9000 Palestinian detainees in 21 central Israeli prisons and detention facilities carried out on Sunday a one-day hunger strike in protest to the bad living conditions they face and the repeated violations practiced against them.
Hundreds of detainees present in Israeli interrogation facilities and in military camps in the occupied West Bank were excluded from the strike since it was difficult to contact them.
The detainees said that their Sunday hunger strike is the first step which could be followed by a continuous general strike in all detention facilities.
Recently, soldiers guarding several detention facilities and prisons confined dozens of detainees to solitary imprisonment, completely isolated them from the rest of the detainees and were barred from meeting their lawyers or representatives of the Red Cross.
Israel uses the solitary imprisonment as a means to break the steadfastness of the detainees by isolating them from each other and from the rest of the World. Dozens of isolated detainees are sentenced to a minimum of one life-term.
Detainee Ahmad Doudeen. member of Hamas, was confined to solitary for eight years, several other detainees were confined to solitary for five years or more, such as detainees Hasan Salama, Ahmad Al Moghrabi, Abdullah Al Barghouthi, Mazin Malsa, Jamal Abu Al Haija, Ala’ Rayyan and others.
The Palestinian Prisoners Society reported that in most of the cases, Israel uses the solitary confinement as a means to take revenge from the detainees who carried attacks against Israeli targets.
The society added that prison administration also bars the detainees from their visitation rights. The families of those detainees are not allowed to visit them “for security reasons” as the administration labels it without providing any further explanation.
Moreover, there are at least 1000 detainees who are sick, injured, disable or suffer chronic diseases but are not provided with any medication or medical care, which led to further health complications.
