RAMALLAH, January 3, 2018 (WAFA) – Omar Zuhour, from Beit Kahil village near Hebron, was only 14 years old when he was detained by Israeli soldiers who hit him on the head and knees with their bullet case, kicked him all over his body and then kept him handcuffed and blindfolded in an open and cold area for one hour before he was taken to an interrogation room at a detention center in the illegal Etzion settlement north of Hebron.

This testimony from Zuhour was given to the Prisoners’ Commission and was distributed on Wednesday in a statement on the torture of Palestinians in Israeli detention and interrogation centers.

Zuhour also spoke of interrogators yelling at him, cursing and slapping him on the face during interrogation to get him to admit to charges they claim he has committed before he was transferred to the minors division at Ofer prison and military camp near Ramallah.

Another minor, Abdul Khaleq Burnat, 17, from Bilin in the Ramallah district, told his lawyer Loui Okkeh that he was severely beaten all over his body before he was ordered to remove all his cloths and then thrown on ground covered with thorns and stones causing him injuries all over his body. He was also kicked before he was handcuffed, blindfolded and taken to a detention center for interrogation.

Burnat was  held for several hours during which he was denied food and water or to go the toilets before he was transferred to Ofer camp.

Three brothers from Aida refugee camp in Bethlehem also reported how they were brutally dragged from their home after Israeli soldiers have raided their family home and ransacked it destroying everything in it.

Others also gave similar testimonies of severe beating during interrogation at the Etzion settlement detention center, according to the Prisoners’ Commission report.

M.K.