Friends of humanity: 2009 the worst ever in the history of Palestinian detainees

[ 06/02/2010 - 05:05 PM ]

VIENNA, (PIC)-- Friends of humanity organization reported Saturday that 2009 was the worst year ever in the history of Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails, during which Israel escalated its arbitrary measures and decisions against them. The organization said in a report that the Israeli prisons authority used during the year new ways to increase the psychological and physical pressure on those detainees so that they could not live a normal life if they were released one day. It explained that more than 1,000 prisoners suffering chronic diseases are medically neglected and more than 1,500 others, 775 of them from Gaza, are deprived of seeing their loved ones for long periods of time. The report noted that at the end of last year, the number of prisoners amounted to 7,286 prisoners including 36 women, 20 ministers and lawmakers and 250 children under age 18. The report also focused on the prisoners of occupied Jerusalem and the 1948 occupied lands, saying that the Israeli occupation authority (IOA) marginalized their issue and still refuses to release any one of them as part of a swap deal with the Palestinians. For its part, Hossam society for detainees and ex-detainees said Saturday that the administration of Negev prison stepped up its repressive policy against the Palestinian prisoners and their families at all levels, especially depriving them of visits. During a telephone call, one of the prisoners told Hossam that the health and incarceration conditions in this jail started to worsen in recent days because of the freezing weather. He also appealed to the Red Cross and the ministry of detainees to work on providing the prisoners with more blankets and winter clothing.