A/HRC/12/48
page 235
these pits, in the open air and exposed to cold temperatures for three days (till 8 January). Each
pit accommodated approximately 20 people. They were forced to sit in stress positions, on their
knees and leaning forward keeping their heads down. They were monitored by soldiers and were
not allowed to communicate with each other. They had no access to food or water on the first
day of their internment, and were given a sip of water and an olive each to eat on the second and
third days of their detention (6 and 7 January). They had limited access to toilet facilities. The
men had to wait for two to three hours after asking before they were allowed to leave the pits to
relieve themselves and sometimes were able to remove their blindfolds for the purpose. A few of
them were told to relieve themselves inside the pit, behind a small mount of sand. They stated
that it was culturally too difficult for the women to seek permission to relieve themselves and
they did not ask.
1117. AD/01 states that some tanks were inside the pit with at least one tank positioned at the
eastern end.554 While the people were held there, the tank facing inland each day sporadically
fired on the houses along the road opposite the site.
1118. AD/01B and AD/01C recounted that on 8 January, the women and children were released
and told to go to Jabaliyah. The men were transferred to military barracks near the northern
border, identified as the Izokim Barracks. At the Izokim barracks, the men were detained in pits
similar to but smaller than those in al-Kaklouk. They continued to be exposed to the cold
temperature, rain and the constant sound of tank movement overhead. The witnesses have
described to the Mission the experience of continued and prolonged exposure to the sound of this
tank movement as disorienting and creating feelings of futility, isolation, helplessness and abject
terror.
1119. The men were held handcuffed and in their underwear in the Izokim barracks overnight.
They were questioned intermittently, mostly on details and locations of Qassam rockets, the
tunnels and the whereabouts of Hamas parliamentarians. According to statements made to the
Mission, they were beaten during the interrogation and threatened with death and being run over
by tanks. The Mission notes that the nature and types of questions asked remained the same
throughout the interrogations in various detention facilities.
1120. On 9 January, the men were taken to a prison in Israel, indentified by one witness as the
Negev prison, where they remained until 12 January. They were detained in one section of the
prison, alternating between being held in isolation and in shared cells, and were subjected to
harsh interrogation, often by two people dressed in civilian clothes. Interrogation focused on the
identification of Hamas tunnels and arms as well as the whereabouts of Gilad Shalit.
1121. AD/01B and AD/01C recounted that they were shackled to a chair with plastic strips and
interrogated several times, with AD/01B stating that he was made to strip naked during an
interrogation. He was kept in solitary confinement where a soldier would come intermittently
during the day, and slam the cell door open and shut, exposing him to extremely cold
temperatures. AD/01C stated that during the first interrogation he was verbally threatened and in
the subsequent two he was blindfolded and beaten. He was made to stand up and face the wall,
554
This is corroborated in the statement by RR to PCATI.
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