Freedom Tunnel prisoner Yaqoub Qadri on hunger strike for 11th day

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The media department of Muhjat Al-Quds Foundation for Martyrs, Prisoners, and Wounded confirmed in a statement that the isolated prisoner Yaqoub Mahmoud Ahmed Qadri is on an open hunger strike for the 11th consecutive day to demand the restoration of all his rights he was coerced out of by the "Ohalei Keidar" prison administration.

Muhjat Al-Quds stated that the prisoner confirmed in a letter that he has been on an open-ended hunger strike since the beginning of June, in refusal of the prison administration's decision to close his cantina account, claiming that he owed 7,500 shekels, which he has no clue where it came from.

The Foundation added that he was denied family visits for a period of two months and going out to the square for a period of two weeks, and he recieved a fine of 250 shekels. He stressed that he decided to go on an open hunger strike "in order to recover all the rights stolen from him by the prison administration."

In his letter, Qadri indicated that his situation is very difficult as he faces daily inspections by the prison administration, adding that the prison administration has moved him to a new dumpster-like cell infested with cockroaches, mosquitoes, ants, and bedbugs that feed on his body day and night, all for the sake of breaking his will and forcing him to end his hunger strike without retrieving any of his stolen rights.

Muhjat Al-Quds called on international, human rights institutions, especially the International Committee of the Red Cross and the Human Rights Council of the United Nations, to "carry out their legal and moral responsibilities of exposing the arbitrary practices and crimes of the Zionist occupation prisons against the isolated prisoners, specifically the prisoners of the Freedom Tunnel, and bringing the Zionist officials to justice by forcing them to stand before the International Criminal Court."

It is worth noting that the prisoner Yaqoub Qadri from the village of Bir Al-Basha, in the Jenin governorate in the northern West Bank, was born in 1972 and is single. He was arrested by the Israeli occupation forces on October 18, 2003, and the Israeli court sentenced him to life imprisonment twice, plus 35 years. His charges were "belonging to and being a member of Saraya Al-Quds (Al-Quds Brigades) - the military wing of the Islamic Jihad movement, and participating in operations against the occupation forces."

On September 6, 2021, six prisoners broke out of Gilboa prison in Palestine.

Read more: Meet the Mastermind behind the Gilboa Prison Break

According to Israeli sources, the prisoners who managed to escape through a tunnel were Zakaria Al-Zubaidi, Munadel Yaqoub Nafi'at, Mohammad Qassem Al-Arida, Yaqoub Mahmoud Qadri, Ayham Fouad Kamamji, Mahmoud Abdullah Al-Arida, knowing that the last five are members of the Islamic Jihad Movement.

Mahmoud Al-Aridah and Yaqoub Qadri were re-arrested four days later, on September 10, 2021 in Al-Nasra. Zakaria Al-Zubaidi and Mohammad Al-Aridah were re-arrested the next day, and Ayham Kamamji and Mundadel Nafi'at on Sunday the 19th, after the house they had barricaded themselves in, east of Jenin, was surrounded.

The so-called "Nazareth Court" issued a sentence on May 22 against the Palestinian prisoners who broke out of Gilboa Prison on September 6, in what was later known as the Freedom Tunnel operation.

Al Mayadeen's correspondent said the occupation court sentenced five of the prisoners to five years and eight months in prison, adding that Zakaria Al-Zubaidi was not sentenced today because of his different circumstances.

The court also issued a four-year prison sentence and a fine of 2,000 shekels against the five prisoners who provided assistance to the Freedom Tunnel prisoners as per Israeli claims: Iyad Jaradat, Ali Abu Bakr, Muhammad Abu Bakr, Qusai Merhi and Mahmoud Abu Ashrin.