GAZA (PIC)– The ministry of prisoners in the PA government in Gaza Strip has warned that the Israeli occupation authority has embarked on gradual escalation of quelling measures against the Palestinian prisoners in Israeli occupation jails after failure of the prisoners’ swap deal.
Riyadh Al-Ashqar the ministry’s spokesman said in a press release on Monday that the IOA was heading toward a “serious escalation against the prisoners”.
He noted that the Israeli prisons authority had already started implementing the oppressive measures sanctioned by the special ministerial committee formed after the failure of the swap negotiations.
The IPA deprived prisoners in Jalbo Shatta Nafha and Hasharon from viewing Al-Jazeera TV channel at the pretext it was supporting resistance and deprived the Gaza Strip prisoners from having telephone contacts with their relatives Ashkar noted.
He added that such measures would not weaken Hamas’s position in the swap deal and on the contrary it would lead to prisoners’ angry reactions.
For his part the justice minister Mohammed Al-Ghoul said that the Palestinian factions capturing Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit would not give up on their demands for the release of 1000 Palestinian prisoners.
He held the IOA fully responsible for failure of the swap deal and told relatives of prisoners during their weekly sit-in on Monday in Gaza that the IOA would eventually free the Palestinian captives.
Meanwhile Gabi Ashkenazi the Israeli chief of staff said during a tour of a recruitment center on Monday that his government was still exerting efforts for the release of Shalit but would not elaborate.
He only added Israel was probing all possible means toward that end.
