his face, but later found the syringe, which confirms that Yousef was injected with an unknown substance.

Yousef, whose eyes had traces of blood, was placed on a stretcher and taken by the soldiers.

The Palestinian Prisoners Society’s Executive Director, ‘Abdullah al-Zaghari, said that the syringe would be examined by a forensic laboratory in order to identify the unknown substance.

He considered this incident as a serious precedent and stressed that Israel is fully responsible for Yousef’s life.

K.F./T.R.