Israeli occupation forces (IOF) detained about 540 Palestinian citizens in the occupied West Bank and Jerusalem in January, including 92 children, and 10 women.
according to Palestine Center for Prisoners Studies, the highest rate of detentions was in occupied Jerusalem, as the IOF detained 270 Palestinians in the city only.
The Center stated that the Israeli occupation forces escalated, during the past month, incursions into cities and towns in the West Bank and Jerusalem, taking revenge on the Palestinians after Palestinian resistance fighters killed 10 settlers in some operations.
According to Palestinian figures, Israeli occupation holds currently 4,700 Palestinians, including 29 female prisoners, and 150 minors.
The number of Palestinian detainees martyrs has reached 233, after Israeli forces killed a Palestinian youth last January, in addition to hundreds of freed detainees who died as a result of critical health conditions and the Israeli policy of medical negligence.
The Palestinian detainee, Wadih Aziz Abu Ramoz, 16, died three days after his detention. He was seriously injured as a result of the Israeli occupation forces shooting him during their storming of the town of Silwan in occupied Jerusalem.
The Israeli occupation prevented his family from visiting him, as he was confined to a hospital bed despite his critical condition. The Israeli court decided for him a trial session two days before his death.
Systematically, the Israeli occupation practices medical negligence against Palestinian detainees, which causes them critical health issues and leads some to death.
As a result, the number of sick detainees has reached nearly 700, including 300 who suffer from serious and chronic diseases, such as cancer, heart and kidney failure without any of them receiving any medical care.
The occupation is still holding his body and refusing to hand it over to his family, which raised the number of the bodies of the martyrs of the captive movement being held to 12.
19 Palestinian detainees spent more than 30 consecutive years inside the Israeli occupation’s prisons, and are still in prisons, according to Palestine Center for Prisoners Studies.
The center reported that the Israeli occupation released Friday, January 20, 2022, the Palestinian detainee, Maher Yunis, after spending 40 consecutive years in Israeli prisons.
After the release of Maher Yunis, the number of Palestinian detainees who spent more than 30 years became 19. The oldest detainee out of the 19 is Mohammad Al-Toos.
Israeli occupation forces detained Mohammad Al-Toos on October 6, 1985, in Hebron. Al-Toos was sentenced to life imprisonment, and he has spent more than 37 years inside Israeli prisons.
In January, two detainees entered the list of those who spent more than 3 decades inside an Israeli prison. They are Nasser Abu Srur and Mahmoud Aby Srur from Bethlehem who has spent 31 consecutive years in prison.
Israeli occupation forces detained them in January 1993, and the occupation court sentenced them to life imprisonment.
The Palestinian female detainees in Damon Prison are subjected to a brutal attack by the Israeli occupation forces of repression.
The administration of the Israeli “Damoon” prison isolated the representative of the Palestinian Female Detainee, Yasmine Shaaban, after assaulting her on January 31, 2022.
According to the Palestinian Detainees and Ex-Detainees Commission of Affairs, the prison administration “turned the prisoners’ rooms into cells after removing electrical appliances and all belongings.”
It indicated that the Israeli Damoon prison administration imposed harsh penalties against female Palestinian detainees.
In support of the Palestinian female detainees and in denunciation of the occupation forces’ assault on them, 120 Palestinian detainees in the Naqab prison began their hunger strike on the same day, after the occupation refused to lift its brutal punishments on them.
Read: Israeli occupation releases Palestinian Female Detainee after 14 Months
Until the end of January, the Israeli prison administration has isolated 40 Palestinian detainees in its prisons in difficult conditions, seven of whom suffer from very difficult health and psychological conditions.
The Palestinian Prisoner Club stated on January 24 that the number of isolated detainees witnessed a significant increase after 6 Palestinian detainees managed to escape from “Jilboa” prison in September 2021. It is the highest compared to ten years ago.
The occupation prisons administration pursues this dangerous policy against detainees to eliminate them physically and psychologically.
The oldest of the isolated Palestinian detainees is Mohammad Khalil, 39, from northwest Ramallah. The total years of his solitary confinement exceeded more than 15 years, and he is sentenced to life imprisonment. Khalil has been detained since 2006 according to Prisoner Club.
The case of Ahmed Manasra, 21, is the most prominent witness to the Israeli crime of solitary confinement. Despite his psychological and health condition, the Israeli prison administration has isolated him in Ashkelon prison since October 2021. He spent his childhood inside the occupation prisons, as the occupation forces have detained him since he was 13.
