The Ramallah-based Palestinian Committee for Prisoners and Ex-prisoners, said on Monday, that Israeli authorities have reported three Coronavirus-positive cases among Israeli wardens in both the Ofer and Nitsan jails, where there are hundreds of Palestinian prisoners.
The committee added that the discovery of such positive cases signals a crisis for Palestinian prisoners, in a time when Israeli Prisons Authority (IPA) has not taken any precautionary measures to safeguard the more than 5,000 Palestinian prisoners, held in 23 Israeli jails and custody centers.
A statement, released Monday by the committee, read “In light of the spread of the Coronavirus pandemic, worldwide, including Israel and the occupied Palestinian territories, we are concerned that the disease could spread soon inside Israeli prisons. Therefore, we demand the IPA to immediately take whatever necessary measures to sterilize the prisons for the safety of Palestinian prisoners”.
Warning against the spread of the Coronavirus, the prisoners committee held Israeli authorities responsible for any possible Coronavirus infections among Palestinian prisoners.
The committee called on all relevant international organizations, including the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), to intervene by pressuring the Israeli authorities to provide necessary medical care and implement precautionary measures to prevent any further cases of Coronavirus.
The committee’s statement noted that dozens of Palestinian prisoners are patients with chronic diseases and their immunity is untenable, in a way that makes them vulnerable to the invisible and uncontrollable virus.
