Gaza officials, families sit in at Red Cross to promote prisoners cause

[ 12/01/2011 - 03:39 PM ]

GAZA, (PIC)-- Government representatives and families of Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails joined forces Wednesday morning and sat in outside of the Red Cross offices in Gaza to show solidarity with two chief Palestinian prisoners who are continuing a hunger strike amid demands for their release from isolation. Staged by Gaza's ministry of prisoner affairs cooperating with the Wa'ed prisoner association in Gaza, demonstrators called on the Red Cross and other rights groups to treat Jamal Abu al-Haija and Ahmed Saadat and other Palestinians jailed by the Israelis as war prisoners and not criminals, and to aid them as they are slowly being killed by solitary confinement. Jamal Abu al-Haija has been isolated since he was first arrested by the Israelis and sentenced to nine life terms alongside 20 years in prison. He has also been denied family visits. Saadat has made several reappearances to solitary confinement throughout his term. The Israelis are trying to break the will of prisoners by isolating their leaders, said Palestinian MP Mohammed Shihab. He called the prison administration's stripping them of their rights and slowly killing them through solitary confinement a war crime. Wa'ed association director Sabir Abu Karesh said solitary confinement has made the captives' health conditions a source of concern for officials and families, as some of them suffer from permanent disabilities, like Abu al-Haija who has an amputated hand.