[Saturday January 11, 2014] The Palestinian Ministry of Detainees has reported that Palestinian political prisoners held at the Israeli detention facility ‘Ramon’ started a hunger strike to protest the latest serious Israeli assaults carried out against them. Rami Al-‘Alami, a lawyer of the Palestinian Ministry of Detainees, said that the situation at the Ramon Israeli prison could lead to confrontations, especially after four units of the military have continued their assaults against the detainees for the third week in a row.
The soldiers, accompanied by military dogs, broke into the cells of the detainees, violently searching them.
The Ministry said that the detainees discovered that there are hidden cameras in the walls of their rooms, and protested against this serious violation of their rights.
Detainee Abdul-Salam Shokry said that, after the detainees found the hidden cameras and protested the violation, the Prison Administration and the Israeli Security Agency decided to attack the detainees and retrieve the cameras.
Shokry added that the soldiers caused excessive damage to the detainees’ property, broke their electrical equipment and forced the detainees into solitary confinement, in another section, after cuffing them and forcing them to undergo a strip search.
The issue led to clashes between the detainees and the soldiers, who also attacked and struck several detainees, including Kamal Abu Shanab, Yousef Barghouthi, Ibrahim Ziyada and Ahmad Ka’abna.
The prison administration also decided to move the representative of the detainees, Kamal Rajoub, into solitary confinement.
Shokry said that the situation at Ramon prison could deteriorate even more and lead to clashes, should the army and the prison administration continue these violations and assaults.
He said that the detainees started a gradual hunger strike on Saturday, a strike that could lead to an ongoing hunger strike by the detainees, and added that the detainees filed 49 appeals against the Israeli violations.
