The Palestinian Prisoners Society reported on Thursday that the structural conditions of Al Damoun detention facility are imposing real threats on the lives of the Palestinian detainees.
“Israeli is detaining some 300 detainees there under very bad conditions, cold rooms and cracked walls which are draining the rooms with rain and cold wind”, the society reported, “These conditions are also causing serious threats after it appeared that some of the walls might fall on the detainees”.
Several detainees reported that the prison administration is not conducting the needed maintenance to these walls and cracks in spite of the repeated demands of human rights organizations and the appeals of the prisoners.
Detainee Shadi Yousef Kameel, 22, from Qabatia town near the West Bank of Jenin, said that the rooms at the facility are very cold, and that the ceilings are leaking whenever it rains. Kameel is scented to four consecutive years.
Also, the detainees do not have enough clothes, covers and other needed materials to water themselves during winter time.
Detainee Majdi Mahdi Nasser, from Nablus, who is sentenced to eight years, said that the prison is very old, since it was constructed at the time of the Turkish mandate, before the British forces occupied Palestine.
“You can feel the walls moving with the wind”, Nasser said, “East time there is strong wind and heavy rain, we feel that the walls will collapse over us”.
Prison administration at Al Damoun facility decided to close it in1999 after it became unsafe as a result of its old shaky structure, but Israel reopened it after Al Aqsa Intifada started late 2000.
Currently, there are some 300 Palestinian detainees imprisons in Al Damoun detention facility facing very bad living conditions.
