Hunger striking prisoners facing sharp repression and continue their demands

Samidoun

Palestinian prisoners on hunger strike are facing sharp repression from the Israeli Prison Administration. As reported by Addameer and others, Palestinian prisoners on hunger strike have reported confiscation of personal items and warm clothes. In response to these attacks, prisoners in Nafha are threatening to begin to refuse water as well.
One group of Palestinian prisoners associated with the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine at Eshel prison participating in the strike have been transfered to Ohalei Kedar prison in retribution, while Hamas prisoners at Eshel prison on hunger strike were separated from one another and moved into the rooms of Fateh prisoners, in an attempt to exacerbate factional tensions.
At Ramon prison, Palestinian hunger strikers have been moved into isolation cells and hunger strikers throughout Israeli prisons are being denied access to independent doctors. Addameer lawyer Samer Sama’an has been banned from visiting all prisoners from 6 months, the second time in recent months that such a ban has been applied to an Addameer lawyer during prison hunger strikes.
In response to these attacks, Palestinian prisoners on hunger strike issued another statement reiterating their demands:

Despite the threat of the executioner, and the strength of his weapons, we will

1 – end the policy of solitary confinement
2 – close the file of administrative detention
3 – Cancel the actions taken after the capture of Shalit and the most important of which prevent the prisoners of Gaza Strip’s (456) prisoners from visiting their parents
4 – Allow higher education.

On Prisoner’s Day, this will not be just another day of another year. Therefore, they are preparing to confront the torturers, the executioners, and their weapons, and despite the failure of the international community, we stand armed with only our empty stomachs and solid will derived from the heroic march of our people who continue to resist, and we have faith in victory and the justice of our struggle for freedom.

Humilation Against The Detainees Continues

Saturday October 29, 2011 13:33 by Mais Azza - IMEMC & Agencies

Palestinian detainees held by Israel at the Majiddo detention center, managed to leak a memo revealing that the violations against them have never stopped, adding that the Israeli Prisons Administration (IPA) is not abiding by vows it made to the detainees in order to end their hunger strike, the Palestinian News & Info Agency (WAFA) reported Saturday.

Image By Palestine-Info

The detainees stated that the (IPA) is trying to degrade and humiliate them, and is still forcing several detainees into solitary confinement in addition to depriving them from their internationally guaranteed visitation rights.

Former political prisoner, Shaher Zayed, 23, resident of Al-Yamoun village, near the northern West Bank city of Jenin, stated that although the detainees have stopped their hunger strike, that lasted for three weeks, after negotiating with the (IPA) and reaching an understanding, no actual implementation ever took place.

Zayed spent thirteen months in administrative detention in Israeli jails without any charges.

The detainees at Majiddo voiced an appeal to human rights organizations calling on them to act on obliging Israel to stop its violations.

Zahhar: “Swap-deal Includes Lifting The Siege On Gaza”

Tuesday October 18, 2011 09:08 by Saed Bannoura - IMEMC & Agencies

Hamas political leader, Mahmoud Zahhar, told Israeli daily, Haaretz, that the prisoner-swap deal reached indirectly reached between Hamas and Israel includes lifting the Israeli siege on the Gaza Strip.

Mahmoud Zahhar - File Image - Islam Times

Zahhar added that this issue was agreed upon when the German mediator started his role in the swap talks. “This is still valid under the current agreement”, he said.

The Hamas leader further stated that the deal to release prisoner-of-war Gilad Shalit, in return for releasing more than a thousand Palestinian detainees, also includes a section obliging Israel to improve the living conditions of the Palestinian detainees, adding that Gaza Strip families of the detainees will be allow to visit their beloved one.

After Shalit was captured on June 26, 2006, Israel canceled all visitation rights to Gaza Strip families of political prisoners.

Zahhar also said that Israel will also have to ease the restrictions on border terminals leading to Gaza, including travel from Gaza to the West Bank via Israel.

He stated that the deal also includes increasing the exports of the Gaza Strip to Israel and abroad.

Meanwhile, officials at the Israeli Defense Ministry stated that the Shalit deal represents a shift in the relations between Hamas and Israel, adding that, in recent months, Israel started easing the siege on Gaza as part of an unofficial ceasefire between Hamas and Tel Aviv.

