International calls to protect Palestinian prisoners from Israel’s brutality

The Popular International Committee to Support Palestine has called on the international community to provide protection for the Palestinian prisoners detained in Israeli prisons.

The commission’s head, Dr. Essam Youssef said in a statement that occupation authorities violate all international laws and covenants by escalating acts of oppression and abuse against Palestinian prisoners.

He warned that Israel’s fierce repression campaigns against Palestinian prisoners endanger their lives, explaining that the Palestinian prisoners are resisting the Israeli oppression where authorities use soldiers to confront unarmed prisoners.

Youssef stressed on the need for the international community to exert pressure on Israel in order to force it to comply with the international law which guarantees special protection to this category of prisoners on the grounds that they are resistance fighters and not criminals.

Occupation authorities have imposed punitive measures on Palestinian prisoners including reducing the time prisoners are allowed to spend outside to one hour and reducing the number of detainees in the prison yard at any one time. They have also closed the prisoners’ shop, from which they buy essentials including soap, and moved prisoners who are members of the Islamic Jihad movement around into different prisons.

This comes after six Palestinian prisoners escaped the high security Gilboa Prison earlier this week.

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