Cold weather, inhumane treatment take a toll on Palestinian prisoners in Israeli prisons

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Palestine's Ministry of Prisoners and Ex-Prisoners stated that the Israeli occupation's Prison Service is deliberately escalating its violations against prisoners in the winter season.

In winter, they storm prisoners' rooms and sections at night and dawn and expose prisoners to rain and extremely cold weather. 

The Ministry pointed out that the administration imposes restrictions on the use of electric and heating devices, preventing prisoners from buying any heater, even at their own expense. 

Extreme cold weather in some prisons, such as in Al-Naqab prison, leaves prisoners with frozen limbs without any heating systems or equipment. 

In addition, the administration adopts a policy of medical neglect without providing the necessary treatment and health care for Palestinian prisoners.

In this context, the Ministry called on the International Red Cross and human rights institutions to provide protection for prisoners and consider the difficult conditions they are living in, as well as make every effort to provide prisoners with all the necessities that protect them from extreme cold weather.

Read more: The Policy of Neglect; Behind the Walls of the Occupation Prisons

Al-Arida suspends hunger strike 

Karim Ajwa, the lawyer of the Commission of Detainees and Ex-Detainees' Affairs, announced on Sunday that the prisoner Mohammad Al-Arida suspended his open hunger strike, which lasted four days.

The lawyer revealed that the prison administration imposed several penalties on Al-Arida, including 14 days in solitary confinement without any of his personal belongings. He does not even have a blanket or a sleeping pillow.

Al-Arida is deprived of family visits and prevented from entering the prison canteen area for two months. Electrical appliances were also withdrawn from his room, and monetary fines were imposed on him.

It is noteworthy that the Israeli occupation had re-arrested prisoner Mohammed Al-Arida along with prisoner Zakaria Al-Zubaidi near the village of Umm Al-Ghanam in the lower Al-Jalil region on September 11, after they managed to liberate themselves along with four others through a tunnel they had dug under Gilboa, one of the most fortified Israeli prisons.

For the 16th consecutive days, approximately 500 administrative prisoners in the Israeli prisons continue to boycott the occupation courts in protest of administrative detention.

In a statement, the Palestinian Prisoners Club underlined that the boycott came in light of the escalation policy pursued by the occupation authorities during the past year, as the number of administrative detention orders issued against former prisoners and new detainees reached 1,595.