According to data published by the "Prisoners of Palestine" Center for Studies, the occupation forces arrested 250 Palestinian citizens, including 54 children and 6 women, during the past month (March).
The center said in its monthly report today, that the occupation authorities continue the campaigns of arrests among the Palestinians, despite the world´s preoccupation with the Corona pandemic, which afflicted thousands of "Israelis" as well. He pointed out that the occupation arrested 8 citizens from the Gaza Strip last month, three of whom were merchants who were arrested during their movement at the Beit Hanoun crossing in the northern Gaza Strip, while 5 other youths who crossed the eastern borders with the Strip to the Palestinian interior were arrested. At the beginning of last month, the occupation authorities demolished the homes of the two captives, "Walid Hanatsheh," and "Yazan Maghamis" in Ramallah, after accusing them of participating in the Ein Poppin operation that killed a settlement near Ramallah. The Center pointed out that the occupation continued to target Palestinian women as well as minors with arrests, as 54 cases of detention of minor children, the majority of whom were from occupied Jerusalem, were monitored, as well as 6 arrests targeting Palestinian women and girls. He pointed out that the occupation practices towards the prisoners are a clear disregard for their lives, as he refused during the past month and the implementation of the required safety and prevention measures to prevent the arrival of the Corona virus in prisons remains. The occupation refuses to sterilize prisons, or conduct real checks for prisoners who are newly transferred to prisons from abroad or from interrogation and detention centers to ensure that they are free of the disease, which makes disease access to prisons an imperative. He added that the Prisons Administration and refraining from harming the prisoners decided to deny the prisoners the purchase of dozens of items from the prison canteen, including cleaning materials and soap, which led the prisoners to use toothpaste and shaving to clean the rooms and the spree squares . The Center affirmed that prisons prevail since last month of a state of extreme congestion and pressure as a result of the occupation´s reckless disregard for the lives of the prisoners by not taking any measures for safety and prevention, and confiscating their rights. And the prisoners of Palestine added, "As a result of this, the Jerusalemite prisoner, Ayman Ribhi Al-Sharbati," burned his guard rooms in Nafha Prison as a reaction and a way to draw the world´s attention to the prisoners ’suffering and disdain for their lives." The center accused the occupation of racism in dealing with the prisoners. At a time when the occupation government releases hundreds of Jewish criminal prisoners, as part of its fight against the spread of the Corona virus, it refuses to release any Palestinian prisoners for the same reason, even if it is sick, elderly, women and children. The Center’s statement stated that the occupation authorities, instead of releasing the detained administrators without accusing him under these circumstances, continued during the past March to issue administrative decisions against the prisoners. The mock occupation courts issued 65 administrative detention decisions, including 40 new decisions for the first time, the majority of whom were released prisoners who were re-arrested again and imposed an administrative charge, and 25 decisions to renew the detention periods of administrative prisoners for new times, ranging from two months to six months . The Center called for the intervention of international institutions to stop the policy of arrests at these times, which pose a threat to the lives of detainees, and to release the sick prisoners, the elderly, women and children without condition, because they are the most vulnerable groups. He called on the World Health Organization to send a medical delegation urgently to the prisons in order to be acquainted with the crime that the prisoners are exposed to in light of the contempt for their lives .
