Captives fast to mark Palestinian Prisoner Day

[ 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.