Likud seeks change in law to make prisoners' conditions worse until Shalit is freed in Gaza

Likud MPs and party activists have demonstrated in front of Israel’s Hadarim Prison to push for harsher conditions for Palestinian prisoners in a bid to put pressure on Hamas to release Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit held captive since 2006.

Knesset (parliament) member Danny Danon announced that he will introduce a draft law to make prison conditions even worse for the thousands of Palestinians held by Israel – many without trial – “in response to the suffering of the soldier Shalit in Gaza who is not given the simplest human right.”

Human and prisoners’ rights organisations have noted that the management of the Israel Prison Service (IPS) already has many punitive policies in place against Palestinian prisoners in its jails. The conditions in Israeli prisons have been described as “the toughest and most difficult” in the world by such organizations.