Ayalon detention; `“a living hell`

A freed detainee from Tubas area in the West Bank described the situation in al-Ramleh detention, Ayalon branch, as a “living hell”, as a result of the repeated attacks against the detainees and harsh living conditions.

Section 8 in Ayalon detention is a branch for solitary imprisonment, there, and amongst the darkness of its cells and the coldness of its climate, the detainees have to face daily humiliation and intolerable living conditions.

The detainee, who chose not to reveal his name, said that recently 50 new detainees were transferred to this section, and placed in solitary confinement.

The detainees were informed that they will be transferred to the Negev detention later on.

“Section 8 is not fit for human use, it’s a living hell, coldness, darkness, and repeatedly ‘flooded’ by the bad sewerage”, the detainee said.

“It is filled with bugs, insects and with a very cold humid climate which passes through your bones until you can’t feel anything”, he added.

The Sewerage did not only flood to the cells, it swept the rooms, adding more suffering and pain to the detainees who are already facing harsh conditions and repeated attacks.

“Everything is very bad there, even the food, we eat it because we have to survive, it’s very bad, and in many cases we were given corrupt food which we can’t eat, and above all, the food is never enough.

There are several detainees in Ayalon detention who need immediate medical care; some need hospitalization since there are detainees in Ayalon suffering from Cancer, skin diseases, and slipped disk.

– A ruptured “slipped’ disk in the back occurs when all or part of a vertebral disk is forced through the bones of the spinal column.

“The best medicine the detainees can get there, is a painkilling pill, it’s the known prescription of every disease in detention”, he said.

Communication with the outer world is completely blocked, and barred, no TV sets, phones, newspapers or any reading material allowed in.  

On May 15, 2005, Palestinian detainees held in solitary in Israeli prisons sent a letter through the Palestinian Prisoners’ Society to the Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and the Palestinian Authority describing their daily suffering and harsh living conditions.

“We aren’t asking for the impossible, we want our freedom, we want out of these graves we are buried in, alive, we appeal you, Mr. President and the P.A to inflect pressures on Israel locally and international in order to release the detainees and expose the daily humiliation and harsh conditions we face”, the letter wrote.

A recent report published by the Palestinian Prisoners Society revealed that there are three main detentions which have solitary branches,

– Bir Shiva detention; it has three isolation branches were detainees are held together but not allowed to have any contact with other sections or the outer world, one branch called section four, 54 detainees, Eshel; two detainees, and Room 1, two detainees, in addition to eight detainees held in solitary tiny cells.

– Ayalon (al-Ramleh) detention; currently three detainees are held in solitary confinement.

– Nitzan, two detainees held in solitary confinement.

Israel started using the solitary detention policy against Palestinian political; detainees since 1967.

“It is a process of slow physical and psychological death, the detainees are isolated from the world, isolated from their lawyers, facing harsh conditions and deprived from their basic rights, they are living in ‘dark graves’, small cells which never saw the sunlight, and continuously smelly and filled with bugs, insects and humidity, there are detainees who were confined to solitary more than four years ago, yet they are still there”, the society reported. 

May 5, 2005 detainee Abdul-Fattah Yousef Raddad, from Saida, near Tulkarem died in al-Ramleh detention hospital of wounds sustained during his arrest on May 2.

Raddad needed medical treatment and equipment not found at the detention hospital, which complicated his condition leading to his death.