The Israeli Prison Service (IPS) returned 100 Palestinian prisoners affiliated with Fatah and Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) to Ramon prison Monday morning, according to Sawt al-Asra (Voice of Prisoners) radio.
IPS forces raided Section 5 in Ramon prison last week, during which they moved 100 Fatah and PFLP-affiliated prisoners to Ohalei Kedar prison, in an attempt to destabilize the mass open hunger-strikes that have been launched across Israeli prisons, according to the Palestinian Committee of Prisoners’ Affairs.
The committee stated that the raids were a direct response to dozens of prisoners supporting fellow prisoner Bilal Kayed, who has been on a hunger strike for 49 days, and hunger-striking brothers Muhammad and Mahmoud al-Balboul, who entered their 29th day of hunger strike.
100 Palestinian prisoners transferred back to Ramon as PM meets with strikers' familieshttps://t.co/NnD3rZ87eK pic.twitter.com/cb07LdhRYp
— Ma'an News Agency (@MaanNewsAgency) August 1, 2016
All three men are protesting Israel’s controversial policy of administrative detention, which Israel uses primarily against Palestinians to detain them without trial or charge.
Kayed’s administrative detention has resulted in a mass solidarity movement of PFLP-affiliated prisoners protesting through temporary and open-ended hunger strikes, which has resulted in an equally massive crackdown on mostly PFLP prisoners by the IPS, in the form of multiple raids, cell block closures, and confiscations of personal property in attempts to quell the strikes.
.@Addameer infographic on mass hunger strike in solidarity with Bilal Kayed & against detention without trial. pic.twitter.com/wJXbrcxHe5
— Ben White (@benabyad) August 1, 2016
Palestinian Prime Minister, Rami Hamdallah, said: “We are making continues efforts with all international organizations, consulates and ambassadors to put Israel under pressure to release Palestinian prisoners from Israeli jails, starting with prisoners on hunger strike.”
According to prisoners’ rights group Addameer, 7,000 Palestinians were being held by Israel as of May, 715 of whom were held in administrative detention.
(PC, MA’AN)
