Palestinian prisoner Awad al-Saidi launches hunger strike to protest solitary confinement

26 June 2013

Palestinian prisoner Awad Al-Saidi has gone on an open hunger strike protesting his solitary confinement, Ahrar Center for Prisoners Studies and Human Rights revealed on June 26, 2013.

Director of Ahrar Center, Fuad Al-Khuffash, said in a statement Tuesday that Saidi has been on hunger strike for the second day demanding an end to his isolation, adding that he would only end his strike outside his isolation cell.

He said that Saidi was held in isolation after he retaliated to the Israeli jailors’ attack on detained Hamas leader Abbas Assayed by hitting an Israeli soldier in March 2012 and he has been in isolation since then.

Al-Khuffash asked human rights groups to back Saidi’s case, adding that Saidi turned down an Israeli offer to stop his strike in return for ending his isolation within two weeks.

Seven prisoners held in isolation in Eshel, PPS reports

25 June 2013

The Palestinian Prisoners’ Society reported on June 25 that seven Palestinian prisoners are still held in isolation in the Israeli Eshel prison. Ending isolation was an agreement term of the conclusion of the prisoners’ Karameh hunger strike in 2012.

A lawyer with the Society reported that the conditions of these prisoners are very difficult, after visiting one of the isolated prisoners, Awad Al-Saidi, saying that cells are infested with cockroaches and prison meals are poor quality.

The lawyer also visited Dirar Abu Sisi, who has been held in isolation since his arrest in 2011. He said that Abu Sisi was suffering from health problems. The lawyer quoted Abu Sisi as saying that his cell was like a grave as he did not see a human being since his arrest except the jailors and knew nothing about the outside world. Abu Sisi was kidnapped by Israeli intelligence from the Ukraine in 2011; there is an international campaign to demand his freedom and the end of his isolation.

Abu Sisi called for immediate action to end his isolation and that of the other prisoners the soonest.

A third isolated prisoner, Mahmoud Zahran, told the lawyer that the prison administration extended his isolation in absentia and he is to attend another hearing on 2/10/2013.

Samer Issawi denied medical tests as medical neglect and abuse is rampant in occupation prisons

25 June 2013

The Israeli Prison Authority in Shatta prison refused to allow prisoner Samer Issawi, who went on the longest hunger strike in the world, to undergo medical tests to assess his current health condition as he continues to recuperate from his hunger strike.

Issawi told his lawyer that he submitted a request to have medical examinations, but no response yet from the prison administration. Issawi was quickly removed from the hospital following his strike and has repeatedly been denied additional medical attention in the past months.

In addition, the Palestinian Prisoners’ Society said on Sunday that prisoner Ahmed Khallouf, who has been in jail for nine years, suffers from a deteriorating health condition and needs urgent surgery. The society added that its lawyer visited Khallouf and conveyed his appeal to international human rights groups, especially the Red Cross, to intervene with the Israeli prison authority to allow him to undergo surgery on one of his foot.

According his brother Nidal, prisoner Khallouf suffers from an infection, a painful swelling in his left foot and a constant fever, and needs surgery to treat the inflamed foot as prescribed by doctors. He stated that the Israeli prison administration is reluctant to provide his brother with proper medical treatment and allow him to have the surgery.

Prisoners in Askelan have been refusing treatment in the prison clinic since Sunday due to consistent medical neglect and maltreatment in the prison, reporting that there are over 30 ill prisoners in the prison including Fuad Shobaki, who suffers from a number of health issues, including high blood pressure, hemorrhoids and tooth pain, yet is denied all medical treatment.

Palestinian prisoner Adnan Hanath released after 6 years in occupation prisons

25 June 2013

The Mohja Jerusalem Foundation reported that the Israeli occupation authorities released Adnan Mohammed Hanath after he completed his sentence of 6 years and 8 months. Adnan Hanath is an activist with Islamic Jihad, who had been held in Nafha prison. He was sentenced for his affiliation to Islamic Jihad and participation in the resistance after being captured on October 24, 2006. Hanath is 24 years old, born on December 24, 1988.

Ahrar: Administrative detention of Ibrahim Suweiti renewed for third time

25 June 2013

Israeli occupation authorities renewed the administrative detention of prisoner Ibrahim Suweiti, 35, from Hebron, for the third 6-month period in a row on June 24, reported Fuad Khuffash of Ahrar Center for Prisoners Studies and Human Rights.

