'Israel' extends solitary confinement of Mahmoud al-Arida

By Al Mayadeen English
Source: Agencies
1 May 2023 18:32

Mahmoud al-Arida has entered his twenty-seventh year in the Israeli occupation's prisons.

Palestinian prisoner Mahmoud al-Arida, the architect of Operation Freedom Tunnel and one of its heroes (Archive)

The Israeli occupation court extended Monday the solitary confinement of prisoner Mahmoud al-Arida, the architect of Operation Freedom Tunnel and one of its heroes, for another six months.

This comes shortly after the Israeli occupation forces raided last Thursday evening the prison cell of Mahmoud al-Arida, the mastermind of Operation Freedom Tunnel, which saw six Palestinian prisoners reclaiming their freedom from the Israeli occupation's prisons, in Askalan prison, sources told Al Mayadeen on Friday.

It is noteworthy that prisoner Mahmoud al-Arida, 47 years old, is from the town of Arraba, south of Jenin. He entered his twenty-seventh year in the Israeli occupation prisons.

He was arrested on September 21, 1996, and he was sentenced to life in prison, in addition to 15 years on charges of participating in resistance operations. That was not his first time behind bars, as he was first arrested in 1992 and spent 41 months in the Israeli occupation's prisons.

Sources familiar with the matter told Al Mayadeen last Wednesday that prisoner Mahmoud al-Arida has been suffering under severe measures taken against him while in solitary confinement at the occupation's "Ramon" Prison.

The Israeli prisons' administration is aiming to isolate the Palestinian prisoner from everything going on around him by revoking his visitation rights illegally, as he is transferred during visitation hours or his parents are banned from visiting him under the pretext that they pose a security threat, the sources added.

He is prohibited from making contact with any other prisoner, it was revealed to Al Mayadeen. Al-Arida has presented complaints to the occupation's prison authority, but his complaints went unanswered.

On September 6, 2021, al-Arida was one of six prisoners who broke out of Gilboa Prison in a heroic operation that shook the Israeli occupation's trust in its security system to the core.

The Freedom Tunnel prisoners are Mahmoud al-Arida, Zakaria al-Zubaidi, Yaqoub Qadri, Mohammed al-Arida, Ayham Kamamji, and Munadel Nafi'at.

Muhjat Al-Quds Foundation said in January that the Israeli Prison Service has detained 4 prisoners who partook in the heroic act of aiding the prisoners of the Freedom Tunnel and took them to different prison facilities.

The detained prisoners are Kosai Rabih Mohamad Merhi and Ali Mohamad Nazmi Abu Bakir who were taken from isolation in "Megiddo" prison to "Ayalon" prison; Iyad Ibrahim Hasan Jradat who was transferred from "Megiddo" prison to "Rimonim" prison; and Mohamad Mahmoud Nazmi Abu Bakir who was transferred from "Megiddo" prison to isolation in "Ramon" prison.

Operation Freedom Tunnel has 'Israel' up against the wall

Israeli media reported that the Committee charged with investigating Operation Freedom Tunnel has reached serious conclusions that left the Police Minister with no choice but to dismiss the head of the occupation's Prison Service, Katy Perry.

Israeli KAN public broadcaster political commentator Moti Gilat said sources in the Police Ministry believe that the Minister will have no choice but to dismiss Perry within two weeks of the committee issuing its report on the incident.

"One of the members of the committee, retired Judge Menachem Finkelstein, met with Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir at his request and informed him verbally of the seriousness of the results of the report that will be published and made him understand that he would have no choice but to dismiss them and send them home."

"The minister summoned senior officials from the Prison Service and asked them about their opinion of who was worthy and appropriate to head the Prison Service after listening to the results of this 200-page report," he further revealed.