Israel abused Hamas officials

Hamas officials who were detained by Israel in the occupied West Bank accuse their Israeli jailers of abusing them, the BBC reported.

Three top Hamas officials, who were freed this week after two months’ detention, said they were abused and maltreated at the hands of Israeli interrogators and complained of poor living conditions in detention.

Wasfi Kabha, Palestinian Minister for Prisoners' Affairs, told the Associated Press news agency that he had been released because there was no evidence to back Israeli claims that he belonged to a “terrorist organization”.

"I spent 11 days under heavy interrogation," he said by telephone from the West Bank town of Jenin.

"They would take me at 0500 in the morning, hands and legs cuffed, and place me in a chair without a back until 1700.

"The only rest I got was during the sirens when Hezbollah launched rockets at Israel. They would take me down into a cell underground and they would leave to take shelter somewhere in the jail."

Mr Kabha added that his cell was a “small place with four dirty mattresses on the ground and with two very dirty and old blankets".

Hasan Khurayshah, a deputy speaker in the Palestinian parliament, and Palestinian Finance Minister Omar Abdal Razeq also said that they were abused in Israeli jails.

"Everybody was treated in the same bad way," Khurayshah said.

"They bound our legs and hands to a chair and put blindfolds so we could not see anything. There was very little water and food and they were unfit for human consumption. The jailers were cursing and insulting us."

Israel arrested more than 64 Hamas cabinet ministers, lawmakers and activists in the West Bank and East Jerusalem to pressure the Hamas-led Palestinian government, whose armed wing is part of three other resistance groups who captured an Israeli soldier on June 25.

Israel has launched a deadly offensive in the Gaza Strip in the wake of the soldiers' capture.

The brutal military campaign has so far killed more than 126 Palestinians, mostly civilians.