Field Update

16 March 2010


On Sunday, 14 March 2010, unknown gunmen kidnapped Salah Mohammed al-Masri, 38, in Gaza city. They led him to an unknown destination and violently beat him.

According to investigations conducted by the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights (PCHR), at approximately 21:30 on Sunday, 14 March 2010, Salah al-Masri, an n employee in the Palestinian National Authority, was in a shop near his house in al-‘Oyoun Street in al-Nasser neighborhood in the north of Gaza city. In the meanwhile, a Golf car stopped, an three masked gunmen stepped down from it. At gunpoint, the gunmen forced al-Masri to get into the car. They blindfolded him with his sweater and drove him to an unknown destination. Al-Masri told PCHR that the gunmen took him into a building in an area that he does not know and questioned him about his relationship with the government in Ramallah. They tied his hands behind his back and forced him sit in a painful position, known as “Shabeh.”[1] They then violently beat him. They questioned him for several hours. During questioning, the beat him with an iron chain on his head and they tortured him with electrical shocks to his feet. At midnight, they drove him to the currency market in the east of Gaza city. They left him there and drove away. Al-Masri asked for help from locals who drove him to his house at approximately 01:30 am. On Monday morning, al-Mari went to the police station in Sheikh Radwan neighborhood and filed a complaint.

PCHR notes with grave concern the recent recurrence of similar attacks and demands the government in Gaza to take serious action in order to confront such attacks. During the last three weeks, PCHR documented two similar attacks in Rafah and in Deir al-Balah town in the southern and central Gaza Strip respectively. In Rafah, Hammad Mohammed Abu Jazar, 42, was kidnapped and tortured by masked gunmen. According to Abu Jazar, on Saturday evening, 13 March 2010, a Hyundai car intercepted him while on his way to his house in al-Brazil neighborhood in Rafah. Two gunmen in civil clothes stepped down from the car and forced Abu Jazar to get into the car at gunpoint. They drove him to an unknown destination. Abu Jazar stated that the gunmen who were in the car beat him with their hands and gun butts throughout his body. They accused him of insulting Mohammed Shamali, a member of the Izziddin al-Qassam Brigades (the armed wing of Hamas, who was killed on 14 August 2009 in armed clashes that took place in the vicinity of Ibn Taymeya Mosque. Fifteen minutes later, the gunmen dumped him near the border area. Abu Jazar then called one of his friends who came and transferred him to the hospital for medical treatment.

On 02 March, Yousef Fu’ad al-Ma’ni, 21, from Deir al-Balah, was kidnapped and tortured by unknown gunmen. According to statements given by al-Ma’ni to PCHR, he was tortured by unknown persons who pressurized him to sign and fingerprint documents that he does not know what they were for. They then drove him to an unknown destination, hit him on his head with a sharp tool and dumped him in the street. A local transferred him to the hospital for medical treatment. According to his father, Fu’ad al-Ma’ni, 46, Yousef disappeared on 28 February. His family looked for him in police stations and hospitals. At midnight on 02 March, his father received a phone call, in which he was told that Yousef was in Shifa Hospital. The father added that his son does not have any problem with anyone; he just recently disputed with someone in Palestine Technical College in Deir al-Balah.

In view of the above, PCHR:

1. Notes with grave concerns the recurrence of such incidents which are part of the state of security chaos and attacks on the rule of law plaguing the OPT.

2. Calls upon the Ministry of Interior to assume its responsibilities and prosecute perpetrators in order to protect the lives of civilians.

3. Strongly condemns such illegal attacks committed by unknown gunmen, regardless of motives. PCHR reiterates that law enforcement authorities are the only body that is competent to deal with civilians.

[1] Shabeh entails shackling a person’s hands and legs to a small chair, angled to slant forward so that the he cannot sit in a stable position.