The Palestine Center for Prisoners Studies has monitored the implementation of 1,300 arrests by the occupation authorities against Palestinians during the first quarter of this year.
The center said in a report, on Sunday, that the occupation authorities have escalated, during the current year, the policy of arrests they are carrying out against the Palestinians, targeting all segments and groups of the people, with a focus on national and Islamic leaders, especially after the announcement of the legislative elections.
Riyadh Al-Ashqar, Director of the Center, considered that the arrests have become a drain on the Palestinian people, and a tool of oppression that the occupation uses to fight it and influence its resistance, so hardly an hour passes without the occupation carrying out an arrest operation during which one or more citizens, and on some days the arrests amount to dozens.
Al-Ashqar indicated that the arrest cases among children under 18 years of age during the first quarter of this year reached (230) cases, most of them from occupied Jerusalem, some of them wounded, in addition to the detention of sick children who need continuous medical care.
The cases of detention among women reached (30) cases, most of them from occupied Jerusalem, among them a number of stationers, and they were released after their removal from Al-Aqsa Mosque.
While the Gaza Strip witnessed 16 arrests during the same period of the year, 14 of them were young men who approached the eastern borders and most of them were released after being interrogated.
Meanwhile, the occupation continued to exploit the Beit Hanoun / Erez checkpoint as a trap for the Palestinians, and to exploit their humanitarian need for the crossing, whether for treatment or trade, as the young Wala Al-Rifai, 35, from Al-Maghazi Camp, was arrested while on his way to Al-Maqasid Hospital in Jerusalem to perform an operation for his wife, who suffers from brain cancer, The citizen Karam Abu Hadayed, a resident of Khan Yunis, was arrested during an interview with the occupation intelligence.
Al-Ashqar indicated that the occupation carried out a wide campaign of arrests since the beginning of this year targeting the national and Islamic leaders in addition to raiding the homes of others and making clear threats to them not to participate in the upcoming legislative elections.
The director of the Palestine Prisoners Center for Studies pointed out that the most prominent event during the first quarter of the new year is the large spread of the Corona virus among the prisoners, and the increase in the number of infected prisoners from 140 prisoners at the end of last year, to 368 prisoners until the end of March, as a result of the recklessness of the occupation. The lives of the prisoners and the failure to take measures to prevent or limit the spread of the Corona pandemic among the prisoners.
He noted that the same period witnessed a deterioration in the health of a number of prisoners to the point of danger as a result of deliberate medical negligence against them, and some of them were transferred to the occupation hospitals, most notably the prisoner Gamal Amr (49 years) from Hebron, who suffers from a cancerous tumor in the liver and kidneys, and nerve problems. The prisoner, Mazouz Bashart (45 years), from Tubas, who suffers from severe back pain and cannot walk, and the captive Ibrahim Ghunaimat (42 years old) from Hebron, who suffers from clogged arteries and weak heart muscle, and needs to install a heart battery urgently, in addition to Other captives.
While this period witnessed the martyrdom of the freed prisoner, Muhammad Salah El-Din, 20 years old from the town of Hizma, Jerusalem district, as a result of his suffering from cancer, which he contracted during his detention at the occupation, where he was serving a two-year prison sentence, and 14 months after his arrest, his health declined significantly, and he was forced The occupation forces transferred him to Ramla Hospital, where it was found that he had cancer in the bone marrow in an advanced stage as a result of not being taken care of or carrying out urgent examinations for him.
The occupation released him 16 months after his arrest on an exceptional basis, after his health condition greatly decreased as a result of the penetration of cancer in his body, and all attempts to cure him failed until he was killed 4 months after his release.
The occupation courts issued (280) administrative decisions during the first quarter of this year, between new and renewed, among them (201) decisions to renew administrative detention for additional periods extending between two months to 6 months, reaching (5) times for some prisoners, while (79) An administrative decision was issued against my first-time prisoners, most of whom were freed prisoners who were re-arrested.
