TEHRAN (Iran News) –As Israel’s fascist leaders press on with a crackdown on Palestinian prisoners, the inmates are set to escalate their response.
According to the Commission of Detainees and Ex-Detainees Affairs, the coming days will see unprecedented clashes between Palestinian inmates and the occupation forces inside Israeli dungeons.
Following a series of retaliatory Palestinian operations (in the face of the regime’s daily and deadly raids in occupied towns and villages), the extremist Israeli minister Itamar Ben-Gvir has been depriving prisoners of their most basic rights.
The regime has also been cracking down on female prisoners, who have been tortured, harassed, teargassed, and dragged to solitary confinement by Israeli prison guards after protesting against their cruel treatment.
Israeli violations against women’s rights went a step further with punitive measures such as cutting off power, preventing family visits as well as prohibiting phone calls.
The spokesman of the Commission of Detainees and Ex-Detainees Affairs Muzaffar Thouqan has warned the 24th of this month will be a day of prisoner anger that will peak on the first day of Ramadan which will see an open confrontation with the occupation forces.
Stressing that the confrontation will be intense, he added the prisoners are on the front line of the resistance movement.
Palestinian prisoners have continued to disobey the orders of the Israeli prison administration, for the sixth consecutive day.
They are refusing to comply with the harsh orders of Ben Gvir, who has instructed the occupation forces to attack both Palestinian male and female detainees while depriving them of their most basic rights.
According to several institutions specialized in the affairs of prisoners, the disobedience steps will remain open until the date set for the mass hunger strike, which is scheduled for the first day of Ramadan.
These steps will depend on the position of the occupation’s prisons, and the developments that may occur in the coming weeks.
Reports say the Supreme Emergency Committee for Prisoners (a committee launched by the inmates themselves) will remain in a permanent state.
The initial steps of disobedience, which have been approved by the Supreme Emergency Committee for Prisoners, and which the inmates began to implement in the Nafha prison last Tuesday include objection to a newly formed so-called security check and the refusal to dress in different prison clothing.
On Friday, the prisoners staged a sit-in in the prison yards to protest against new penalties that have been imposed on them, especially depriving them of almost all means of heating and hot water in light of the bitter cold.
The Supreme Emergency Committee for Prisoners has called on inmates to declare a state of alert in all prisons, amid anticipation of a further crackdown by the prison’s forces.
Just a few days ago, the Prisoners’ Information Office confirmed that “the occupation prison administration is tightening the screws even further on the prisoners held in Megiddo, Gilboa, Nafha, Ramon and the Negev prisons, by imposing new penalties that affect their daily lives.”
According to the Prisoners’ Information Office, among the new punishments against prisoners in the Israeli jails of Nafha, the Negev, and Ramon, were “moving prisoners around with chains, closing the washbasins, and ending any sports activities.”
The Supreme Emergency Committee for Prisoners said it had taken its decision to initiate a series of steps starting with disobedience, and ending with an open hunger strike.
In a statement, the committee stated that we “hold our only demand, which is our freedom,” adding that “everyone should pick up on this message of ours, and this voice of ours. We can no longer tolerate the continued abuse of our day and night and the attack on our dignity and the dignity of our female prisoners.”
The committee pointed out that “this strike, which is titled freedom or martyrdom, is a strike waged by every capable prisoner from all factions,” stressing that it “will engage in this strike with unified demands and unified leadership.”
And it stressed that “the scale of the aggression that we have been facing since the beginning of this year until now requires all of our people and their living forces to support us with all tools.”
The prisoner’s committee confirmed that it would go through all its steps with unified demands and unified leadership.
This is while the Palestinian Ministry of Detainees and Ex-Prisoners has confirmed that the prisoners’ steps of escalation started in the Nafha prison and extended within days to all Israeli prisons.
The Ministry of Prisoners and Ex-Prisoners indicated that the steps are represented in disobeying the regime’s new decisions, disrupting the security check process, and wearing prisoners’ clothes.
This is while Israeli media have reported on the decision of Ben Gvir, to “reduce the duration of each prisoner’s shower to only 4 minutes as part of his policy of harassing the prisoners.”
On the fourth of February, the Palestinian prisoners sent a message from inside the prisons, in which they called for preparations for a major battle against the oppression of Ben Gvir.
In their message, the prisoners stressed their readiness for all possibilities and that every scenario was on the table.
The message, which was handwritten inside Israeli prisons, called for readiness to wage a major battle against the regime’s oppression.
In their message, the prisoners indicated that “Ben Gvir, is working to harass us as prisoners, by withdrawing our achievements and gains that we have achieved through great struggles and long sacrifices during which the martyrs rose, and he is taking punitive measures against us, which we will not allow.”
They stated that they are currently retreating to coordinate and prepare for a battle, which will be titled “Freedom for al-Aqsa and the Prisoners.”
Ben Gvir says he has visited the Nafha prison, which is one of the most severe and cruelest Israeli prisons.
This month Israeli media reported that the regime’s forces are warning of an explosion in Israeli prisons, in light of the harsh treatment of Palestinian prisoners.
The Palestine Center for Prisoner Studies says the number of Palestinian prisoners sentenced to life imprisonment has risen to more than 500.
The Wa’ed Prisoners Association has also expressed deep concern over the recent treatment and crackdown on Palestinian prisoners, saying the raids of three prisons, Megiddo, Ofer, and the Negev witnessed the arbitrary transfer and solitary confinement of many prisoners.
The Hanzala Center for Prisoners said, “The conditions are very tense in the Ofer and Megiddo prisons, where the Israeli forces are carrying out repression against the prisoners.”
The process of isolating prisoners comes within the framework of the large-scale transfer operations carried out recently by Israel, which affected more than 220 prisoners, from Hadarim, Rimon, and Megiddo prisons.
It is expected that these transfers affect several other prisons, and may continue until next March.
Other repressive measures and attacks also affected Palestinians at Hadarim prison, during their transfer to the Nafha prison last month.
Meanwhile, the Islamic Jihad movement in the besieged Gaza Strip announced a readiness to implement protest steps, in light of the prison administration’s systematic policy of “deliberate medical negligence.”
According to Addameer, which supports prisoners’ rights, Israel holds more than 4,700 Palestinian prisoners. This figure includes women and minors as well as those held under so-called administrative detention with neither charge nor trial.
The Commission of Detainees and Ex-Detainees Affairs says that in January 2023, Israeli forces arrested 598 Palestinians, including 99 minors and 8 women. The highest rate of arrests occurred in occupied al-Quds (Jerusalem), followed by Hebron and then Jenin in the occupied West Bank.
The arrest campaigns are increasing under the cabinet of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and are accompanied by many violations such as field executions, torture, arresting family members and field interrogation.
As the tensions escalate further, this year could see another war break out between Israel and the Palestinian resistance.
But for the first time, it could break out from the Palestinian prisoners being held in Israeli dungeons.
- source : Tehrantimes