Detainee's mother dies in Gaza

GAZA CITY (Ma'an) -- The mother of a Palestinian detainee died in Gaza on Thursday without seeing her jailed son, a prisoners' center reported.

Hajjeh Aminah al-Khatib's son Omran was detained in 1997 and sentenced to life in an Israeli jail.

Israel banned families in Gaza from visiting detained relatives in 2007. The ban was imposed after militants in Gaza detained Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit.

In June, the International Committee of the Red Cross called on Israel to lift the ban, noting that under international humanitarian law, detainees held in relation to the conflict had a right to family visits.

"The decision by the Israelis is of particular consequence for children, whose ties to their detained parents may become frayed or may even be severed," ICRC said in a statement.

Between June 2007 and June 2011, more than 30 relatives of detainees died without being able to bid farewell to their loved ones, ICRC reported.

Jordanian prisoner in Israeli jail goes on hunger strike

[ 20/09/2011 - 08:01 AM ]

RAMALLAH, (PIC)-- Ala’a Hammad, a Jordanian prisoner in Israeli occupation jails, has gone on hunger strike to protest the Israeli authorities repeated refusal to allow his wife and children visit him. The Palestinian prisoner society said in a statement on Monday that Hammad told its lawyer during a visit to Gilboa jail that his wife’s repeated requests to the Israeli embassy in Amman to visit him were always denied. Hammad, who is serving a 12-year sentence, has been held in Israeli jail since 2006. The society, meanwhile, noted that the Israeli administration in Gilboa jail had transferred 17 detianees to Megiddo jail.

Lawyer: Female detainee humiliated after surgery

RAMALLAH (Ma'an) -- Israeli prison guards humiliated a female detainee from the Gaza Strip who underwent hand surgery, the PA Ministry of Detainees' Affairs reported Saturday.

Prison guards tried to cuff Wafa Samir Al-Lubs, 26, to her hospital bed by her hands and legs, the ministry said in a statement.

Al-Lubs' lawyer protested, and the guards eventually agreed only to cuff her right hand and leg after the surgery.

Her lawyer said the guards verbally insulted her during a three-day stay in hospital and repeatedly refused to allow her to see a doctor post-operation.

The lawyer warned that Al-Luba was at risk of infection if the bandage wasn't changed.

Al-Luba is serving a 12-year sentence in Hasharon prison.

Israel has banned all detainees from the Gaza Strip from receiving visitors since 2007 when militants in Gaza kidnapped an Israeli soldier.

Detainee marks 10 years in Israeli prison

GAZA CITY (Ma’an) – The detainees center is reporting that prisoner Ahmad Abu Aker from Khan Younis marked 10 years in Israeli prisons. Abu Aker has been sentenced to 15 years.

The center said in a statement that he was detained at the Rafah border while he was leaving the Gaza Strip and he was brutally interrogated at Ashkelon prison. He is now at Nafha prison and banned from visits.

Abu Aker received a bachelors degree with honors while in prison. He plans to continue his studies.

Bethlehem mother dies without seeing jailed son

RAMALLAH (Ma’an) – The mother of a Palestinian detainee died Wednesday without seeing her son, who is jailed in Israel.

Amjad Taqatqa's son Amjad from the Beit Fajjar village near Bethlehem is serving six life terms in an Israeli detention center.

PA urges international community to protect prisoners' rights

BETHLEHEM (Ma'an) -- The Palestinian Authority on Monday urged the international community to protect the rights of Palestinian prisoners, the government media center said.

The PA referred to two incidents in which prisoners rights were violated. One case involved a decision by Israeli authorities to ban prisoners' families from visiting them for up to 17 years after accusations that they smuggled mobile phones into the jail.

The other involved a recent incident in which 40 Palestinian prisoners suffered food poisoning in an Israeli prison in the Negev.

"These actions are a violation of international law, particularly the Third Geneva Convention, relative to the Treatment of Prisoners of War," a statement said, adding that the PA held the Israeli prison administration responsible for the lives and health of prisoners.

