Field Developments

At dawn last Friday, 16 July 2010,
masked gunmen kidnapped Munir Kaskin from his house, west of Gaza City, after
stabbing him in his right side with a sharp tool. Mr. Kaskin was then taken to an unknown
destination, where he was questioned about family disputes, and then
released. This attack is a part of the
state of security chaos and misuse of weapons plaguing the Occupied Palestinian
Territories (OPT). 

According to investigations
conducted by the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights (PCHR), at approximately
00:30 on Friday, 16 July 2010,
a group of masked gunmen raided the house of Munir
Yousef Mahmoud Kaskin, 34, near the Civil Defense headquarters, west of Gaza
city. The gunmen searched the house and
kidnapped Mr. Kaskin. In his testimony
to PCHR, Mr. Kaskin described the attack:

“… As they were leading me up
the stairs, my brothers intervened and took me into my father’s apartment,
which is under mine, but the gunmen broke the door and raided the
apartment. One of [the kidnappers]
threatened me with a piece of steel and then stabbed me in my right side and in
my left shoulder. Then they beat me with
gun butts and led me to their car and blindfolded me. My sister, Muna, who is a doctor, managed to
get into the car to treat my wounds but the gunmen forced her to step out of
the car. They took me to an unknown
place, where they questioned me about the location of my aunt Su’ad
Kaskin/Issa. I was severely beaten while
I was being questioned. After
questioning, they took me to a nearby house where I stayed for nearly one
hour. They then took me again to the car
and dropped me near the Palestinian Telecommunications Company in al-Sheikh
Radwan, north of Gaza city. A taxi then
took me to a nearby police checkpoint. The policemen took me to al-Shifa hospital for treatment.”

Muna Kaskin, the victim’s sister,
also stated:

“… After I managed to get into
the car to treat my brother, who was bleeding from his side, one of the gunmen
talked through a radio and then took my hand and pulled me out of the car just
few meters from our house. I stepped
into the car of my husband, who was following us and we followed the
gunmen. In al-Sheikh Radwan, the gunmen
stopped their car and my husband hit their car from the back. One of the masked men stepped down from the
car and ordered us to leave the area, and he hit our car with his gun butt. We drove away into a

bystreet and we called to the
police, who arrived to the scene. The
police looked for my brother in the area, but they did not find him. I returned home with my husband. At approximately 03:30 on the same day, the
gunmen phoned our house and told us that my brother Munir was near the
Palestinian Telecommunications Company in al-Sheikh Radwan. I went to al-Shifa
Hospital to check on the conditions of my brother, who was bleeding from his
right side and had suffered a rupture of his liver. He also was suffering from another wound in
his left shoulder and two wounds in the head, caused by the beating. After he received necessary medical treatment
at the Hospital, we returned to home.”

It should be noted that Su’ad
Mahmoud Kaskin/Issa was kidnapped on 03 July 2010 by unknown gunmen who said
they were members of the Internal Security Service. She was taken to an unknown destination where
she was questioned concerning her family affairs. She was beaten and subjected to torture by
the gunmen during questioning, whereupon she was released near al-Karama
apartment buildings and was transferred to al-Shifa Hospital for
treatment. On 13 July 2010, PCHR sent an
official letter, including a complaint from Kaskin/Issa to the Supervisor
General of the Ministry of Interior and National Security, Dr. Hassan al-Seifi.

In light of the above information,
PCHR strongly condemns this attack on Munir Kaskin and demands the office of
the Attorney General to open serious investigations into this attack and bring
perpetrators to justice.