JERUSALEM: An NGO accused Israeli security forces Sunday of torturing a Palestinian arrested on suspicion of leading a cell allegedly behind a West Bank bomb attack that killed an Israeli teenager.
Israeli police and the Shin Bet domestic security agency said late Saturday they had arrested three members of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine several weeks ago for the August 23 bombing.
The explosion near a spring close to the Jewish settlement of Dolev, northeast of Ramallah in the occupied West Bank, killed 17-year-old Rina Shnerb and wounded her father and brother.
Shin Bet identified the cell leader as Samer al Arbeed. It said the cell “was preparing other attacks when the arrests occurred, notably gun attacks and a kidnapping.”
On Sunday, Palestinian prisoner support group Addameer said that Arbeed was hospitalized after suffering a “serious health deterioration due to torture and ill-treatment during interrogations.”
According to a statement by Addameer, Arbeed was “harshly beaten” by the Israeli police who arrested him.
Shin Bet investigators “continued using torture and ill-treatment,” the NGO alleged.
Arbeed suffered several broken ribs as well as “severe kidney failure,” according to his lawyer, cited by Addameer.
Both Shin Bet and Addameer gave Arbeed’s age as 44.
Police refused to comment on the nature of Arbeed’s arrest, while the Shin Bet said that during his interrogation he said “he did not feel well.”
“In accordance with procedures, he was transferred to medical examination and care at a hospital,” the security agency said in a statement.
Shin Bet refused to provide further details since “the investigation of the terror cell was still ongoing.”
Following Addameer’s statement, Palestinian health minister Mai Al-Kaila appealed to international organizations to “intervene to save the prisoner.”
The Palestinian Prisoners Club called the incident “a crime authorized (by the Israeli) judiciary.”

ISTANBUL: Turkey’s air force on Sunday shot down an unidentified drone on the Syrian border after it breached Turkish air space six times, the defense ministry said.
“An unmanned aerial vehicle which violated our air space six times (on Saturday)… was downed by two of our F-16s which took off from Incirlik” air base in southern Turkey, the defense ministry said, sharing pictures of the downed drone.
The ministry said it was not known who the drone belonged to but said it was grounded at 1.24 p.m. local time.
“The wreck of the drone was found at the Cildiroba base” by the Turkish gendarmerie in the Kilis province near the Syrian border, the ministry said.
The Turkish air force shot down a Russian Su-24, aircraft, in the Turkey-Syria border area in 2015, sparking an unprecedented crisis in the two countries’ relations.
That was condemned by Russian President Vladimir Putin as a “stab in the back” but the two countries later reconciled and worked together on the Syrian crisis although they remain on opposite sides of the conflict.
Turkey backs rebels seeking the ouster of President Bashar Assad while Moscow is one of the few remaining allies of the regime in Damascus.
 

CAIRO: The case of a four-year-old girl tortured to death by her grandmother has triggered widespread anger in Egypt.

Reports said Jana, who lived in a village in Mansoura province, died on Saturday, days after she was admitted to hospital with severe burns.

The case has sparked outcry and drawn attention to the levels of child abuse in Egypt.

The police report said Jana was tortured using an iron “by her maternal grandmother” who inflicted burns on her body that led to blood poisoning, a severe drop in blood circulation and collapse of her respiratory systems, Al-Masry Al-Youm newspaper reported.

Her injuries were so severe that her leg had to be amputated three days before her death.The girl’s aunt claimed in police investigations that Jana told her that the grandmother had burnt her around the genitalia.

The grandmother, now in police custody, denies the allegations, the reports said.

Sheikh Ahmed Al-Tayeb, the Grand Imam of Al-Azhar, said he had been deeply hurt to hear of the “brutal crime committed against the innocent girl Jana.”

“What she experienced from torture and burning is a humanitarian disaster by all means.”

In response, Al-Azhar, the top Sunni Muslim authority, is launching a campaign on Mondy against child abuse and domestic violence.The awareness campaign aims to revive the importance of kindness towards children.

CAIRO: Egyptian security forces have killed 15 suspected militants in a shootout in restive north Sinai, the interior ministry said Sunday.
A militant group was “planning hostile acts targeting military and police forces…in order to destabilize national security,” the ministry said in a statement.
It did not name a specific group, but said “terrorist elements” had been hiding in a farm in El-Arish, the capital of North Sinai province.
When forces approached, “the militants shot live rounds forcing troops to deal with them (and) leading to 15 deaths.”
Graphic pictures of the bodies of the alleged militants were sent along with the Sunday press release.
Authorities also said they found a small trove of stashed weapons including an explosive belt, several rifles and an explosive device.
The ministry did not specify when the reported shootout took place, but Sunday’s announcement follows recent military operations in Sinai that authorities say killed 118 suspected militants.
Nine soldiers were killed and one wounded in those “counter-terrorism” operations, a military statement said on Friday.
President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi paid tribute to the dead personnel in a series of tweets late Friday, describing “terrorism” as a “cancer still trying to kidnap the nation.”
In February 2018, Egypt’s military launched a nationwide offensive against extremist militants, focused mainly on North Sinai, where Daesh still has a significant presence.
Some 665 suspected militants and around 60 soldiers have been killed since, according to official figures.

SANAA: A fuel shortage is deepening Yemen’s humanitarian crisis, forcing drivers to wait for days in queues that stretch back from some petrol stations as far as the eye can see.
The new shortage is just one of many problems causing suffering in the civil war being fought by the Iran-aligned Houthi movement and a Saudi-led coalition backed by the West.
But its consequences are far-reaching. Fuel is needed not just for cars but also for water pumps, hospital generators and to transport goods around a country where millions are on the brink of famine.
“It’s affecting us and all the Yemeni people,” said Nashwan Khaled, who had already been waiting for two days in a queue for petrol in Sanaa, the Houthi-controlled capital where many petrol stations have been forced to close.
“I put my job and my life on hold,” he said.
Petrol on the black market is selling for almost three times the official price. Drivers can queue for two or three days.
“Fuel shortages in Yemen exacerbate the already dire humanitarian situation in the country and lead to unacceptable levels of suffering,” said Sultana Begum, a representative of the Norwegian Refugee Council humanitarian organization.
Supplies can be held at ports and frontline borders for months because of bureaucracy on both sides, aid agencies say.
“Today we are in a very bad situation, there’s a fuel crisis and they are stopping fuel ships from entering Yemen with the excuse of security,” said Ahmed Nasser, standing at a petrol station. “We suffer shortages of fuel, goods, all commodities.”
A Djibouti-based UN inspection mechanism was set up in 2015 after the coalition accused the Houthis of smuggling Iranian weapons through Yemeni ports under their control, a charge both the group and Tehran deny.
Ships also need permission from the internationally recognized Yemeni government and the Western-backed, Sunni Muslim coalition to enter ports.
Last week, United Nations aid chief Mark Lowcock said he was concerned that imports were being further complicated by new Yemeni government regulations on commercial fuel.