The West Bank government urged international institutions, the Red Cross and the United Nations Commission of Human Rights to do more to pressure Israel to stop its daily "illegal and unjustified measures against prisoners."

Female detainee marks 2 years in administrative detention

RAMALLAH (Ma’an) -- The Palestinian Center for Detainees reported Tuesday that female detainee Hana Al-Shalabi from Jenin is now the longest serving female prisoner held in Israeli administrative detention.

She was detained in 2009 and is currently in Hasharon prison.

The Israeli authorities have kept on postponing her trial without providing any justification and the Israeli Shabak refuse to tell her why she is being detained, the ministry said.

She is banned from seeing her family.

Administrative detention entails being detained without a trial or any charge.

Israel has held thousands of Palestinians in administrative detention in the past and the practice has been widely condemned by human rights groups.

Gaza prisoners complain of neglect

[ 12/06/2011 - 05:20 PM ]

OCCUPIED JERUSALEM, (PIC)-- The Gaza prisoners in Israeli Shatta jail castigated the Red Cross as well as Palestinian institutions concerned with prisoners for ignoring their issue. They told chairwoman of the Mandela foundation catering for prisoners lawyer Buthaina Al-Dakmak, who called on them on Saturday, that no one really cared about them. The prisoners said that they are deprived of family visits and lawyers scarcely visit them, noting that they are allowed to phone their relatives once every two months, which, they said, is not enough.

Relatives of prisoners demand end to humiliating search

[ 12/06/2011 - 08:26 AM ]

OCCUPIED JERUSALEM, (PIC)-- Relatives of Palestinian prisoners appealed to human rights groups to demand an end to the Israeli strip and humiliating search of them while on their way to visit their next of kin. They charged the Israeli soldiers with deliberately delaying them at checkpoints. The relatives said that they are forced to pass through electronic gates, adding that doctors and specialists have warned that those gates emanate harmful rays that could lead to cancer. They said that they are screened for mobiles by taking naked photos of them. They charged that the searches were in violation of human rights and international agreements, urging the Red Cross to intervene and stop such practices.

PA: Israel detained prisoner's daughter during visit

BETHLEHEM (Ma'an) -- Guards at an Israeli prison detained a 13-year-old girl visiting her father, the Palestinian Authority Ministry of Prisoners Affairs said Monday.

Prison guards detained Samah Majdi Musallam while she was visiting her father, who is serving a 13-year sentence in an Israeli prison in the Negev desert, the ministry said in a statement.

The ministry said the girl was separated from her father by an iron mesh fence when guards rushed to detain her. She was accused of trying to smuggle something to her father, the statement said.

She was interrogated by Israeli police and tried at a court in Beersheva in southern Israel, the ministry added.

PA Minister of Prisoners' Affairs Issa Qaraqe said the case was not unprecedented.

"Several times prisoners' relatives have been detained during visits under trivial pretexts. In fact family visits have become a means of punishment and humiliation," Qaraqe said.

Female detainee suffers stomach ulcer in Israeli jail

RAMALLAH (Ma’an) -- The Palestinian detainees center reported Thursday that a female prisoner is suffering from a stomach ulcer and problems in her chest and teeth.

Amal Jum’a, held at Al-Damon prison, is from Nablus. She was detained in 2004 and banned from family visits except for one time each year. She was sentenced to 11 years.

Families of captives call for an end of strip searches

[ 20/05/2011 - 01:21 PM ] 
 

RAMALLAH, (PIC)-- Families of Palestinian captives in Israeli occupation jails called on local and international human rights organisations to pressure occupation authorities to end the policy of strip searching captives’ relatives during prison visits.

The families said that prison administrations deliberately insult captives and their families by insisting on thorough offensive searches to the extent of complete strip searches under the pretext of looking for mobile phones.

The families further called for popular protests similar to those marking the Nakba day in support of the captives and to pressure the occupation to stop its practices against them.

Jenin woman enters 10th year in Israeli jail

GAZA CITY (Ma'an) -- Palestinian detainee Qahira Al-Sadi entered her 10th year in an Israeli jail on Sunday, the Ministry of Detainees' in Gaza said.

