Palestinian detainees in Israeli prisons protest against repressive measures

Occupied Palestine (QNN)- The Palestinian Prisoners Society (PPS) said on Thursday that Palestinian detainees in Israeli prisons plans to protest against Israel’s repressive measures.

Protests are staged on Friday and Monday, the PPS said.

The PPS said the detainees refused to leave their cells for daily checks and to go to the prison yards for a sixth day this week amid mounting tensions.

On Saturday, the Israeli Prison Service reduced the duration of inmates’ outdoor time, in violation of arrangements already in place.

Previously, prisoners from different sections were allowed to be in the yards together for about six hours a day, divided into two shifts, the first roughly between 8am and 11am and the second between 3pm and 5pm.

Now, both the duration and the number of those allowed outdoors at the same time has been scaled back.

The Palestinian prisoners’ movement said on Sunday that all Palestinian detainees in Israeli prisons from across the political spectrum announced the state of general alarm, in protest against repressive measures taken by Israel Prison Service (IPS) against the detainees.

On Monday, the detainees announced the dissolution of their regulatory bodies that coordinate with Israeli prison administration, meaning that each prisoner is free to do what they want to voice their grievances.

On Wednesday, special forces stormed prison cells in Ofer military prison, assaulting detainees and threatening them with more punitive measures, after a purported escape plan was allegedly uncovered earlier in the week.

Yesterday, Israeli prison administration in Nafha prison informed the Palestinian detainees in all sections that they will be checked when they are ready to perform the Friday prayer in the prison yards. However, the detainees have refused and decided to perform the prayer inside their cells.

The Palestinian commission of detainees and ex-detainees affairs said today that specialised police and counter-riot units are deployed to control the situation after the prayer amid fears of any potential unrest.

The Commission noted that such a move has been taken in protest against the punitive and repressive measures taken by the Israeli prisons’ administration as it has stepped back on the demands reached with the detainees last year, following Gilbou’s prison break.

Last year, the Israeli special units and prison administration cracked down on several prisons for over five days in a row, including Ketziot’s Section 6 in the Negev and Ramon Prison, in an attempt to disperse some 400 Palestinian prisoners from the Islamic Jihad in a number of other jails.

Thus, all Palestinian prisoners held in Israeli prisons announced general alarm and insurgency against Israeli laws, in response to the Israeli repression and punitive measures.

The Palestinian prisoners in the Negev and Ramon prisons also set fire in the sections of the prisons, as a part of their protest against the Israeli laws.

The occupation authorities canceled the family visits for the Palestinian prisoners in its jails until the end of September.

Such tensions came after the heroic act of six Palestinian prisoners who managed to free themselves on September 6 2021, from Gilbou prison, a high-security Israeli prison, through a secret tunnel they had reportedly dug beneath the prison, and they were re-arrested later after over a week of large-scale sweep operations throughout occupied Palestine using high-tech systems.

Thus, the planned relocation of the prisoners belonging to the Islamic Jihad was part of a set of punitive and repressive measures taken by the IPS following the Gilbou’s prison break.

That time, the detainees demanded the Israeli prisons’ administration to end its policy of repression, abuse, and arbitrary transfers, end the repressive measures imposed on the detainees, release isolated prisoners to regular sections, return detention conditions to what they were before September 6, and to end the policy of arbitrary administrative detention and stop the renewal policy for administrative detainees, among other demands.

There are now 4,500 Palestinians held in Israeli prisons, including 500 administrative detainees held without charges or trials, 180 children and 34 women.