The Palestinian Prisoners’ Information Office announced on Tuesday that the number of prisoners infected with the coronavirus in the Israeli Gilboa prison has reached 81 cases and the number is expected to increase in the coming hours and days.
The office stated that the Israeli Prison Service (IPS) closed the prison and canceled all visits after discovering 70 new infections after the results of 79 samples were revealed.
The IPS will transfer the non-infected prisoners from Gilboa prison to another prison for a period of 14 days according to the office.
68 prisoners infected with the coronavirus are from section (3) and two from section (1).
The Prisoners and Ex-prisoners Affairs Authority reported on Monday a Hamas leader Abbas Al-Sayed was infected with the coronavirus.
Abbas Al-Sayed is a military and political leader one of the most prominent political leaders of the Islamic Resistance Movement Hamas and one of the most prominent symbols of the Palestinian Captive Movement.
In a statement the authority said that the prisoners in Gilboa Ramon and Nafha prisons will initiate escalatory steps against the IPS following the spread of the coronavirus in Section 3 of Gilboa Prison.
The authority added that the IPS is deliberately negligent and careless in protecting prisoners from this pandemic.
The number of prisoners in Gilboa is 360 and they are distributed in 4 sections with 90 prisoners in section (3).
The office indicated that intense anger prevails in the occupation prisons at present as a result of the IPS negligence in taking measures to protect prisoners from the coronavirus.
The office expressed fears over the possible spread of the coronavirus in the Israeli prisons due to the transfer process that the IPS made last week. Last Wednesday the IPS stormed Gilboa and transferred several prisoners from Gilboa to other prisons.
The prisoners are calling for conducting coronavirus examination of all prisoners and improving the quality and level of health services in prison clinics.
The Palestinian prisoners in Israeli prisons suffer from extremely difficult and poor detention conditions that lack the lowest standards of hygiene and sanitation in addition to overcrowding.
Since the beginning of the corona pandemic the occupation authorities violated the rights of prisoners such as withdrawing about 140 items of materials sold inside the prison canteen including cleaners and sterilizers. Also there are no preventive measures inside the prisons which contributed to the spread of coronavirus among the prisoners.
