Israel forces search Palestinian prisoners’ cells in Rimon jail

Israeli forces raided section 4 of the Israeli Rimon prison in the early hours of yesterday and searched Palestinian prisoners’ belongings.

The Palestinian Prisoners and Former Prisoners’ Affairs Committee reported that Israeli suppression forces “provocatively and viciously” searched the belongings of Palestinian prisoners.

Israeli Prison Services (IPS) also imposed strict restrictions on prisoners in sections 1 and 4, in addition to preventing them from going out to the prison’s yard.

Israeli suppression forces have regularly used overnight raids, confiscation of personal belongings and forcible prison transfers to suppress resistance among Palestinian prisoners.

A small fraction of Palestinians detained by Israel are held inside the occupied West Bank territory, while the vast majority are transferred to prisons inside Israel, limiting their access to their families, legal support, and communities, and also stripping detainees of their basic rights under the Fourth Geneva Convention.

VIDEO: Israel fines Palestinian prisoners in further crackdown on Al-Naqab, Ramon facilities

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.