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Tensions escalate in Ofer prison after Israelis storm section 21

October 25, 2021 at 3:34 pm

Israeli forces outside Ofer prison in the West Bank on 12 July 2021 [Issam Rimawi/Anadolu Agency]

The Palestinian Commission of detainees and detainees’ affairs yesterday reported severe tension in the Israeli Ofer prison, after the so-called section 21 storm and prisoners’ abuse.

The commission said in a statement Israeli repression units were “present in the vicinity of the section”, adding that they were threatening to “storm the section”.

The Palestinian Prisoners Club reported yesterday that the Ofer authorities had stormed the detention’s section 21 and had carried out “extensive searches in it.”

In an official statement, the Club said that a confrontation had taken place between one of the Palestinian prisoners and a jailer, after the Ofer prison administration had threatened to “re-storm the section and isolate the prisoner and abuse him.” The statement added that the prison was “completely closed” later on the day.

In response, the inmates had returned their meals in protest of the prison administration’s move.

The Ofer prison has been experiencing many incursions and abuses against the inmates by the repression units since the beginning of the year. A large-scale abuse of Palestinian prisoners held in section 1 at the Gilboa prison was also reported.

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