An urgent appeal from the families of Palestinian prisoners in occupation prisons to the international community

Ramallah - Together - The families of Palestinian political prisoners in the Israeli occupation prisons appealed to the international community, with all its human rights and humanitarian bodies, to intervene urgently to protect our children in the occupation prisons from death. They called for the urgent formation of an international human rights committee to visit Palestinian male and female prisoners in the occupation prisons, to learn about the conditions in which they live, as there are numbers who have been detained for more than 35 years. They also called on the International Committee of the Red Cross to adhere to its legal and humanitarian duties in the face of the crimes and violations that affect the rights of Palestinian prisoners and to visit them, and to work to allow their families to visit them to check on them. They also referred to the request from international bodies to take urgent action in order to pressure the occupation authorities to stop the starvation policy aimed at killing Pale stinian prisoners, both male and female. They demanded that what the Israeli Prison Service administration practices against male and female prisoners be considered war crimes, aiming to kill prisoners, and that an international pressure lobby be formed to follow up on the conditions and lives of Palestinian male and female prisoners in Israeli occupation prisons. They also called for political steps to be taken by the international community through its embassies in Israel in order to follow up on the issue of Palestinian prisoners and visit them, work to improve their living conditions, and provide minimum standards for the treatment of prisoners in accordance with international law. They said: Our demands from the international community are just and humanitarian demands, as we demand that the lives of our children be preserved until they gain freedom, as we have not been able to communicate with them since the start of the war, and no international body has dealt with their case, and their number today is more than 9,300 prisoners. This In addition to the Gaza detainees, whose number is estimated at thousands, and since the war they have faced a policy of enforced disappearance in the camps. They added: While many international political leaders and many international bodies intervened and spoke with the issue of the Israeli prisoners, this is not a matter of comparison with our prisoners who fought for freedom, but it is a matter of reminding this world that the issue of the Palestinian prisoners is an issue. It has existed for many decades, since the beginning of the occupation and before, but this world insists on ignoring their cause and the brutal torture they are subjected to, in various ways and means, and this escalated horrifyingly after the war. They stated: Since the beginning of the war, 18 prisoners who were announced have been martyred in the occupation prisons and camps, in addition to dozens of Gaza detainees who were martyred and the occupation refuses to reveal their identities and the c ircumstances of their martyrdom. They pointed out: In addition to everything we mentioned, more than 3,400 Palestinian detainees are under administrative detention under the pretext of the so-called existence of a 'secret file,' and according to specialized institutions, this number has never actually occurred in history, including women and children. They said: The authorities of the Israeli Prison Service carried out horrific crimes against our prisoners, and violated all international conventions, with the aim of killing them and robbing them of their humanity, based on dozens of testimonies provided by prisoners who gained their freedom after serving their sentences, and through legal teams. They added: Palestinian male and female prisoners face systematic crimes that are unprecedented on a scale that occurs today, and they affect their fate, rights and dignity, through a number of dangerous, systematic policies that the Israeli Prison Service administration has followed against them, including: First : The occupation uses a policy of starvation, depriving prisoners of food, and providing very few unhealthy and insufficient meals, which are exposed to the sun and dust for long hours until they spoil and are then served to the prisoners, to the point that they are devoid of sugar and salt, which exhausts the bodies of male and female prisoners ( Including patients and children), unable to move or navigate inside the cells, some of them fainted more than once, and those who gained their freedom appeared to lose weight, and were like skeletons as a result of the aforementioned policy. Second: The systematic policy of torture, both physically and psychologically, that the prisoner goes through from the moment of his arrest, during the investigation, and through storming the cells, including beatings and insults that affect human dignity, in addition to the humiliating policy of strip searches, inside the cells, or during the transfer of prisoners from one cell to another, or From one section to another, until the moment of their release, knowing that torture was the most prominent factor that led to the martyrdom of prisoners since the beginning of the war, and over the past decades. Third: Deprivation of providing the necessities that can help the prisoner maintain his cleanliness, as water is only provided for two hours a day, and prisoners are only allowed to shower once a week, and each prisoner has only 5 minutes, so that no cleaning materials such as soap are available, or Shampoo, which led to the prisoners suffering from contagious and very painful skin diseases, most notably scabies. Fourth: The cell is overcrowded with prisoners, as it is designed for only 6 prisoners, and today there are between 12-16 prisoners living in the cell, and the electricity is cut off throughout the day, and this prevents the room from being ventilated with fans, and electricity is only provided between From 11 p.m. to 6 a.m., the cell does not have enough covers or mattresses to enable the prisoners to sleep on. Fifth: Med ical crimes resulting from failure to provide the minimum level of treatment and follow-up. Sixth: Restricting the work of legal teams, preventing some of them from visiting prisoners, and imposing a ban on meeting with a lawyer specifically during the first period of detention, which is the most important stage in the fate of any prisoner's case. Seventh: Confiscating all the prisoners' belongings, including clothes and books, and isolating them completely from the outside world, after confiscating television and radios from them. In addition, many of the prisoners have not been able to change or wash their clothes for several months. Eighth: During the transfer of prisoners from one section to another, the repressive forces fired rubber bullets at the prisoners. Ninth: Prisoners are only allowed to leave the cell to the yard (Al-Fura) for one hour a day, and on most days this is canceled for unknown reasons. In light of all the data that we mentioned as families of Palestinian prisoners, we renew our d emands on the international community to protect our children and stop the horrific crimes being committed against them. Source: Maan News Agency