Al-Sadi, 35, was sentenced to life imprisonment accused of affiliation to Islamic Jihad and aiding a suicide bomber, the ministry said.

Al-Sadi, from Jenin, has four children, but only two of them are allowed to visit her in Hasharon prison. Israeli authorities banned her two children aged over 16 and her three brothers from visiting her.

The ministry said she has lost several teeth but the prison authorities have refused to allow her dental treatment.

Relatives of prisoners appeal for allowing visits

[ 19/04/2011 - 05:14 PM ]

GAZA, (PIC)-- Relatives of Palestinian prisoners in Israeli occupation jails staged a sit-in before the UN offices in Gaza on Tuesday demanding their right to visit their next of kin before their death. The relatives, mostly elderly or sick, expressed hope that they could see their relatives before they die. Gaza minister of prisoners' affairs Dr. Attalla Abulsabh said during a visit to the sit-in rally that the Israeli occupation authority was breakig all international rules. He asked the UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, "Isn't it time to say to Israel enough". The minister said that the Palestinian prisoners are not common criminals but rather freedom fighters, who exercised their legitimate right (of resisting occupation). On the same occasion of the prisoner's day, Khaled Al-Batesh, a senior official of the Islamic Jihad movement, said on Tuesday that Palestinian factions are called upon to capture more Israeli soldiers to trade them for Palestinian prisoners. He said that the step should be a priority for all factions especially to free prisoners who spent long years in captivity.

Detainee's father dies without seeing son

GAZA CITY (Ma'an) -- The father of a Palestinian detained in Israel died Thursday without seeing his son for over four years, a detainees center reported.

Israel refused to allow Salem Al-Bardini to visit his son Tayseer, who has been held in Israel prisons since 1994.

Tayseer Al-Bardini was accused of killing an Israeli settler in Rafah in southern Gaza.

Israel has banned Gaza residents from visiting their relatives in prison in Israel since militants in Gaza captured Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit in a cross-border raid in 2006.

PPC: Israel Imposes Collective Punishment on Palestinian Prisoners

Date : 10/4/2011   Time : 16:15

---

RAMALLAH, April 10, 2011(WAFA) – Administration of ‘Ohalei Kedar’ Detention Center Sunday imposed collective punishment on prisoners; prevention of visits for two months, according to (PPC) Palestinian Prisoner’s Club’s report.

Visits of prisoners’ families from Nablus, Tulkarem, Salfit and Hebron, were cancelled; prisoners responded by returning their meals as a protesting step, and they sent protest letters to the administration, PPC lawyers' report said.

Prisoners said that they will participate in the April 17th strike, which marks the anniversary of 'Prisoner's Day', and is under the title 'Unity for freedom'.

Hamas prisoners announce protests against IPS

[ 04/04/2011 - 10:20 AM ]

WEST BANK, (PIC)-- Hamas prisoners in Israeli jails have announced a state of high alert as steps have been launched to protest against the Israeli prison system. ”The battle” may start at any hour or it may be delayed to make further arrangements, Hamas's high committee for prisoner struggle said on Sunday. They said the first step will be a hunger strike participated in initially by a limited number, so prisoner leadership does not feel that the strike weakens the front as time progresses. The prisoners speaking on behalf of the Hamas committee said they have devised a plan and called on all prisoners to commit to it. They have also given several directives, asking prisoners to keep their hair short and to change their diet habits to prepare for the upcoming ”battle”. Liason during this period must only be made by the committee which will announce the protest steps and inform the prison administration, the committee said. The committee will decided when the action will be taken and when it will be suspended. The escalation comes after the Israeli Knesset passed a package of laws last week tightening restrictions on Palestinian prisoners. Separately, a report released Monday by a Palestinian human rights group says the Israeli Prison Service placed one man in isolation and severely beat him after finding a pen cap in his pocket. After the pen cap was found in his possession last month several restrictions were placed against him. He was placed in isolation for a week, banned from visits for two weeks, denied the right to education for an entire year and banned from using the canteen for two weeks. Cameras were placed in his cell, and his cell was invaded by six prison guards who tied him  to his mattress, stripped him naked and began beating him. He said a guards tried to rape him amid accusations that he tried to commit suicide.