{"id":1038704,"date":"2026-09-02T10:58:12","date_gmt":"2026-09-02T10:58:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/1038704\/"},"modified":"2026-09-02T10:58:12","modified_gmt":"2026-09-02T10:58:12","slug":"ips-personnel-indicted-for-alleged-2023-assault-of-nine-prisoners-one-death","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/1038704\/","title":{"rendered":"IPS personnel indicted for alleged 2023 assault of nine prisoners, one death"},"content":{"rendered":"

The prosecution indicted 12 Israel Prison Service personnel on Tuesday over the death of security prisoner Thaer Abu Asab and the alleged assault of eight other inmates at Ketziot Prison in November 2023<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The indictment, filed with the Beersheba District Court, charges all 12 with reckless homicide, aggravated serious bodily harm, and multiple counts of aggravated assault causing bodily harm. The shift commander and shift sergeant are also charged with obstructing an investigation.<\/p>\n

The filing moves a case that began with the questioning of 19 prison personnel nearly three years ago into formal criminal proceedings.<\/p>\n

According to the indictment, the shift commander had earlier shared with some of the defendants his distress over the deaths of Druze soldiers in battle<\/a>. Later that afternoon, Abu Asab, who was being held with eight other security prisoners, asked the shift sergeant whether there was a \u201chudna,\u201d or ceasefire, in the war. The sergeant relayed the question to the commander.<\/p>\n

Before the evening count, the commander allegedly told the personnel taking part that they would depart from the normal procedure and enter the cell to show the prisoners that there was no ceasefire.<\/p>\n

\"Illustrative:Illustrative: Palestinian prisoners wait to be released from Ketziot prison, southern Israel, October 1, 2007. (credit: RONEN ZVULUN\/REUTERS)<\/p>\n

The indictment alleges that the commander told the group he would take responsibility for whatever happened and said prison management was aware of what was taking place. He also allegedly warned female officers attending the briefing not to enter the cell so that they would not be hurt.<\/p>\n

Prison commander, personnel accused of attacking prisoners with batons<\/strong><\/p>\n

Shortly after 7 p.m., the commander led the group to the cell and began the count. Prosecutors allege that he then ordered the other defendants inside, where they jointly attacked Abu Asab and the eight other prisoners with punches and kicks. Some allegedly used batons.<\/p>\n

The commander is accused of directing the assault from inside the cell and personally striking at least one prisoner. After several minutes, he ordered the group to stop, according to the indictment.<\/p>\n

None of the defendants reported the alleged assault or recorded any unusual incident during the count, prosecutors said.<\/p>\n

Abu Asab collapsed and lost consciousness shortly after the group left. Other prisoners called for help, and medical staff took him to the prison clinic without a pulse or signs of breathing. He was resuscitated and transferred to Soroka Medical Center in Beersheba<\/a>, where he was pronounced dead at 10:22 p.m.<\/p>\n

Prosecutors attribute his death directly to the beating. The indictment says he suffered multiple broken ribs and tears in the walls of his heart, causing cardiac failure and bleeding around the organ. His broken ribs also damaged his respiratory system and prevented his lungs from expanding properly.<\/p>\n

The combined cardiac and respiratory injuries ultimately caused his death, according to the prosecution. The other prisoners suffered bruising and injuries to their backs, arms, shoulders, and other parts of their bodies.<\/p>\n

Early reports following Abu Asab\u2019s death said an autopsy had found extensive signs of violence but had not conclusively established that he died from the blows. The indictment now presents a specific medical account connecting the alleged assault to his death.<\/p>\n

Female IPS officers allegedly instructed to lie to investigators<\/strong><\/p>\n

The second charge concerns what prosecutors describe as attempts to interfere with the subsequent police investigation.<\/p>\n

The shift sergeant allegedly instructed one of the defendants, before he was questioned, to tell investigators that no batons had been used.<\/p>\n

The shift commander is accused of contacting another prison officer after his own questioning and asking him to relay instructions to female officers who had not yet been interviewed. They were allegedly told to say that the defendants entered the cell only after the prisoners caused a disturbance and that any force used was part of a legitimate attempt to regain control.<\/p>\n

One of the officers initially gave investigators a false account but later admitted that she had lied and provided her version of the incident, according to the indictment.<\/p>\n

Abu Asab, 38, was a Fatah member from the Kalkilya area who had been imprisoned since 2005 following convictions for attempted murder and other security offenses.<\/p>\n

The IPS said the incident occurred under the previous prison commissioner. It added that the current commissioner had ended the service of some of those involved after taking office, saying the organization would not tolerate breaches of the law or its disciplinary rules<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The prosecution indicted 12 Israel Prison Service personnel on Tuesday over the death of security prisoner Thaer Abu…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":1038705,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[2],"tags":[10762,4446,17257,99,415561,94155,50,94154,148625],"class_list":["post-1038704","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news","tag-assault","tag-death","tag-indictment","tag-israel","tag-israel-prison","tag-israel-prison-service","tag-news","tag-palestinian-prisoners","tag-security-prisoners"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1038704","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1038704"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1038704\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1038705"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1038704"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1038704"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1038704"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}