[ 17/04/2011 - 12:54 PM ]
WEST BANK, (PIC)-- 6,000 Palestinians held in Israeli prisons have gone on hunger strike to mark Palestinian prisoner day on April 17. About 245 of them are children.
The strike serves as a prelude to an open-ended hunger strike to be concluded when the prisoners demands for medical attention and an end to the Israeli prison system's policy of isolation are met.
According to a report released on the Palestinian prisoner day by Abdul Nasser Farwana, just about every Palestinian household has had members jailed, if not the entire family as has sometimes happened. The report details that Israel has arrested some 750,000 Palestinians since the 1967 war and occupation of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, including nearly 12,000 women and tens of thousands of children.
The report says that most of the arrests were unrelated to occupation's security as alleged by Israeli occupation security forces, as the arrests have taken place in a manner that contradicts international and humanitarian law, in terms of how the conditions and places of arrest and the torture used to elicit confessions. There has also been no consideration for the special needs of women, children and the ill.
Figures have it that 820 of the current detainees have been sentenced to life in prison, including five women.
The Tadhamon prisoner rights organization has released another report on this day and said it has information proving that mass numbers of Palestinian children held in the prisons were subjected to torture or brutal treatment as they were arrested by Israel occupation force soldiers. Many were hospitalized due to the torture they underwent during violent interrogations, the report says, noting cases of degrading treatment, sexual assault and repeated threats.
PCDD calls for boosted release efforts on Palestinian Prisoner Day
[ 17/04/2011 - 10:10 AM ] GAZA, (PIC)-- The Palestinian center to defend detainees has called for increased efforts to help release Palestinians held in Israeli jails marking Palestinian Prisoner Day on April 17.
According to data provided by the PCDD in a fresh press release, the Israeli prison administration is currently holding 6,800 Palestinians, among them 36 women and 340 children. 304 of those prisoners were imprisoned before the Oslo Accords and 137 have been jailed for more than 20 years. Some 1,600 prisoners have fallen ill and are denied proper medical attention and doctor visits, the report states.
The most prominent violation the PCDD highlighted was solitary confinement and medical neglect.
PCDD director Ismail Thawabita vowed that the center would continue to fight for the Palestinian prisoners in ”all local, regional and international forums” until the day of their release.
Thawabita called on Palestinian factions that have captured Gilad Shalit to stand firm on their demands to release the tortured resistance prisoners in a swap deal, confirming that the Palestinians support those demands.
- Jabr: Prisoners in Israeli jails experiencing harsh conditions
- Report: More than 130 prison raids in 2010
- IOF troops violently disperse relatives of Palestinian prisoners
Uprooted Palestinian
