A Palestinian prisoner, held in a Beersheba prison for driving without a license, has been hospitalized following an assault by Israeli prison guards, his family said on Friday.Jihad Abd al-Rahman, a 47-year-old Palestinian from Jerusalem, was taken from the prison to the nearby Soroka Hospital two weeks ago, after passing out, a relative of the man told Ma’an News Agency.
At the time, Israeli special forces stormed a ward in the jail and assaulted prisoners using pepper spray, and Abd al-Rahman passed out during the assault, the relative said.
A week after Abd al-Rahman was hospitalized, the Israeli prison service asked the family to sign discharge papers, but the family refused to sign until they could ensure his situation had stabilized enough for him to be discharged.
The relative said that Abd al-Rahman, who is a father of five, was serving a three-month sentence in Beersheba prison after Israeli police caught him driving a vehicle without a drivers’ license.
