Nearly 16 continuous hours between the crossings and the buses the time it takes families of Palestinian detainees to visit their relatives in the Israeli prisons. And there’s not an aim of all of this except degradation and humiliation; a policy practiced by the Israeli occupation authorities (IOA) against the families as confirmed by human rights activists.
Last night (17/1/2017) on Beit Hanoun (Erez) border crossing in the north of the Gaza Strip the Israeli authorities held a number of mothers of Palestinian detainees for long hours on their way home from a visit to their sons in Ramon prison.
Talking to Quds press the mother of the detainee Asaad Zo’rob narrates how she and four other mothers were held last night by the IOA at Erez for 5 hours.
Hasna Zo’rob said “when the bus of the detainees’ families arrived to Erez from Ramon prison after our visit ended the Israeli occupation forces obstructed our passage to the border crossing then most families were allowed to enter the hall except for five women and I was one of them.”
She added “four mothers and I were held in the waiting hall in the extreme cold without knowing the reason of delaying us that long. We spent 5 hours waiting. It was one of the most difficult times on us.”
She pointed out that one of the mothers’ health conditions deteriorated and had lost consciousness due to high blood sugar. “Holding her in such cold weather has worsened her situation.”
She emphasized that they were terrified after the occupation forces launched training acts in front of them. “We did not know what will they do to us”.
A Tiring Visit
Zo’rob went on saying “the visit was one of the most tiring ones that I’ve experienced since my son was detained 16 years ago.”
She confirmed that after making contacts and with the intervention of several parties they were allowed to enter one of the rooms to shelter from the extreme cold until the end of the problem which they were told was “technical”.
She said that after waiting for nearly five hours they were allowed to leave the crossing accompanied by a crew of the International Committee of the Red Cross the authority supervising the visit noting that she arrived home around midnight to find her family in a state of anxiety about her condition. She said however that the mothers were not interrogated by the Israel authorities.
For her part the spokeswoman of the Red Cross in Gaza Suhair Zaqout emphasized that “a technical problem at Erez border crossing has led to the delay of five detainees’ mothers at the crossing”.
Zaqout said “Our team was present at the crossing to check the details of the issue and they remained with the delayed mothers of the prisoners until the problem was over then they were driven home in the Red Cross cars.”
She added “The Red Cross cannot interfere with the procedures at the border crossing since we have no authority on it”.
Obsolete Excuse
The director of Waed Society Abdullah Qandil expressed resentment at what has happened to the mothers of the detainees last night at the Beit Hanoun Crossing and holding them up for that long in a “degrading manner.”
He considered that IOA claims about a technical problem at the crossing systems is an Israeli “obsolete excuse” which aims to “humiliate the families of the detainees during their visits in general and to humiliate the five mothers in particular by holding them for long hours in inhumane circumstances.”
He continued “The suffering of the detainees’ families in the visits does not just start since their arrival at the Beit Hanoun crossing it starts at the very early morning hours in the day of the visit and it continues at the Beit Hanoun crossing and in the long way to the prisons that are located dozens of kilometers away from their homes in addition to the humiliating inspections at the prisons and on their way back.”
He explained that most of those who are allowed to visit their relatives are elderly and sick people where a mother would go out from her home at three in the morning to start the travel and comes back at seven in the evening which equals 16 continuous hours to be allowed to see her son for only 45 minutes.
The human rights activist called on the Red Cross to try to influence the occupation authorities to improve the detainees’ visitation conditions and to alleviate the pressure on their families during the visits.
The IOA allowed resumption of the visits program of the detainees’ families from the Gaza Strip after the detainees had launched a hunger strike in April 2012 that was terminated 28 days later by the signing of the “dignity” agreement between the detainees’ representatives and the Israeli prison service under Egyptian patronage.
The deal stipulates resuming the Gazans families’ visits as well as releasing detainees from solitary confinement besides ending the administrative detention and giving back the detainees what was taken from them during the hunger strike.
The occupation authorities are currently detaining about seven thousand Palestinians including 370 prisoners from the Gaza Strip most of whom are serving long terms.
