Palestinian collaborator's son 'tortured to condemn mother'

The son of the first known Palestinian woman to be executed as an Israeli collaborator said today gunmen tortured him until he invented a story about his mother’s involvement in a militant’s death.

Ikhlas Khouli, a 35-year-old mother of seven, was shot dead on Saturday after being seized from her home in the West Bank city of Tulkarem.

Bakir Khouli, 17, lifted up his T-shirt at his one-room house to reveal black and blue marks he said were made by electrical wires shortly before his mother was killed.

“They accused me of helping Israeli intelligence,” he said. “When they started beating me with this wire, I confessed and invented a story.”

Dozens of suspected Palestinian collaborators have been killed since the beginning of a Palestinian uprising in September 2000, but Khouli was the first woman reported executed.

A member of the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, which is linked to the Fatah movement of Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, said the militia seized Khouli from her house on Friday and took her to a deserted building where they videotaped her confessing that she had spied for Israel.

She was executed as a lesson to others who would consider collaborating with Israel, he said.

He said Khouli admitted she had recruited her son Bakir to assist her.

Bakir said he told his torturers that he informed his mother of the whereabouts of militia leader Ziad Daas, killed by Israeli forces on August 7.

But he said he made up the story to avoid further torture.

Bakir said the gunmen allowed him to catch a glimpse of his mother shortly before she was taken away and shot. He said he was seized from his home, his head covered by a bag, and tortured for about an hour.

A few hours later, his mother was taken, too, he said.

Najla’a Khouli, the eldest of the seven children at 18 years old, broke down in tears when she spoke of her mother, whose body she said she saw in a hospital.

“It was a horrible sight. I would never have imagined that one day I would see my mother like this,” she said.

She said the children’s father died of an illness eight months ago and that she is engaged to be married and will soon be leaving the family home.

“Who will take care of my brothers and sisters?” she asked.

An Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades leader said his group was forced to “strike with an iron hand” to prevent collaboration with Israel.

“I know that this woman had children but we had no choice. We left her son alive to take care of the children,” he said on condition he was not named.

Asked why his group employed torture, he said: “This is the only way you can get confessions from such people who betray their people.”