Ashqar Tells Shihab the Details of the Assault on Detainee Hassan Salama and His Injury by Several Bullets

The head of the Palestine Center for Prisoner Studies, Riyad Ashqar, said that detainee Hassan Salama is being subjected to a slow liquidation inside the occupation's prisons, through repeated assaults and abuse, as part of a retaliatory policy carried out under direct instructions from the extremist Ben Gvir.

In an exclusive statement to the Shihab Agency, Ashqar explained that the most dangerous assault on Salama took place after Ben Gvir's visit to him, during which he documented a video clip that he later broadcast on 13/9, when special units affiliated with the prison administration stormed his cell as soon as he left, threw him to the ground, assaulted him with beatings and sprayed gas, and also fired pepper spray directly at him, causing him to be hit by several bullets, not live ammunition.

He added that the detainee, despite his injury, was left inside the cell without receiving any treatment or medical care from the prison administration, and was only given a medical examination several days after the incident, without receiving the necessary treatment.

Ashqar noted that Salama was subjected to ten suppression and storming operations inside the prison within 40 days since the assault on him, as part of the ongoing policy of abuse against him. He warned that the occupation may have decided to get rid of detainee Salama by intensifying the operations of suppression, abuse and beating and firing gas, rubber bullets and pepper spray directly at him.

He explained that the occupation has held detainee Salama in isolation for more than 13 years, in an attempt to harm him psychologically and physically, and during those years he was subjected to dozens of suppression, beating and abuse operations, but they failed to achieve the occupation's goals of turning him into an exhausted body without spirit or mind.

Ashqar called for international intervention to protect detainee Salama from the occupation's attempts to kill and harm him, and to pressure it to end his isolation and treat him in a humane manner consistent with international covenants and treaties.

He also called for the protection of thousands of detainees from the occupation's crimes that are committed against them on a daily basis, which has compounded their suffering and turned their lives into hell, amid the continuation of policies of suppression, starvation, torture and medical neglect.