Israel releases Shireen Issawi from solitary confinement

The Israel Prison Service (IPS) has ended the 36-day long solitary confinement of Palestinian lawyer Shireen Issawi, according to a statement released yesterday by the Palestinian Committee of Prisoners’ Affairs.

The group said Issawi will now be transferred from Jalama to HaSharon prison next week after being held in solitary since 22 June.

Issawi, who was detained in March 2014, was sentenced to four years in prison last year alongside her brother Medhat for allegedly being in contact with, and providing funds to, Palestinian prisoners.

According to lawyer Hanan Al-Khatib, Issawi was placed in solitary confinement after she reportedly confronted IPS officials carrying out a raid in Damon prison.

Al-Khatib added that Issawi was violently assaulted during the Damon raid, leaving her bleeding and with bruises, before transferring her and three other prisoners to solitary confinement.

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Issawi told Al-Khatib that following the raid she had been fined 700 shekels ($198), banned from family visitations and purchasing from the prison commissary for a month, and sentenced to seven days in solitary confinement, while all the other Palestinians detained in Damon had been barred access to the prison yard for three days.

Issawi described the imprisonment conditions in Jalama as terrible, telling Al-Khatib that three surveillance cameras were installed in her dirty cell, invading her privacy at all times, while the cell’s window was obscured with plastic sheeting, and prison guards verbally abused prisoners.

According to prisoners’ rights group Addameer, of the 6,200 Palestinians held in Israeli prisoners as of May, 56 were women or girls.