According to a report by the newspaper Haaretz, phone messages included in an Israeli investigation file into the death of Palestinian prisoner Sair Samih Abu Asab in prison in November 2023 revealed part of the horror of what happened.
The messages entered into the investigation file showed not only that Abu Asab was beaten to death in a brutal manner, but also that violence against prisoners in the cells had "become a policy of management."
It was determined that guards, who shared Abu Asab's death with one another in messages such as "My love just died" and "Hopefully he dies," also admitted on different dates that they beat newly arrived detainees "until their kidneys burst" and raided cells where prisoners were praying.
Female guard Oshrit Eliga wrote to her boyfriend, who is also a guard:
— "You'll be proud of me and my shift. After what happened, the count took 2 hours and 23 minutes. You can figure out the rest. Right now they're doing CPR in the clinic, my love!"
She also used profanity and insulting language.
Another guard excitedly sent an update, saying:
— "Damn, what a count that was. We really beat them badly."
A third guard sent the following message to a friend:
— "What a crazy count it was. Nothing like this has ever been seen. We poured cheese on them, cracked a few eggs. There was blood flowing through the cells. Oh my God, they're performing CPR because we beat a prisoner. He died. Listen, it's so funny how everything happened all at once. Boom, count. Boom, dead prisoner."
The prisoner being referred to here was Abu Asab, affiliated with the Fatah movement, who had been sentenced to 25 years in prison and had been detained from 2005 until the day he was killed.
It was announced that Abu Asab died that evening at the hospital to which he had been transferred. According to the indictment, the severe beating he endured caused damage to his heart, resulting in his death.
