Israeli prison guards clashed with detainees overnight Sunday during an inspection raid in Ketziot prison in the Negev.

The PA Ministry of Detainee Affairs said prisoners clashed with Israeli guards who raided ward six of the desert prison.

“The Israeli Prison Service carried out inspections in ward six in a provocative manner. As a result, brawls erupted between the detainees and prison guards and it ended up with two wardens beaten by the detainees, and punishment imposed on one detainee,” said Muhammad al-Jayyousi, an official at the ministry’s Tulkarem office.

Israeli Prison Service spokeswoman Sivan Weizman told Ma’an that an Israeli officer and a prisoner were lightly injured in clashes at the prison.

Al-Jayyousi told Ma’an that prison authorities disconnected the ward’s electricity and water supply, and that detainees protested by banging on their cell doors.

The Israeli Prison Service declared a state of alert in the prison and singled out one detainee who was sent to solitary confinement, the ministry official added.

The prison service spokeswoman said a prisoner tried to attack a guard and that he would be punished. She said prisoners are usually sent to isolation cells after such attacks.

Weizman added that electrical devices, such as TVs and radios, were taken away from prisoners because they were protesting noisily. The electricity was not cut off in the prison, she said.

Raghib Abu Diyak, secretary-general of the Palestinian Prisoners Society, said Israeli forces brutally attacked prisoners during the midnight raid, leading to the clashes.

“Such assaults show how arrogant the Israeli occupation forces are as they unjustifiably use excessive force against Palestinian prisoners,” Abu Diyak told Ma’an.

He urged international human rights groups to pressure their governments to highlight the cause of Palestinian prisoners.

(Ma’an – maannews.net)