Palestinian prisoner group calls on Israel to reveal details of detainees’ wherabouts

The international community and rights groups must work to get information about Palestinian prisoners who are being held in isolation in the Israeli occupation’s Naqab (Ketziot) Prison, the Palestinian Prisoners’ Club (PPC) said.

In a statement, the PPC said that the Israeli Prisoner Services (IPS) isolated a number of prisoners after stripping them of all of their belongings and leaving them in “very dire conditions”, noting that they were banned from family visits and communicating with prisoners in other departments.

Some 120 prisoners were injured, including 82 in their heads and 76 who suffered bruising, due to the brutal crackdown on them, noting that the IPS used a new kind of bullet against the prisoners, the weapon creates greater damage to the victim’s body.

According to the PPC, the IPS held internal trials in the prison and imposed high fines on prisoners and stopped their access to medical treatment.

READ: Palestinian prisoners start hunger strike to protest Israel punitive measures 

Israel has been strengthening its crackdown on Palestinian prisoners in recent months. In February, Israel’s prison administration installed phone jamming devices at Al-Naqab and Ramon prisons. The devices produce powerful radiation and stop radio and television signals from penetrating into the area, in a bid to stop prisoners maintaining contact with the outside world.

In March it emerged that the prisoners were suffering from depression, headaches and fainting as a result of the radiation from the devices, with experts saying this can lead to “genetic deformities of human cells and cancer”. The Prisoner Support and Human Rights Association – better known as Addameer – issued a statement on Monday calling these crackdowns “systematic” and “opposed by all international conventions related to the protection of prisoners.”

Addameer estimates there are 5,440 Palestinian political prisoners being held by Israel. Of these, there are 497 administrative detainees, with almost 500 serving sentences longer than 25 years. Among these are 209 children, 46 of whom are under 16 years old, and 48 women.