Palestinian detainees start protest actions against Israel’s punitive measures

Occupied Palestine (QNN)- Palestinian detainees in Israeli prisons announced on Tuesday they are preparing for new protest actions against punitive measures taken by Israeli Prison Service (IPS).

In a statement issued on Saturday, the Palestinian Prisoner’s Society (PPS) confirmed that all Palestinian detainees in Israeli occupation prisons from across the political spectrum will start their steps by refusing to take part in the security check and return their meals on Mondays and Wednesdays. After two weeks, they plan to observe an open-ended mass hunger strike.

Earlier today, the detainees refused to take part in the security check as a first step of their campaign against the Israeli repressive measures.

The PPS noted that the Supreme National Emergency Committee for Palestinian detainees, an organizational body that regroups all political factions inside Israeli prisons, stated that the detainees, with such protest actions, seek to force IPS to halt their repressive measures and reverse all the unjust decisions they have taken in recent months against the detainees. The PPS added that Israeli punitive policies aim to impact the lives and spirits of the detainees; the goal is to target the daily life of the detainees.

The latest decision to launch protest steps came after IPS failed to respect the understandings reached last March and decided to resume the punitive measures against detainees, especially those serving life terms.

It is worth to mention that Palestinian detainees in Israeli prisons have recently taken a series of actions against restrictions imposed on them by Israeli occupation.

About 650 Palestinian administrative detainees have been boycotting Israeli military court since the start of this year. The boycott includes initial hearings to uphold the administrative detention order, as well as appeal hearings and later sessions at the Supreme Court. Under the banner, “Our decision is freedom … no to administrative detention,” the detainees said their move comes as a continuation of longstanding Palestinian efforts “to put an end to the unjust administrative detention.”

In March, Palestinian Prisoners’ Movement, which represents Palestinian detainees from all the factions, announced a mass hunger strike to begin by the end of the month in protest of restriction measures by Israeli authorities implemented after the Gilboa prison break. However, the strike was called off after an agreement was reached the eve of the first day of the strike.

Such tensions came after the heroic act of six Palestinian detainees 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.

The IPS took a set of punitive and repressive measures following 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 around 4550 Palestinian detainees held in Israeli prisons, including 31 women, 175 minors, and over 700 held in administrative detention without charge or trial.