RAMALLAH, December 30, 2015 (WAFA) – A human rights center has
demanded an immediate investigation into the circumstances surrounding the brutal
detention of a Palestinian boy who crossed Israel’s border fence with Gaza in
late September in search of work.
The Legal Center for Arab Minority Rights in Israel (Adalah) has
sent a letter to the Israeli government’s legal advisor and military
attorney-general demanding the opening of an immediate investigation into the
circumstances surrounding the detention of Yousef al-Tarabin.
On Thursday September 24, Israeli forces detained al-Tarabin, 16, a
resident of Sha'sha'a neighborhood, east of
Jabalia refugee camp, as he and his friend, Hani al-Sharatha, 17, crossed the
border fence between Israel and Gaza, looking for employment opportunities.
In his letter, Nadim Shehadeh, an attorney
representing Adalah, wrote that based on information collected by Gaza-based Al-Mezan
Center for Human Rights, Yousef was beaten and mistreated during detention.
Yousef informed Al-Mezan Center that he and Hani “went
to the border fence area because they wanted to smuggle into Israel to find
work. After they crossed the border fence, an Israeli force in military
vehicles appeared and surrounded them.”
“A soldier ordered them to remove all of their
clothes. A soldier stepped out of a vehicle with a dog that had a muzzle on.
When the soldier and the dog came closer to the two children, they raised their
hands in the air. The soldier removed the muzzle and let the dog attack them.
The dog attacked Yousef and bit him in his right arm. He screamed and asked for
help, but the soldiers laughed loudly. When he tried to release himself from
the dog, the dog bit his left hand. After a couple of minutes of wrestling with
the dog, a soldier approached them and pulled the dog away,” added Al-Mizan
Center in a press release about the case.
The attorney representing Adalah added that Yousef
was taken to an Israeli military installation, where he was forced to sign a
document in Hebrew, which he couldn’t read and then was held in a room for
about four hours without being offered food or water.
After undergoing a check and receiving medication,
Yousef was released at Erez crossing. When he reached the Palestinian side of
the crossing, he was taken to Gaza hospital for further medication.
The attorney enclosed with the letter medical
records outlining the medications that Yousef needed and explaining the serious
physical and psychological impacts detention and torture had on him.
“These actions constitute a flagrant violation of
international humanitarian law and Israeli law. The details recounted by
al-Tarabin are indicative of serious suspicions that Israeli soldiers utilized
prohibited methods that are tantamount to torture, inhuman and degrading
treatment,” added the attorney.
K.F./T.R.
