Blind prisoner exposed to harsh interrogation by Israeli officers

November 23, 2009

OCCUPIED JERUSALEM, (PIC) -- The information committee of Hamas in Israeli jails revealed Monday that prisoner Obadah Bilal, who is a blind 30-year-old young man, has been exposed to harsh interrogation by Israeli officers since he was transferred a week ago to Petah Tikva interrogation center where his wife is also detained.

The committee said that after the kidnapping of Bilal’s wife last week, he was transferred from Negev prison to join his wife in Petah Tikva, where Israeli interrogators maltreated and physically assaulted him despite the fact that he cannot see.

In another incident, the Israeli occupation forces (IOF) prevented the mother of prisoner Hamza Qa’kour, an Islamic Jihad leader in Jenin, from visiting him in Shata prison and confiscated her visit permit which she obtained from the Red Cross without giving reasons.

The mother of Qa’kour said the Israeli troops also took her ID upon arrival with other Palestinian families of prisoners to Jalama military checkpoint on board a bus belonging to the Red Cross and told her that she cannot visit her son.

Different Palestinian local sources said that a large number of IOF troops invaded at dawn Monday the districts of Qalqiliya, Bethlehem and Jenin and kidnapped two Palestinian citizens.

According to the sources, the troops stormed the village of Azzun in Qalqiliya at an early hour Monday and kidnapped a Palestinian young man.

They also kidnapped another citizen in Bethlehem after breaking into and ransacking his home.

In Jenin, the Israeli troops raided the house of a Palestinian young man called Sari Sabihat in Rumana town and interrogated his family members after forcing them out without any reported kidnappings.