On Friday, April 17, Palestinians celebrated the “Day of the Prisoner”. But the anniversary this year coincides with a bitter reality for prisoners, due to the severe policies of the Zionist occupation inside the prisons, with allegations of keenness to provide Coronavirus protection.
Nearly 5.000 Palestinian prisoners in the occupation prisons face a reality of repression, isolation and deprivation of liberties, in which they are subjected to forms of torture and intimidation, such as solitary confinement, medical neglect, and denial of physical and psychological care.
It is reported that on April 17 of the year 1974, the Palestinian National Council approved, during its regular session, declared that date a national day of loyalty towards the “Palestinian prisoners” inside Israeli prisons.
According to data from the Palestinian non-governmental prisoner club, the occupation has arrested about a million Palestinian since 1967, the date of the occupation of the West Bank and Gaza Strip.
The number of detainees inside prisons in the current year 2020 reached about 5.000 detainees, according to “Al-Asir” Club. Of the total number of detainees, about 130 children are in “Ofer” detention centers, west of Ramallah as well as “Megiddo” and “Damoon”.
The number of reported sick detainees until the beginning of April of this year, is about nearly 700 detainees, among which 300 suffering from chronic medical conditions and in need of continuous treatment, including 10 patients with cancer.
The occupation has arrested 26 Palestinians since before the Oslo agreement in 1993, signed between the Palestine Liberation Organization and Israel, and they are called “old prisoners”, and among the former prisoners, Karim Younis and Maher Younis, they spent about 38 years in prison, in addition to Nael Al-Barghouthi, who has spent the longest period A total of 40 years arrested.
The data documented by the Palestinian Prisoner Club indicates that 222 Palestinians have been martyred in “Israeli” prisons since 1967, including 73 due to torture, 67 as a result of medical negligence, 75 due to willful killing, and 7 due to repression and direct fire by soldiers and guards.
“Israel” is currently taking advantage of the outbreak of the Coronavirus through the punishment policies imposed on prisoners, such as the announcement of the cancellation of all the visits indefinitely.
President of the Palestinian Prisoner Club, Qaddura Fares, accused “Israeli” the authorities, of not taking any preventive measures to confront the virus.
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