'Ofer' prisoners decide to shut down sections, return meals

By Al Mayadeen English
Source: Agencies + Al Mayadeen
3 Sep 2023 22:48

Palestinian prisoners in "Ofer" Prison take escalatory steps in response to the Israeli prisons administration's decision to isolate the prison's sections.

Israeli occupation forces outside "Ofer" Prison in the occupied West Bank, on July 12, 2021 (Anadolu Agency)

Prisoners of "Ofer" prison from all Palestinian factions decided on Sunday to close the prison sections, return meals, and move toward dissolving organizational representation, which would create a state of chaos in the prison and force the Israeli occupation prison administration to deal separately with each prisoner.

In a joint statement, the Commission of Detainees and Ex-Detainees Affairs and the Palestinian Prisoners Society (PPC) pointed out that the step comes in response to the prison administration's decision to isolate the sections and separate them from each other, after transferring prisoners with long-term sentences and leaders of the Captive Movement from "Nafha" prison to new sections in "Ofer".

Earlier on Sunday, the Israeli occupation prison administration began transferring 120 prisoners with long-term sentences and leaders of the Captive Movement from "Nafha" prison to a mass isolation section that it set up specifically for prisoners it classifies as "dangerous" in "Ofer" prison.

The Commission of Detainees and Ex-Detainees Affairs and the PPC indicated that the Israeli step comes within the framework of the ongoing aggression against prisoners, and the prison administration's attempt to harm the organizational structures, as well as striking any state of stability that prisoners are trying to create.

According to the joint statement, the latest transfer targeted the same prisoners who were transferred at the beginning of this year from "Hadarim" Prison to "Nafha" Prison.

It is noteworthy that the "Ofer" Prison is the only Israeli prison established in the Palestinian territories occupied in 1967, and this is the first time since the signing of the Oslo Accords that Palestinian prisoners with long-term and life sentences and leaders of the Captive Movement are detained inside it.