Palestinians protest against Israel over tortured detainee
Israeli forces attack activists demonstrating in front of Hadassah hospital demanding release of tortured prisoner Samer Arbid
JERUSALEM, (WAFA) — Israeli forces attacked Tuesday evening activists demonstrating in front of Hadassah hospital in Israel, demanding the release of prisoner Samer Arbid who was admitted there after suffering a serious health deterioration due to torture and ill-treatment during interrogations.
Israeli forces physically attacked demonstrators and arrested two people after brutally beating them up.
Dozens of activists demonstrated in front of the hospital to demand the release of Samir Arbid, who was detained on September 25 and was subjected to torture and ill-treatment during interrogations, causing him pulmonary hemorrhage, several broken ribs and marks all over his body, and a severe kidney failure.
Activists demanded providing Arabid with real medical treatment and the prosecution of all investigators who attacked him during interrogations.
Earlier today, several Palestinians suffocated during clashes that broke out with Israeli forces at the Israeli checkpoint known as the DCO, near the northern entrance to al-Bireh city in Ramallah, said local sources.
Dozens of Birzeit university students demonstrated in solidarity with Palestinian prisoners, particularly prisoner Samer Arbid, 44, who was referred to Hadassah Hospital in Jerusalem due to the serious deterioration of his health condition while being interrogated by the Israeli Security Agency (Shin Bet) in the Moscovia Prison in occupied Jerusalem.
Israeli forces fired rubber-coated steel bullets, stun grenades, and tear as canisters against demonstrators, causing several suffocation cases among them due to tear gas inhalation.
RAMALLAH, West Bank (Reuters) — Palestinians protested in Jerusalem and the occupied West Bank on Tuesday after a detainee suspected of killing an Israeli teenager in a bomb attack was hospitalized during interrogation by Israeli forces.
In the West Bank city of Ramallah, 300 protesters burned tyres and hurled stones at Israeli troops who took up positions in fields nearby.
As masked demonstrators blocked roads, the troops responded with tear gas, sound bombs and jets of foul-smelling water in clashes that lasted about three hours.
Around 50 Palestinians demonstrated in Jerusalem before police dispersed the protest and detained three people, a Reuters photographer said.
The protests follow the arrest, detention and later hospitalization of Samer al-Arbid, a suspect in a deadly bombing attack in the West Bank in August.
Al-Arbid, 44, has been held since September 25 on suspicion of orchestrating and carrying out the attack which killed a 17-year-old Israeli girl while she was on a hike with her family near an Israeli settlement.
Palestinian officials have accused the Israeli authorities of torturing al-Arbid during questioning.
Arbid’s lawyer, Mahmoud Hassan, told Reuters by telephone that he had been to a Jerusalem hospital on Monday to see his client.
Hassan said al-Arbid was in critical condition “as a result of the severe torture he endured during a lengthy interrogation as a suspect in the bombing.”
A hospital spokeswoman declined to comment on al-Arbid’s condition and referred further questions to the Shin Bet, which said that the investigation was still underway and that it would therefore provide no further details.
