Palestinian prisoners continue to be subject to aggressive armed raids and abusive sanctions, reported Palestinian lawyers. On Sunday, August 10, the Palestinian Prisoners’ Society reported that 200 special forces officers ransacked section 24 of Negev (Ketziot) prison for sudden and violent inspections.
This followed an incident on Friday, August 8, when special units stormed three sections of Ketziot (Negev) prison, tearing up tile flooring and moving all of the prisoners in section 5 to tents after an early morning raid by heavily armed units.
On Thursday, August 7, in the Ramle prison clinic, a special forces unit invaded the clinic where sick prisoners are housed, subjected them to strip searches and ransacked their rooms.
Various prisoners’ medical treatment was interfered with; on the day when Riad Amour was scheduled for heart surgery, he was then transferred to interrogation at Moskobiya, losing the appointment he had awaited for years. Amin Abu Omar was shot by occupation forces when he was arrested, underwent surgery to remove the bullet, and has only received aspirin or paracetemol for the ongoing severe pain.
Lawyer Jawad Boulos, following legal visits with a number of prisoners in Megiddo prison on Thursday, August 7, reported that special units had stormed room 12 in section 6 of the prison, strip searching prisoners, insulting them and damaging their belongings. In rooms 4, 5, and 12, prison administration removed all eating utensils and appliances and closed the canteen for a week. Throughout Megiddo, Palestinian prisoners are forbidden from keeping cleaning supplies and glasses in their rooms; prisoner representatives are newly forbidden from moving between sections; the quantity of food has been reduced; and 7 of 10 satellite channels have been removed from the prison television. Khader Adnan, former long-term hunger striker, recently re-arrested and now held under administrative detention without charge or trial, told Boulos that 70 prisoners, including all of those affiliated with Islamic Jihad, had been transferred from Gilboa to prisons around Palestine and were forbidden from being held in ground-floor cells, under the pretext that they may dig escape tunnels.
In addition, Boulos reported that a number of prisoners raised concerns about the money in their canteen funds, which is deposited outside the prison by family members or Palestinian organizations, and that the funds in prisoners’ canteens were less than those reported to have been deposited in the account. The prisoners’ representatives have formally raised this issue and have heard no response from the prison administration regarding the missing funds or the reason for them. Boulos noted that legal follow-up on this issue would be forthcoming.
