The prisoners’ advocacy group organized a sit-in in Gaza City that was attended by the Palestine Chronicle reporters in the Strip.
There are 5,100 Palestinian prisoners held in Israeli prisons, many of whom are suffering from chronic and life-threatening illnesses.
Palestinians and international human rights groups are constantly raising awareness of the struggle of these prisoners, especially the terminally ill ones, like cancer-stricken patient Walid Daqqa.
But for Palestinians, there is another struggle concerning prisoners, that of dead prisoners, precisely 398 bodies, including that of women and children that Israel continues to hold.
256 of these bodies are held in what is known as the ‘Cemeteries of Numbers’.
The practice is not only a violation of basic human rights and international law, but, according to some, represents a degree of cruelty almost unprecedented in modern international conflicts.
The bodies of the dead prisoners were the main cause of the Prisoners Committee of the National and Islamic Forces this week in Gaza.
The prisoners’ advocacy group organized a sit-in in Gaza City that was attended by the Palestine Chronicle reporters in the Strip.
Their demand is for the international community to pressure Israel to release those bodies so that they may receive proper burials.
“We will support our prisoners by all means, and we will never give up,” Bahaa El-Din al-Madhoun, the Undersecretary of the Ministry of Prisoners, announced.
It was not the first time that such a declaration was made. Despite the slow progress on the issue, indeed, Palestinians never abandoned the cause of their prisoners.
Al-Madhoun called on the international community to take action and to break its silence. International and humanitarian laws must be respected, he said.
(All Photos: Mahmoud Ajjour, The Palestine Chronicle)
