E/CN.4/1994/31 page 73 bombs and the throwing of grenades. With regard to the situation in the south, the Government reported that armed groups had killed numerous officials and civilians, destroyed and looted economic and civil institutions, as well as food warehouses, and circulated false banknotes in the country. Israel Information transmitted to the Government 352. By letter dated 26 August 1993 the Special Rapporteur informed the Government that he had received information according to which the practice of torture in military interrogation centres still persisted. Methods included severe beating, hooding, prolonged handcuffing, tying in painful positions, confinement in tiny and airless spaces, electric shocks, sleep deprivation, exposure to extreme temperatures and prolonged solitary confinement. 353. Another prevailing complaint concerned the lack of access to medical facilities. Detainees who are in need of physical or mental health-care treatment are often denied access to doctors or are not allowed to receive medication. In addition, Israeli physicians and other medical personnel have allegedly been involved in certifying detainees’ fitness to undergo some of the methods of interrogation reportedly used by the Israeli authorities; in examining and providing treatment to victims before allowing them to be returned to interrogation; and in covering up abuses by interrogators. The following individual cases were reported: (a) Samir Omar, a 17-year-old from al-Shati’ refugee camp in the Gaza Strip, died on 31 May 1992. He had been arrested on 13 May and detained in the interrogation section of Gaza central prison until 21 May. Upon release, he reportedly stated that during interrogation he had been hooded, kept in a very cold cell, deprived of food and forced to sit on a chair for four days. He also said that he had been beaten all over his body, including his genitals, and hit on the head with a hammer. (b) Mustafa Mahmud Mustafa ’Abd al-Hadi Barakat, a resident of the West Bank village of Anabta, died on 4 August 1992 in the Tulkarm detention centre, about 36 hours after his arrest on 3 August. He reportedly died from an asthma attack brought about by the conditions of detention and interrogation, in particular the use of hooding. He was allegedly subjected to severe mistreatment, which led to his first attack of asthma in eight years. (c) Ayman Sa’id Hasan Nassar was arrested on 20 March 1993 during a military operation in Deir al-Balah refugee camp in Gaza. He and three others were reportedly taken to the beach nearby, where they were allegedly kicked and beaten on the face and chest. Subsequently, they were taken to Ashkelon prison, where they were reportedly placed in solitary confinement and subjected to further beatings, prolonged shackling, hooding with dirty sacks and sleep deprivation, and prevented from using the toilet for several days. On 23 March Ayman Nassar was admitted to the intensive care unit in Barzalai hospital suffering from acute respiratory distress syndrome, but he died on 2 April.