Suweiti has been held in administrative detention since June 8, 2012, without charge or trial and subject to a “secret file.” Khuffash said, “Despite Suweiti’s health – he suffers from chest pain and difficulty breathing and has been transferred several times to the hospital, the occupation refuses to release him and he is transferred from one prison to another while held on a secret file.”

12 Palestinians in the West Bank abducted including 2 children from Al-Ram

25 June 2013

The Palestinian Information Centre reported that the occupation forces have stormed at early hours on Monday Nablus and Jenin in the northern occupied West Bank, where 5 Palestinians were arrested after raiding and searching their houses.

Meanwhile 7 other Palestinians were arrested in other areas in occupied West Bank.

Local sources reported that huge military troops violently stormed the old city of Nablus in the morning and arrested Fadi Abu Sharekh and Muntaser Akoba, in addition to Qassam Eshtayeh, 24, from Salem town east of Nablus.

Adel Shalabi and Tahir Nawahda, from Jenin, were also arrested after searching their houses. Other citizens were investigated amid intensive fire of stun grenades.

The Hebrew radio stated that the Israeli forces arrested, on Monday, 12 Palestinians from the West Bank accused of throwing stones and Molotov cocktails in several cities in West Bank at Israeli army forces and settlers.

In Al-Ram, north of occupied Jerusalem, two children, identified as Tareq Dweik and Yazan Az-Zarou, were abducted by occupation soldiers as dozens of soldiers invaded the town, and clashed with local youths who hurled stones at them.

Long-term administrative detainee Eyad Shabaneh released

25 June 2013

eyad-shahbaneh Ahrar Centre reported that the Israeli Occupation Authority (IOA) released the dean of the administrative detainees Eyad Hussein Shabaneh, 33, from the city of al-Khalil, who is considered the longest-term administrative detainee in the Israeli prisons.

The center said that the captive Eyad Shabaneh was arrested many times previously; he was arrested on 28/12/2010. Shabaneh is a liberated detainee who was arrested four times and spent five years in Israeli occupation jails. He was deprived from family visits.

Shabaneh has a bachelor’s degree from Polytechnic University and he is the father of a child who was only five months old when his father was arrested.

Reports: Palestinian man kidnapped from Egypt by occupation forces

24 June 2013

Ma’an reported that Israel’s intelligence agency Mossad abducted a Palestinian man in Egypt where he was receiving medical treatment, a source close to the family told Ma’an on Sunday, June 23.

The source said Wael Abu Reida, 27, from the Khan Younis refugee camp, was taken to an Israeli detention center following the abduction.

The family received several phone calls saying Abu Reida had been taken by Mossad and was being held in Israel, the source said.

Abu Reida was in Egypt with his wife for medical treatment and was taken from Sinai, the source added.

The family have notified the International Committee for the Red Cross to locate Abu Reida to verify his locations.

Four Palestinian children seized in Qalqilya by occupation soldiers

24 June 2013

The Independent Middle East Media Centre reported that local sources in Azzoun village, east of the northern West Bank city of Qalqilia, have reported that dozens of Israeli soldiers invaded the village, on Sunday at dawn [June 23 2013], and kidnapped four children.

The sources said that the army broke into several homes, and violently searched them, before kidnapping four children identified as Monther Salim, 14, Mahdi Ayman Majd, 15, Abdul-Karim Hussein, 16, and Maher Hasan Abu Tneina, 16.

The kidnapped children have been cuffed and blindfolded, before the army took them to an unknown destination.

In related news, soldiers stationed at the Container Roadblock, north of Bethlehem, kidnapped on Sunday evening, one Palestinian identified as Yousef Ahmad Abu Hashem, 19, from Beit Ummar town, north of the southern West Bank city of Hebron.

The recent attacks are part of daily Israeli military violations against the Palestinians and their property in different parts of the occupied territories.

Ahmed Hamdan – brother of Ayman – joins open-ended hunger strike; Abdullah Barghouthi assaulted

24 June 2013

Ahmed Hamdan, the brother of prisoner Ayman Hamdan, a Palestinian man held in administrative detention by the Israeli occupation who has been on hunger strike for 58 days, has launched an open strike in solidarity with his brother, reported the Palestinian Prisoners Society.

Ahmed, 23, is also held in administrative detention in Ofer prison without charge or trial, announced that he was joining the strike.

Abdullah Barghouthi, one of five prisoners holding Jordanian citizenship on hunger strike since May 2, sentenced to 67 life sentences, reported that he was assaulted in Afula hospital, where he is being held by prison guards. The other four Jordanian hunger strikers are in Soroka hospital.

Follow us on Instagram @samidounnetwork