According to a report by the newspaper Haaretz, phone messages included in an Israeli investigation file into the death of Palestinian prisoner Sair Samih Abu Asab in prison in November 2023 revealed part of the horror of what happened.
The messages entered into the investigation file showed not only that Abu Asab was beaten to death in a brutal manner, but also that violence against prisoners in the cells had "become a policy of management."
It was determined that guards, who shared Abu Asab's death with one another in messages such as "My love just died" and "Hopefully he dies," also admitted on different dates that they beat newly arrived detainees "until their kidneys burst" and raided cells where prisoners were praying.
Female guard Oshrit Eliga wrote to her boyfriend, who is also a guard:
— "You'll be proud of me and my shift. After what happened, the count took 2 hours and 23 minutes. You can figure out the rest. Right now they're doing CPR in the clinic, my love!"
She also used profanity and insulting language.
Another guard excitedly sent an update, saying:
— "Damn, what a count that was. We really beat them badly."
A third guard sent the following message to a friend:
— "What a crazy count it was. Nothing like this has ever been seen. We poured cheese on them, cracked a few eggs. There was blood flowing through the cells. Oh my God, they're performing CPR because we beat a prisoner. He died. Listen, it's so funny how everything happened all at once. Boom, count. Boom, dead prisoner."
The prisoner being referred to here was Abu Asab, affiliated with the Fatah movement, who had been sentenced to 25 years in prison and had been detained from 2005 until the day he was killed.
It was announced that Abu Asab died that evening at the hospital to which he had been transferred. According to the indictment, the severe beating he endured caused damage to his heart, resulting in his death.
About three years after Abu Asab's death, prosecutors last week prepared an indictment against 12 guards serving in the Israeli Prison Service.
According to the report, the guards are accused of beating Abu Asab and eight other Palestinian prisoners in the cell in retaliation for the reported killing of Druze soldiers in the war. It later emerged that the information about the Druze soldiers' deaths was not true.
Since Oct. 7, 2023, the Israeli Prison Service has repeatedly faced allegations of severe violence and mistreatment against Palestinian prisoners.
However, it is said that the difficulties prisoners face in filing complaints, and above all the guards' "stubborn silence and tendency to protect one another," have made it extremely difficult for cases to reach court. This time, however, the guards' messages and statements blaming one another during questioning were said to provide key evidence that broke the wall of silence.
The investigation files that have come to light offer a rare glimpse into the severe violence that guards had made routine against Palestinian prisoners.
The documents also exposed evidence that senior officials covered up and ignored these acts. At least one witness claimed that Ketziot Prison Commander Brig. Gen. Yosef Knipes was involved in the incident. Knipes denied the allegation.
Haaretz said Abu Asab's only "offense" was daring to ask a guard whether there had been a ceasefire between Israel and the Palestinians.
A prisoner who spoke to investigators described what happened as follows:
— "Asab asked the guard about a ceasefire, and the guard told him, 'You'd better not ask.' We waited for the count. During the count, we kneel with our hands over our heads and our faces looking at the ground. Fifteen guards and 15 security personnel came. They called Sair's name and the Keter unit entered the cell. They beat everyone in the room with batons for five minutes. They said, 'There is no ceasefire.' Then they set the dog on us. Swearing, they said, 'Ceasefire, huh? So you want a ceasefire too,' and then they left. We were lying on the ground broken. Asab couldn't get up. He was unconscious. He got the worst beating. He was bleeding and his whole face was bruised. His hands were covered in blood."
Another prisoner continued:
— "I didn't know who was security personnel, who was an officer, who was a guard. Then someone shouted, 'Who said ceasefire? Do you want a ceasefire?' Because of the question he had asked in the afternoon, I understood it was about Asab. All I heard were screams and blows. Everyone was beaten. Asab got the worst of it. He was struck on the head, his face was bruised, and there were signs of beating on his arms. He was unresponsive."
According to the report, the guards' statements during interrogation also supported the prisoners' testimonies.
Guard Avia Arusi said in her testimony:
— "The commander and another guard asked everyone in the cell who had asked about the ceasefire. Then the guard pointed and said, 'Was it you?' The commander was right beside him, then both of them asked. The prisoner was frightened and stuttered. Then they started beating him like crazy."
Guard Diana Troitsky told investigators:
— "We understood that we had to beat them so they would understand there was no ceasefire. The commander said that whatever happened that night was his responsibility, that he had the approval of the shift supervisor and the prison commander, and that everyone knew what was going to happen. He said we shouldn't be afraid and should do whatever he said. 'If there's one thing I was taught at home, it's violence against this scum. I was raised with these values and I'll go all the way. I don't care even if I have to hand over my badge.'"
Messages sent that evening by female guard Avia Arusi to her boyfriend also showed that the violence was not an isolated incident.
Confirming that the guards were "happy" about Abu Asab's death, Arusi wrote:
— "We're only worried about our commander because he's a great man. For example, yesterday during my shift, three cells were praying intensely; they were testing us because they saw we had eased the beatings a little. They even tried to pray out loud. In the morning, we went in and made them cry for their mothers."
Haaretz noted that because it was impossible to prove which guards delivered the fatal blows, prosecutors chose to charge the 12 guards who entered Abu Asab's cell with the relatively lesser offense of causing death by negligence.
The female guards waiting at the cell door were questioned as suspects, but no indictment was prepared against them.
It was reported that some of the defendants lied during questioning, at times claiming that it was a routine operation aimed at controlling prisoners.
One prison security guard who was put on trial said in his statement:
— "There was nothing unusual. I don't think any of us used force; we go in, establish control and leave."
A member of the prison security force said of what happened in Asab's cell:
— "It was kind of routine, so we didn't report the incident to anyone. From the perspective of senior commanders, it was perfectly fine. That was the policy."
After Asab was killed, one guard wrote to a friend:
— "News of a prisoner's death is about to reach the press. He died when we went in. There was serious beating going on, but this is WhatsApp, you can't explain it here."
Female guard Eliga wrote to her boyfriend Tamer Tarudi, a guard in the women's security prisoners' wing at Damon Prison, after Asab's death:
— "My love, latest update, he just died."
Eliga added that she was "very happy and satisfied" but that things were now getting chaotic, that "a lot of blood had been spilled" and that "they had broken the prisoners."
She continued:
— "It'll be fine. I'm glad it happened. I'm willing to risk my career for this. My conscience is very clear. All of ours are. The commander knew something like this would happen. He told us this in the briefing and asked anyone who felt they couldn't do it to speak up because he really wanted to break them. I'm really fine, but you know, investigations and all that nonsense."
