Palestinian detainee assaulted, tortured in Israeli detention: Rights groups

RAMALLAH, Palestine / ISTANBUL

A Palestinian detainee from Bethlehem is in critical condition after being assaulted and tortured in Israeli detention, two rights groups said on Sunday.

Mahmoud al-Wardian, 48, “was subjected to torture inside interrogation cells in Israeli prisons before his release in a critical condition,” the Commission of Detainees Affairs and the Palestinian Prisoner Society said in a joint statement.

Israeli forces arrested al-Wardian on Aug. 18 from his home in Bethlehem and transferred him to Ofer Prison, west of Ramallah, for interrogation, while denying him access to his lawyer, the statement added.

On Aug. 25, he was moved from Ofer to Israel’s Hadassah Hospital in serious condition, unconscious and admitted to intensive care. He had no prior health problems before his arrest, the groups said.

According to the statement, a sudden decision on Sept. 11 ordered his release because of the severity of his condition. He was immediately transferred to the intensive care unit at the Bethlehem Arab Society for Rehabilitation, where he remains in critical condition.

Medical reports from the hospital after his release said al-Wardian suffered brain damage caused by acute oxygen deprivation, bilateral rib fractures, bruises and marks around his neck, and superficial wounds on his wrists and left hand, as well as bruises on his right knee, lower left leg and right ear, the groups said.

The two organizations said the circumstances of al-Wardian’s arrest and detention showed Israel “committed a compounded crime,” beginning with his arrest, denial of legal counsel, and repeated extensions of his detention under the pretext of interrogation, leading to “his torture and liquidation.”

They held Israeli authorities fully responsible for a crime that “is added to a long record of grave violations committed for decades, reaching a peak with the current war of genocide (in Gaza).”

Human rights groups have repeatedly warned that Palestinian detainees face severe torture and abuses in Israeli prisons, including starvation and denial of medical care, threatening their lives.

Since the start of Israel’s genocidal war that has killed nearly 65,000 people in Gaza since October 2023, at least 1,021 Palestinians have been killed and more than 7,000 injured in the occupied West Bank by Israeli forces and illegal settlers, according to the Palestinian Health Ministry.

In a landmark opinion last July, the International Court of Justice declared Israel’s occupation of Palestinian territory illegal. It demanded the evacuation of all settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem.