The Commission of Prisoners and Ex-Prisoners Affairs said on Friday that the Israel Prison Service (IPS) escalated its harassment against the striking prisoners and made ending the hunger strike a condition for providing the necessary medical treatment.
The Commission affirmed in a press release that this policy is not only pursued by the IPS staff but is also shared by Israeli doctors working in the Israeli prisons which is “a blatant disregard for the ethics of the medical profession and a flagrant violation of all international and humanitarian conventions”.
It noted that the testimonies coming from the Israeli jails confirm that the Israeli doctors are involved in torturing and blackmailing the striking prisoners in order to pressure them to end their hunger strike.
All international conventions oblige the detaining state to protect its detainees from death and diseases and prohibit depriving them of their right to receive the necessary medical care the Commission stressed. It asked the medical staff working in the Israeli prisons to abide by the medical ethics.
The Commission called on the World Health Organization (WHO) to shoulder its responsibility in view of the crimes committed by a number of Israeli doctors against the striking prisoners to intervene immediately to stop these crimes and to pressure the Israeli Doctors Syndicate to hold all those involved in violating the medical ethics and the principles of the international humanitarian law accountable.
In the same context the media committee of the Freedom and Dignity hunger strike reported that the striking prisoners in Nafha Prison are subjected to abusive methods including beatings to end their strike.
Following the visit of the Palestinian Prisoner Society’s lawyer to the hunger-striking prisoner Samer Abu Diak who is from Jenin the media committee said that the IPS special forces carry out searches and raids in the prisons around the clock.
Abu Diak said that the IPS forces attacked a number of striking prisoners few days ago beating and spraying them with gas as one of the prisoners was unable to stand while they were checking the windows. He pointed out that any prisoner who protests these practices gets transferred to solitary confinement.
Abu Diak pointed to the continuous transfers imposed on the prisoners by the IPS emphasizing that no prisoner is held in a cell for more than three days.
He told the lawyer that these assaults and practices will not break their will but will increase their strength and determination to continue their battle until they achieve their demands and regain their dignity.
More than 1600 Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails have been on hunger strike for 26 consecutive days demanding an end to medical negligence administrative detention and solitary confinement in addition to providing proper medical care and improving their detention conditions.