Despite the detainees’ attempts to end their solitary confinement, the prison administration continued to isolate them in tragic conditions.
The Club confirmed that more than 70 Palestinian detainees were subjected to solitary confinement during the past year. In 2012, the detainees managed to end the solitary confinement of 20 other detainees, after going on a hunger strike for 28 days.
Previously, the Palestinian detainees also managed to end the solitary confinement of many other prisoners by launching hunger strikes and boycotting the Israeli prison administrations.
According to the Palestinian Prisoners Club, in January, the occupation prison administration transferred 220 Palestinian prisoners from several Israeli prisons, including Hadarim, Megiddo, and Rimon.
According to the center, 80 detainees were transferred from Hadarim prison, 70 from Megiddo prison, and the same number from Rimon prison.
The Prisoners Club stated, “On January 21 and 22, the administration of Raymon prison transferred 70 prisoners to Gilboa prison.”
It is also expected that another series of transfers will take place during the next phase, which may last until next March.
The policy of transferring Palestinian detainees inside the Israeli occupation prisons comes in light of the large-scale transfers of detainees plan announced by the occupation prisons administration, which may affect 2,000 detainees. The transferred detainees will be mainly distributed to the new sections in Nafha, Ofer, and Gilboa prisons.
It is noteworthy that the Israeli occupation prisons administration transfers Palestinian detainees for several purposes, the most important of which is to strike any state of stability that they try to create inside the prison, according to a statement by the Prisoners Club. It is also trying to impose more control and restrictions on the detainees.
Read: Israeli Occupation Imposes Collective Penalties on 68 Palestinian Detainees in Israeli Jails
The number of Palestinian detainees sentenced to life imprisonment in the occupation prisons has risen to 553 after the occupation courts issued a new ruling against a prisoner from Hebron, which is the first this year.
The Israeli Ofer Military Court issued on Thursday, January 26, a life imprisonment sentence against the detainee, Mahmoud Kamel Atawneh, from the town of Beit Kahil, in Hebron.
The Israeli court also added a fine of one million shekels after convicting Atawneh of planning to stab an occupation soldier near the “Gush Etzion” settlement in August 2019.
Palestine Center for Prisoners Studies revealed that the life sentence against the detainee Atawneh is the first during the current year.
In 2022, the occupation courts issued life sentences against 5 prisoners. They are Montaser Shalabi from Ramallah, Mohammad Kabha from Jenin, Khalil Dweikat from Nablus, Ahmed Asafra from Hebron, and Bilal Abu Zaid from Jenin.
The center indicated that many life-sentenced Palestinian detainees have spent more than 25 years in Israeli prisons. In addition, dozens of other detainees spent more than 20 years. The highest sentence is the detainee Abdullah Barghouti with life imprisonment 67 times.
It’s noteworthy that one life imprisonment sentence against Palestinians means 99 years in Israeli prisons, and Israeli occupation applies it against Palestinians whom Israeli forces claim they kill Israeli settlers or soldiers.
The Israeli occupation issued 260 administrative detention orders against Palestinian citizens during January 2023 with the establishment of the new far-right Israeli government and its systematic violations against Palestinians.
The Detainees and Ex-Detainees Affairs Commission stated on January 31, 2023, that among the issued administrative detention orders are 103 new orders and 157 renewal orders, for periods ranging from two to six months.
As a result, the number of administrative detainees until the end of January was 866, including two females and 7 children. The oldest of the administrative detainees is Jamal Al-Nisr, 76 years old.
Most of the administrative detainees are held in the Naqab, Ofer, and Megiddo prisons. Until the end of January, their number reached 372 in Naqab prison, 335 in Ofer prison, and 134 in Megiddo prison, while the rest of the detainees are distributed to other prisons.
According to the Prisoners Club, 80% of the administrative detainees are former detainees, while more than 80 administrative detainees continue to boycott the occupation courts.
The occupation did not exclude the Palestinian elderly, children, women, and the sick from administrative detention, as in the case of the prisoner Abd al-Basit Maatan from the town of Barqa, east of Ramallah. Despite his colon cancer and his urgent need for health follow-up, it re-detained him shortly after his release.
The occupation courts recently renewed administrative detention orders for a group of Palestinian detainees who have suffered administrative detention for years, including Nidal Abu Aker, Thaer Halahleh, Ghassan Zawahra, and Saleh Al-Jaidi.
