Occupied Jerusalem -

Secret documents of the Shin Bet security service revealed that the Israeli army committed atrocities in torturing thousands of Lebanese detainees, in the Khiam detention camp, which the Israeli army established in cooperation with the South Lebanon Army in 1985, and was closed permanently in 2000 after the Israeli withdrawal from Lebanese territory.

According to Shin Bet documents, between 250 and 300 prisoners were permanently detained in Khiam prison, who belonged to Lebanese and Palestinian parties and movements, including Hezbollah, the Amal Movement, the Communist Party, the Communist Action Organization, the Palestinian National Liberation Movement (Fatah), the Popular Front and the Democratic Front. For the liberation of Palestine, other prisoners belonging to unknown organizations were also detained.

The Shin Bet was forced to reveal archival documents documenting the conditions and suffering of detainees in Khiam prison, following a petition to the Israeli Supreme Court submitted by human rights lawyer Itai Mac, on behalf of human rights activists. The court decided to hold a hearing on the petition next April, and allowed the Shin Bet to publish Some of the documents were subjected to military censorship, according to Haaretz newspaper.

Shin Bet documents showed that the health conditions were very poor in Khiam Detention Center (Al-Jazeera)

Dictatorships' prisons

The newspaper quoted Lawyer Mac as saying that "the Israeli army and the Shin Bet, along with the South Lebanon Army, ran a detention and torture facility similar to those that were established by military dictatorships in Latin America."

He pointed out that the methods and types of torture that were practiced in the Khiam detention camp are a crime against humanity, stressing that "the documents that the Shin Bet was forced to reveal by a decision of the Supreme Court, are shocking and constitute only a simple feature of the hell practiced there."

Dalia Kerstein, former director general of the Center for the Defense of the Individual, and one of the petitioners explained that "the brutal occupation regime that Israel practiced in southern Lebanon, including the horrific torture in Khiam prison, is one of the black stains in the history of Israel."

The newspaper quoted Kerstein as saying that "the withdrawal from Lebanon will not be complete until Israel reveals all its practices there."

Decades after the camp was established, Kerstein adds, "documents about Israel's practices in it continue to be hidden from the public, while those responsible for these atrocities move freely without being held accountable for their actions."

Methods and types of torture

The documents showed that the Shin Bet, which oversaw the administration of Khiam prison in cooperation with the Israeli army during its occupation of southern Lebanon, adopted many methods of torture, most notably electric shocks, sleep prevention, treatment and starvation for long periods of time for many Lebanese who were arrested and detained without any legal procedures.

The Israeli army set up the Khiam prison in 1985, 3 years after it invaded Lebanon in 1982, near the village of Khiam in southern Lebanon, and kilometers from the border with Israel, where the occupation army established a security buffer zone in southern Lebanon.

It is inferred from one of the Shin Bet documents dating back to 1987 that the Khiam detention center “had a very important role for Israel, represented in thwarting the operations of the “Lebanese resistance,” as stated in the document that the detention center is run by the militia of the “South Lebanon Army,” the agent of Israel, This is supervised and trained by the Israeli army and the Shin Bet.

Angry demonstrations in Beirut after the return of Amer Al-Fakhouri, the commander of the South Lebanon Army and the commander of Khiam prison, after his return to Lebanon (Al-Jazeera)

Arrests without due process

Under the “miscellaneous” item in the Shin Bet document, it stated that “there was no arrest warrant against the detainees, no confessions were obtained from them, they were not brought to trial, and indefinite periods of detention were set against them according to the seriousness of the acts attributed to them.”

The detention in Khiam was not limited to men, but the Shin Bet documents showed that many women and girls were among the detainees, and a handwritten document on the subjecting of a girl to interrogation in Khiam Detention Center on suspicion of her relationship with Hezbollah revealed that the girl had received electric shocks, and another document revealed Many Lebanese women are subjected to interrogation in tents by a senior investigator in the presence of a policewoman.

starvation and neglect

Regarding the starvation of prisoners, another Shin Bet document from 1988 showed that the director of the prison stated that a one-day hunger strike was declared in prison due to the lack of food, and the extreme overcrowding of the prison as well.

As for the health conditions of detainees and prisoners, a secret document from 1997 reviewed the medical problems and the deplorable health conditions of detainees, noting that due to the detainees' serious health problems, decisions to release many of them were suspended, especially those who were seriously ill.

At the end of the document, it was stated that a prison official from the South Lebanon Army confirmed that he had no support for him in the event of the death of a detainee in prison due to health problems or not receiving treatment.

Confidentiality and legal problems

Amnesty International reported that 11 prisoners in the Khiam detention camp have died, but the Israeli army and the Shin Bet have refrained from publishing official data in this regard.

In a document from 1997, an Israeli officer whose name and position were removed by the military control explained that “the detainee’s health problems and conditions have been known for many years, and accordingly there is no serious health problem that requires release, and patients can also be detained in detention, provided that the final decision remains in the hands of our forces. The Lebanese side - with reference to the Lahad militia - is not always compatible with our interests."

Other documents of the Shin Bet dealt with judicial deliberations by Israeli officials that examined the legality of the interrogation of Lebanese detainees in the Khiam detention camp by Israeli officers. A 1996 document showed that the Israeli authorities acknowledged a “legal problematic” of the existence of an Israeli-run detention and interrogation facility in Lebanon.

Khiam Detention Center after it was destroyed by Israel after turning it into a shrine (European)

Confessions and Initial Consent

Despite recognizing this problem, the Shin Bet asked the Israeli government to allow it to interrogate Lebanese citizens in Lebanese territory, claiming that “the security situation has worsened, and there is an urgent need to extract and gather intelligence information, which would prevent part of the attacks and the killing of soldiers in the Israeli army and the army of the South.” Lebanon".

The Shin Bet documents showed that the Israeli Military Prosecutor General, Uri Shoham, stressed that the Shin Bet's request to conduct such investigations "is not without fundamental problems as to the responsibility that Israel bears just because an investigation is conducted by Israeli officers on Lebanese territory."

Despite this assessment of the military prosecutor, another Shin Bet document shows that the attorney general of the Israeli government at the time, Elyakim Rubinstein, "accepted in principle the request of the Shin Bet and the Israeli army to allow, with certain conditions and restrictions, to investigate Lebanese citizens in Lebanese territory."