The Palestinian Prisoners Studies Center said today, Monday, that the Israeli occupation is still holding about 5,000 Palestinian prisoners in its prisons in difficult and harsh conditions.
Riyad Al-Ashqar, the center’s media spokesman, in a press statement on the eve of the Palestinian Prisoner´s Day, which falls on the seventeenth of April of each year, stressed the need of these prisoners to all forms of support and solidarity locally, Arably and internationally to alleviate their suffering and stop the frenetic attack against them and protect them from the Corona virus.
Al-Ashqar pointed out that the occupation intentionally disregards the lives of prisoners, by not providing any of the essentials of simple life for them, in addition to not implementing preventive measures for them to protect them from the Corona virus.
He pointed out that the occupation authorities, despite the spread of this pandemic, continue the daily arrests of Palestinians indifferent to the danger to their lives, noting that the cases of detention since the beginning of this year have reached more than 1300 cases of detention involving women, minors, university students and leaders of the national and Islamic action.
He pointed out that those prisoners lack protection and support by the international community and its human and human rights institutions that stand by and watch their aggravating suffering, the occupation neglected their lives, the lack of sterilization materials, and even the withdrawal of detergents from the prison canton at a time when the prisoners needed it most.
And that among the prisoners (180) are minor children, including a number of the wounded who were shot during the detention, and there are among them children under the age of fourteen, who are being held in internal institutions.
He stated that these children live in force majeure, are deprived of all necessities of life, and are subjected to torture and abuse from the beginning of the detention, to the prison units, during the investigation phase.
In the Damoon prison, the occupation forces arrest (41) women and girls, of whom (18) have a mother who has dozens of children, and the deputy in the Legislative Council, Khaleda Jarrar, has imposed various prison terms on (28) female prisoners, and 3 female prisoners are subject to administrative detention, and (7) female prisoners Patients suffer from various diseases.
And Al-Ashqar stated that the occupation continues to detain (450) prisoners under the Arbitrary Administrative Detention Law, and during the last years of issuing administrative orders against the prisoners, which rose to approximately (30,000) orders since the Al-Aqsa Intifada in 2000, it rose between new and renewed.
He referred to the deteriorating conditions of the prisoners, who are becoming more difficult with the continued medical negligence against them, and in the past two years, cases of prisoners with stroke and kidney failure have escalated.
And still (700) sick prisoners suffer from various diseases, among them (21) prisoners suffering from fatal cancer, and (33) suffer from various disabilities, including psychological and physical, and four prisoners move on wheelchairs, and there are still (15) prisoners residing Permanently the so-called "Ramla Hospital" is the one who has the most serious diseases and injuries.
He stressed that the number of martyrs of the captive movement in the occupation prisons rose since last year to reach (222) martyrs, after the elevation of 5 prisoners.
Al-Ashqar called on the international community to assume its legal and moral responsibilities, pressure the occupation to stop its ongoing crimes against Palestinian prisoners, apply humanitarian law to them, and provide them with international protection, especially in light of the current circumstances and the danger of "corona" closely approaches the prisoners and threatens their lives.
He called on all the Palestinian people, at home and abroad, to revive the activities of the Palestinian Prisoner Day in a way that suits the current situation, after preventing gatherings for fear of the Corona virus.
He stressed the escalation of electronic and media solidarity with the prisoners, and keeping their case alive and priority until they are freed from prisons.
