Methods include slapping the head "to hurt sensitive organs like the nose, ears, brow and lips", forcing a handcuffed individual to squat against a wall for long periods of time, and placing the suspect bent backwards over a chair with his arms and legs cuffed.
The interrogators' accounts echo what Palestinians and Israeli human rights groups have long documented. Prisoners' rights NGO Addameer said that such practices "are known to be routinely and systematically used against Palestinian detainees". Other torture methods used against Palestinians include sleep deprivation and threats against family members, an Addameer spokesperson told Al Jazeera. [...]
In its annual report last year, Amnesty International found that Israeli forces and Shin Bet personnel had "tortured and otherwise ill-treated Palestinian detainees, including children, particularly during arrest and interrogation", with methods including "beating with batons, slapping, throttling, prolonged shackling, stress positions, sleep deprivation and threats".
A representative of Defence for Children International - Palestine told Al Jazeera that the group's research had shown that almost two-thirds of Palestinian children detained in the occupied West Bank by Israeli forces had endured physical violence after their arrest. [...]
In the military court system, which has a 99 percent conviction rate, Palestinians can be held for 60 days without access to a lawyer - compared with the United States, where the average length of interrogations producing false confessions is 16 hours.
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