Two Palestinian Commandos, who claimed to have escaped from an Israeli jail on 3 March, held a news conference in Beirut today (14 March) to describe how they escaped. They also accused the Israeli authorities of torturing detained guerrillas.

They charged the Israelis with using electric shocks, suspending prisoners by their feet and forcing them to walk over nails. On one occasion, they said, commandos had been forced to admit to staging a certain operation 'although they had nothing to do with it.'
The two men were Hamza Younes and Mohammed Youssef Quassem. Younes said he was arrested in October 1971 after a clash with Israeli forces. He was sentenced to life imprisonment. Quassem, who was serving a life sentence, said he was arrested in January 1970.

The statements of Hamza Younes and Youssaf Quassem are translated on film by an English speaker. A transcript of the English translation follows.

SYNOPSIS: At the offices of Falastin Al-Thawra -- the weekly newspaper of the palestine Liberation Organisation -- in Beirut today, two Palestinian commandos held a press conference to describe how they had escaped from an Israeli prison earlier this month. The two men, Hamza Younes and Mohammed Youssef Quassem, charged the Isreali authorities with using electric shock and other torture techniques on detained prisoners.

Quassem -- on the right -- claimed to have been arrested in January ninteen seventy. Younes said he was arrested after a clash with Israeli forces in October nineteen seventy. He told of the obstacles that barred their escape.

Quassem was serving twenty five years and Younes had served three years of a life sentence when they escaped.