Winter arrives every year as an unwelcome guest for Palestinian prisoners in the Israeli occupation jails especially those held temporarily in detention and interrogation centers.
The lack of winter clothes blankets and heating devices in the first weeks of their detention doubles the Palestinian prisoners’ suffering.
According to the Prisoners Media Office the newly arrested West Bank Palestinians are immediately transferred to interrogation centers and the only clothes they have are the ones they were wearing at the time of their arrest.
There are about seven Israeli detention and interrogation centers where Palestinian prisoners are held during the first days or weeks of their detention.
No heating
The Prisoners Media Office said that the Israeli detention centers do not have adequate heating facilities blankets or hot water. Moreover the food provided to the prisoners is bad in terms of quantity and quality and does not meet their bodies’ need for energy on cold days.
Sometimes the food is dirty the office added so the prisoners prefer to stay hungry over eating it.
Some sick prisoners need particular kinds of meals which they are deliberately denied by the Israeli Prison Service.
Many Palestinian prisoners spend months in these interrogation centers under harsh conditions. The only clothes the Israel Prison Service gives to prisoners are the light brown prison overalls which do not protect them from the biting cold and worn out blankets.
Etzion
Etzion is considered one of the worst Israeli detention centers in the Occupied West Bank with its poorly equipped prison cells and the deliberate negligence policy pursued by the Israel Prison Service against Palestinian detainees.
Further deepening the suffering of Palestinian prisoners the administration of the Etzion prison carries out regular arbitrary search campaigns in the winter during which the detainees are ordered to stay outside their cells with no heavy clothes or blankets and sometimes they are even asked to remove some or all of their clothing despite the cold weather.
The Prisoners Media Office appealed to the international human rights organizations to visit the Israeli detention and interrogation centers to learn about the inhumane practices the Palestinian prisoners are exposed to. Some of these practices amount to war crimes it noted.
It also called on these organizations to pressure the Israeli occupation to abide by the international humanitarian law while dealing with the prisoners.