The Palestinian female detainee, Shorouq Al-Badan, from Bethlehem, has also been facing administrative detention since 2019, and she is currently in Damon Prison.
Over the past 9 years, the Israeli occupation courts issued more than 12,000 administrative detention orders against Palestinians. During 2022, the occupation issued 2,409 administrative detention orders, including 315 orders in December only.
According to the Palestinian Prisoners Club, the Israeli occupation continued, at the beginning of this year, to escalate the systematic crime of administrative detention against Palestinians. Most of the orders issued were “renewal” orders for detainees who had spent years in detention.
The Palestinian Resistance Movement, Hamas, revealed on January 16, a video filming the captured Israeli soldier who is being held in Gaza, “Avera Avraham Mengistu.”
At the beginning of the video, Hamas stressed that this message confirms the failure of the late Israeli Chief of General Staff, Aviv Kochavi, noting that he was lying to the Israeli community and the Israeli government with alleged achievements.
Mengistu sent a message, “How long will I and my comrades remain here in captivity after these long years of suffering and pain? Where are the ‘state and people of Israel?”
Commenting on the video, Al-Qassam, the military wing of Hamas, said, “Helvi must prepare himself to bear the burden of failure and its consequences.”
Herzi Helvi took over the 23rd Chief of Staff of the occupation army and officially began his duties on January 17, 2023, the day after Kochavi’s term ends.
The Israeli soldier, Avraham Magnesium, is one of the four Israeli soldiers that Hamas captured in Gaza.
In April 2016, the Al-Qassam Brigades announced, for the first time, that it had 4 captured Israeli soldiers in Gaza. They are Shaul Aron and Hadar Golden. The other two, Hisham Al-Sayed and Avraham Magnesium, entered the Strip under unclear circumstances.
After Hamas revealed new details of the Israeli soldier it has captured, contacts took place between the movement and the Egyptian mediator to complete negotiations on the issue of the Palestinian-Israeli prisoners exchange file.
The Lebanese Al-Akhbar newspaper said, “As soon as the military wing of Hamas published a new video clip of the captured Israeli soldier, Abraham Mengistu, Egypt contacted it and renewed its willingness to complete previous efforts toward a prisoners exchange deal between the movement and the Israeli occupation.”
According to the newspaper, the movement confirmed its readiness to complete the exchange negotiations from where they ended, allowing the implementation of the first stage of the deal.
The first stage is the release of the two Israeli soldiers, Mengistu and Hisham Al-Sayed, in addition to information about the other two soldiers, Hadar Goldin and Shaul Oron, in exchange for the release of the Palestinian detainees liberated under the “Wafaa Al-Ahrar” deal, the re-detained women, the children, the sick, the martyrs, and the old detainees.
On the other hand, Egypt informed Hamas that it is in the process of re-contacting with the new Israeli occupation government about the prisoners file. It is awaiting the appointment of a new Israeli official in charge of this file, to succeed Yaron Blum.
Blum, the Israeli coordinator of Israeli prisoners affairs, submitted his resignation from his position on October 31, 2022, on the grounds of “failure to return the Israeli soldiers held captive by Hamas in the Gaza Strip.”
Ben Gvir does not stop issuing his threats against Palestinian detainees, as he threatened to take unprecedented measures affecting their lives and their daily details, including tightening the conditions of their detention.
Israeli violations and threats increased after Ben Gvir took over the Ministry of National Security in the new Israeli government. He called for the enactment of a law for the execution of detainees, which would give the green light to Israeli forces and settlers to practice field killing and shoot Palestinians with the aim of killing.
On January 4, Ben Gvir threatened the Palestinian detainees with conditions of detention worse than the current conditions, claiming that they currently enjoy “comfortable and excellent conditions similar to those of summer camps.”
He announced in a tweet on Twitter Friday, January 6, that he is proceeding with his plan to adopt a law imposing the death penalty on Palestinian detainees accused of killing or attempting to kill Israeli soldiers or settlers.
On January 8, Ben Gvir repealed a law allowing Arab Knesset members in the 1948-occupied Palestinian territories to visit Palestinian “security” detainees, according to the Palestinian Prisoners’ Information Office.
On January 9, he took several strict measures against the Palestinian detainees in the occupation prisons, most notably the failure to improve their humanitarian conditions, the prevention of medical treatment, and the prohibition of any organizational work they do.
He also pledged, in a statement on his Twitter account, to prevent facilitation and not to tolerate Palestinian detainees.
Tags Israeli Occupation Forces Israeli prisons Palestinian detainees
