1,000 Palestinian prisoners go on hunger strike in IOF prisons

By Al Mayadeen English
Source: Agencies
17 Aug 2023 21:58
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The Director of the Prisoners Information Office urges Palestinians to stand in solidarity with the Palestinian prisoners, calling on them to rally, mobilize, and engage with the IOF.

A prison guard stands at the Gilboa prison in northern occupied Palestine, Monday, Sept. 6, 2021 (AP)

The Director of the Palestinian Prisoners Information Office, Ahmed Al-Qudra, called on the revolutionary Palestinian youth in the West Bank to "ignite points of confrontation with the [Israeli] occupation," tomorrow, Friday, in protest against the brutal attack against Palestinian prisoners in Israeli occupation prisons.

Al-Qudra also urged for mass rallies tomorrow, after Friday prayers, as an expression of "popular and factional anger at the Zionist aggression against the prisoners."

The Director pointed out that after the prisoners entered into a collective hunger strike, "all Palestinians must mobilize and take to the streets in support of the prisoners in their battle against the oppression of the jailer."

This comes after nearly 1,000 prisoners across a number of Israeli occupation prisons initiated an open-ended hunger strike, on Thursday evening, in protest of the aggression occupation prison administrations conduct against them.

IOF raid Palestinian prisoners, lead them to unknown location

Israeli repression units violently stormed into Block 3 of Al-Naqab Prison on Thursday morning and transferred the Palestinian prisoners to an unknown destination.

The Palestinian Prisoners Information Office said, "A large [Israeli] force from the prison administration's repressive unit was deployed in front of the prison blocks, amid a state of extreme tension."

Meanwhile, Palestine's Ministry of Prisoners and Ex-Prisoners held the Israeli occupation entity and its Prison Service "fully responsible for the life and safety of the prisoners of Block 3 in the Al-Naqab Prison," that were transferred after being "subjected to brutal assaults."

The Ministry warned that "continuing to tighten the grip on the prisoners will escalate the situation in all prisons, and that the brutal assault on Block 3 in the Al-Naqab Prison is a cowardly act and criminal behavior that the prisoners will not let pass as a normal occurrence."

For its part, the Waed Prisoners Affairs Association confirmed that "the current raid is the largest in years, and it came two days after extremist [Police Minister] Itamar Ben-Gvir visited the prison and instructed that additional restrictions be placed on the prisoners."

Similarly, the spokesperson for the Prisoners Information Office, Hazem Hassanein, stated, "The current brutal suppression, assault, and violation of prisoners' rights taking place in Al-Naqab Prison, especially in Block 3, is a direct result of the recent visit by extremist Ben-Gvir to the prison a few days ago, during which he ordered that the prisoners be clamped down on and their rooms their rooms and blocks be raided."