Fatah Committing Torture on Hamas Revealed

The Birth Pangs: Democracy import from Israel and the USSA

HEBRON, West Bank (Reuters) - Forces loyal to Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas are rounding up suspected Islamist activists and allegations of torture are mounting sharply. Rights monitors logged four times as many torture complaints in November as had been the previous monthly average this year.

One of the Fatah Torture Chamber

The Palestinian Independent Commission for Human Rights logged 28 alleged cases of torture and ill-treatment in November alone in the West Bank -- 17 of these in Hebron. That compared to 26 cases in the first half of 2008 and 40 from July to October.

Lawyer Ghandi Rabei, head of the ICHR office in Hebron, said his group noted beatings and people being hooded, tied to walls, put in "stress positions" and subjected to loud noise.

Many of those arrested are held in secretive sites controlled by Abbas's Preventive Security and General Intelligence services. Hundreds of civilians have been transferred to military courts without legal procedures in breach of Palestinian law and international norms, Rabei said.