(MaanImages)

BETHLEHEM (Ma'an) -- Israeli interrogators are using "oppressive and brutal" methods to frighten Palestinian detainees and force them into confessing to attacks against Israel, a Palestinian official said Sunday.

Issa Qarage, who heads the Palestinian Authority prisoners' affairs committee, made his comments during a visit to prisoners' families in the northern West Bank village of Qusin in Nablus district, where he met with former detainee Noor Muhammad Hilmi Hamamrah, 15.

Hamamrah told him that during his interrogation in the Etzion detention center, Israeli interrogators had made him open his mouth while they used pincers to forcibly pry out part of his braces, causing bleeding.

An interrogator then told Hamamrah that he would pull out all of his teeth if he didn't confess to throwing stones at Israeli vehicles, Qarage relayed.

Qarage said that the boy eventually made the confession.

Hamamrah was detained from his family home on April 15 at 3:00 a.m. and was taken in a military truck to the nearby Beitar Illit settlement where he was held for three hours before being taken to the detention center.

An Israeli prison spokesperson could not be reached for comment on Hamamrah's account.

Prisoners' rights group Addameer has long reported that treatment of Palestinian detainees by Israeli forces tantamount to torture is "widespread and systematic."

In 2014, international rights group Defense for Children reported that 93 percent of children detained by Israeli forces were denied access to legal counsel, while others endured prolonged periods of solitary confinement for interrogation purposes, a practice that amounts to torture under international law.

Ma'an News 24 mei 2015