A/HRC/31/40 2. Torture and ill-treatment 60. Torture and ill-treatment are prohibited under Palestinian law. OHCHR has enjoyed the cooperation of the Palestinian authorities in gaining unannounced and unrestricted access to Palestinian Preventive Security and GIS detention facilities (see A/HRC/25/40, para. 44). In some instances during the reporting period, the Office was refused access to detention centres run by GIS. In March 2015, the Independent Commission for Human Rights denounced the decision of the Palestinian police prohibiting its staff from visiting a detainee in the Ramallah Rehabilitation and Correction Centre. 42 Such restrictions are particularly concerning as OHCHR continued to receive reports of ill-treatment and the Independent Commission for Human Rights registered 194 complaints of torture and illtreatment during the reporting period. In some instances documented by OHCHR, detainees reported ill-treatment but were unwilling to share details owing to threats and fear of reprisal by the authorities. In a few instances, detainees denied being ill-treated despite visible injuries. 61. Opposition activists, including students, appeared to be particularly targeted by Palestinian security agencies. Between 17 December 2014 and 26 February 2015, seven Hamas-affiliated students held a sit-in at Birzeit University, which they refused to leave for fear of arrest and ill-treatment as they had previously been detained and allegedly ill-treated on several occasions. OHCHR intervened with the authorities who repeatedly gave assurances that ill-treatment would not be condoned. On 28 February, one of the students was arrested by the Preventive Security Service and detained until 2 March. After his release, he informed OHCHR that he had been kept in shabeh (a stress position for an extended period of time) for nearly six hours: he had been made to stand face to the wall with arms lifted and had been told not to touch the wall. In the interrogation that followed, he was reportedly slapped on the face five times. He stated that, at the end of the session, his hands were tied to the top of a ladder with his own belt and he was left suspended. He told OHCHR that, when he cried out in pain, the officers told him they had high-level clearance to kill him. They reportedly later put him in shabeh again until the next morning, checking every half hour whether he was willing to talk. 62. In another case documented by OHCHR, the detainee had been transferred many times to different GIS detention centres and reportedly repeatedly tortured over many weeks. He reported being held in shabeh for hours at a time, blindfolded, with his hands tied behind his back and pulled up, and tied to a rope fixed to the ceiling, with toes barely touching the ground and the weight of his entire body on the shoulders. He testified in detail to being slapped, punched, kicked and beaten with a baton on his palms and the soles of his feet, and with an electric cable, on the lower part of his body. Medical reports examined by OHCHR, along with bruises on his body were consistent with his testimony. 3. Excessive use of force 63. OHCHR received allegations of unwarranted or excessive force, gratuitous violence and abuse of power by Palestinian security forces. For instance, on 2 December 2014, in Al-Yamon village, members of the Palestinian special police force reportedly used batons to beat dozens of unarmed people at a condolence meeting, after accusing them of shielding wanted individuals. On 2 January 2015, in Misliya village, the Palestinian Special Police Force and the Palestinian National Security Forces allegedly assaulted several people, largely bystanders, after family members of a detainee attacked a police car and released him from custody. Under the Basic Principles on the Use of Force and Firearms by Law 42 Independent Commission for Human Rights, press statement, 4 March 2015. 13