The Palestinian Prisoners Club announced on Tuesday evening that new infections with the coronavirus were recorded among Palestinian prisoners in another section of the Negev desert prison which is Section 10. Previous infections were recorded in Section 3 only.
The club stated in a statement that the number of coronavirus cases in the Negev prison had reached 49 since December 31 2020.
It explained that there are nearly 75 prisoners in Section 10 which means that the risks of the spread of the pandemic are escalating greatly. The Israeli Prison Service (IPS) keeps procrastinating in announcing the results of prisoners’ corona test results which contributed to the high number of infections it added.
The IPS decided to transfer three prisoners’ representatives in three sections to quarantine after it was found that they had contacted a jailer who was infected with the coronavirus according to the club.
The number of prisoners infected with the coronavirus since the beginning of the outbreak reached 189 cases most of which were in Gilboa prison in November 2020.
The club called on the international authorities led by the World Health Organization to double pressure on the occupation to immediately release the sick prisoners whose number is approximately 700 and the elderly. Also it demanded them to ensure real preventive measures within the prisoners’ sections under the supervision of a neutral third party and to ensure that the coronavirus vaccine is provided to the prisoners.
For its part the Prisoners and Ex-prisoners Affairs Authority said that Palestinian prisoners in Etzion detention center south of Bethlehem suffer from severe cold are deprived of enough food and defecate in empty water containers.
The authority’s lawyer Jacqueline Ferarja visited the prisoners in Etzion on Monday and said that the conditions of the prisoners are a disgrace to the concept of humanity. 22 prisoners suffer from lack of hygiene severe cold and are being deprived of enough food.
Ferarja revealed that the prison suffers from overcrowding and the food is of poor quantity and most of the prisoners complain of hunger. They also suffer from a lack of winter clothes and blankets and from damage to the toilets which forces the prisoners to defecate in plastic containers.
“The situation is beyond words the detention conditions in Etzion are dangerous and the concerned international institutions must act immediately to stop their suffering” she stressed.
