The Palestine Center for Prisoners Studies confirmed that the Israeli occupation authorities continued, during March, carrying out campaigns of abuse and arrests against Palestinians, targeting dozens of Islamic and national leaders, activists and deputies, indicating that it had monitored 410 cases of arrest of citizens, including 41 children and 10 women.

The center stated, in its monthly report on the arrests, a copy of which obtained by Safa, that the occupation intelligence continued during March political arrest campaigns for a number of leaders, summoning others, interrogating them and threatening them, with the aim of affecting the legislative elections to be held next May.

With regard to the prisoners infected with the Coronavirus as a result of the occupation’s negligence of their lives, the center pointed out that last month, two prisoners tested positive for COVID-19, raising the number of prisoners who have been infected with the virus since the beginning of the pandemic to 368.

Meanwhile, the report underlined that the occupation continued to target Palestinian women with arrest, as 10 Palestinian women were detained.

The occupation soldiers also targeted minors with arrest and abuse, as the report monitored 41 cases of arrest of minors under the age of eighteen, most of them from occupied Jerusalem.

As for the hunger strike, the report indicated that two prisoners went on an open hunger strike last month, of whom Imad Al-Batran (47 years) from Hebron is still fighting for the 41st day in a row, protesting his administrative detention. The occupation prisons administration isolated him under harsh conditions to pressure him to stop his strike, noting that he was a former prisoner who spent a total of ten years in the occupation prisons.

The other prisoner Maher Abu Rayan (43 years) from Hebron went on a hunger strike for a week, protesting against the Israeli prison administration's procrastination in providing him with treatment. He suspended his strike after obtaining an appointment to transfer him to the hospital. He suffers from many respiratory problems, knowing that he has been detained since 2003, and he is sentenced to 25 years imprisonment.

The report highlighted that the occupation courts continued to issue administrative decisions against prisoners. The courts of occupation issued 85 administrative decisions between "new" and "renewal", which ranged from two months to six months.

Source : Safa