Islamic Jihad warns of open confrontation with Israel over prisoner abuse

The Palestinian Islamic Jihad Movement warned on Sunday that Israel’s escalatory measures against Palestinian prisoners would lead to an open confrontation with the movement.

“The [Israeli] occupation measures against the prisoners will lead to an explosion of the situation and an open confrontation,” the movement’s spokesperson, Daoud Shehab, told Anadolu Agency.

He noted that last week, the movement Secretary-General Ziyad Al-Nakhala said the movement will not leave its sons in: “Zionist prisons to be victims at the hands of the enemy, and will support them with everything possible, even if this requires us to go to war for them.”

Over 250 Islamic Jihad detainees began an open-ended hunger strike last week to protest the prison’s “abusive measures” against them.

“These measures are an attempt to cover up the Prison Authority failure and inability which was revealed by the Gilboa Tunnel operation,” Shehab asserted.

On 6 September, six Palestinian prisoners, mainly affiliated with the Islamic Jihad Movement, escaped the Israeli Gilboa maximum security prison but were rearrested two weeks later.

READ: Hospitalised Palestinian prisoner enters 86th day of hunger strike

Earlier on Sunday, the Palestinian Liberation Organisation (PLO)’s Commission for Prisoners Affairs said that the Israeli prison administration is escalating its procedures against the six prisoners of “the great escape”.

This came according to what was quoted by the commission’s lawyer after visiting two prisoners, Mahmoud Al-Ardah and Zakaria Al-Zubaidi (who are among the prisoners who escaped from Gilboa).

Among these measures is the prohibition of the use of the cantina (prisoners’ shop) or electrical tools, and allowing them to go out to the Furah Square (the space) for only one hour per day in a narrow space, according to a statement by the commission.