“Israeli Prison Authorities attack detained Hamas leader and 16 other detainees”

Adnan Asfour

5 September 2007

The Media Office of Hamas movement issued a press release on Monday stating that the Israeli Prison Authorities, and soldiers, in Majiddo Israeli Prison, attacked the detained member of Hamas political Bureau, Adnan Asfour, 43, and sixteen other detainees, mainly supporters of the movement.

The movement stated that the Prison Authorities transferred 10 detainees to other branches of the detention facility after accusing them of holding “education seminars” in the prison.

Several detained Hamas legislators are imprisoned by Israel in Majiddo.

Hamas stated that the head of the Prison Intelligence Service, Yitzhak Gabai, saw that Asfour and the other detained Hamas legislators are holding educational seminars in the facility and ordered the army to break into it, and stop the activity.

Gabai ordered the transfer of Asfour and sixteen other detainees to other branches of the facility and told them that “they are a group of terrorists that cannot be allowed to hold gatherings and seminars”.

It is worth mentioning that Asfour suffers various health problems, including prostate and respiratory issues, and deprived from his medication rights.

He was kidnapped by the army on June 29, 2006, along with dozens of Hamas legislators and officials after resistance fighters captured an Israeli soldier in a cross-border raid against an Israeli military base near the Gaza borders. Two soldiers and two fighters were killed in the attack, and Israeli corporal Gilad Shalit was captured by the fighters.

Asfour was arrested 17 times by the Israeli forces, and was arrested and imprisoned for three years by the Palestinians Authority.