Family of Palestinian-American detained by Israeli forces alleges mistreatment in custody

By Jennifer Hansler, CNN

(CNN) — The family of Samaher Esmail, a Palestinian-American detained in the West Bank by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), alleged on Tuesday that she has been beaten and denied medication while in Israeli custody, according to a statement released on their behalf.

The family also said that US officials have not been granted consular access to her more than a week after her detention.

The family said that Esmail, 46, was “dragged” from her home by IDF members and “beaten badly in Israeli custody.” They also said her home was destroyed in the raid.

“Despite having had her prescription medication from the moment they arrested her, the IDF has declined to administer it,” the family statement said. “Despite having a clear obligation to grant Consular access, the Netanyahu government has declined daily requests from the U.S. Embassy for permission to visit Ms. Esmail.”

The IDF confirmed Esmail’s detention, saying she was “arrested for incitement on social media,” but did not respond to the allegations of mistreatment raised by the family.

State Department spokesperson Matt Miller said he could not speak to the specific claims made by the family, citing privacy laws.

“In any of these circumstances, whether it be in Israel or elsewhere, we seek consular access, we seek access to the individual and we talk to their family when appropriate,” he said at a department press briefing Tuesday.

“We try to ensure that detainees or people who are arrested are treated fairly, are treated humanely, have full access to due process, have access to counsel,” he continued.

“As is often the case, due to privacy considerations that are just in the law that don’t give me any wiggle room at all, I’m unable to speak in detail about this,” Miller said, but noted that his lack of ability to speak about the case should not be misinterpreted “as a lack of activity by the United States.”

In a statement to CNN Tuesday, the IDF said Esmail was arrested during “a battalion operation that took place in the area of the village of Silwad to arrest terror suspects” on February 5.

“All those arrested in the operation were transferred to the security forces for further treatment,” the IDF said. The IDF did not address the family’s claims about Esmail’s mistreatment in custody and referred further questions to the Israel Prison Service, to whom CNN has reached out.

The IDF response also did not provide further details about the alleged “incitement on social media.”

According to the family, Esmail was detained because of “10-year-old Facebook posts and political cartoons she shared.”

Posts from Esmail’s Facebook seen by CNN show cartoons favorably depicting Hamas and two photos of her holding a gun. Family spokesperson Jonathan Franks said the gun is in Louisiana, where Esmail also resides and legally owns the firearm.

“Ms. Esmail’s opinions may be disfavored in Israel proper, but the inescapable reality is they were protected speech which no rational person could consider an incitement to violence,” the statement released by Franks on behalf of the family said.

The statement said she has not been formally charged with a crime.

According to the statement, Esmail was presented to a military commission on Monday and was granted bail, but the IDF appealed the ruling.

“Ms. Esmail’s ‘arrest’ is just more evidence that the Israeli government of the day is out of control. The fact that the U.S. Embassy has been denied access to Ms. Esmail for eight days is outrageous, and one wonders if the Israeli government doesn’t want a U.S. consular officer to see the bruises that Ms. Esmail’s (Israeli) lawyer says cover her body,” the family said.

They called on the US to do more to obtain consular access to Esmail.

“The United States is not without tools to obtain consular access to Ms. Esmail and to end her ordeal. It just has to find the moral courage to do so, which has been, thus far, a tall order,” the statement said.

Esmail is not the only American to have been detained in the Palestinian territories recent days. Two other Americans, Hashem Alagha, 20, and Borak Alagha, 18, were detained by Israeli forces during a raid of a home in Gaza last week, according to a family member in the United States. Miller was also unable to give updates on their case, citing privacy laws.

In addition to the detentions, two Palestinian-Americans have been killed in less than a month in the West Bank. 17-year-old Mohammad Ahmed Mohammad Khdour was shot in the head by Israeli forces on Saturday while traveling by car in the town of Biddu, according to the organization “Defense for Children – Palestine.”

Last month, another American, 17-year-old Tawfic Abdel, was fatally shot in the head, according to Palestinian news agency WAFA.

On that case, Miller noted that there is an ongoing investigation into the death, and if “that investigation finds that there should be accountability, we expect there to be accountability.”

“We are still at the information-gathering process with this second case, but as is always the case, if the information leads us to believe there should be further investigation or accountability measures, we’ll, of course, call for those for those both publicly and privately,” he said.

CNN’s Lauren Izso and Gabe Cohen contributed to this report.

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