Alwaght- Three female Palestinian prisoners who are hold in solitary confinement at an Israeli jail have launched an open-ended hunger strike in protest at their mistreatment.
The Palestinian Asra Media Office, which focuses on prisoner affairs, reported that the rest of the female inmates at the notorious Damon prison will join the hunger strike in stages.
The hunger strikers were identified as Mona Qaadan, Marah Bakir and Shurouq Duwaikat from the occupied Palestinian territories.
The report said the situation in Israeli prisons is escalating, with the Israel Prison Service (IPS) refusing to meet the demands of the prisoners.
Their decision came amid reports of the abuse and mistreatment of female prisoners at the prison.
The Palestinian Prisoners Society (PPS), in a recent statement, said Israeli forces had violently raided the cells of the female Palestinian detainees and severely beaten them, injuring some of them.
One of the prisoners lost consciousness during repeated attacks by Israeli forces who removed the headscarves of the prisoners and grabbed them by neck and pulled their hair.
The escalation came amid new restrictions depriving the prisoners of family visits and preventing them from purchasing items from the canteen, as well as imposition of fines on them.
Female prisoners have been allowed to see only one adult member of their family since the onset of the coronavirus outbreak and the suspension of family visits for Palestinian prisoners.
According to the PPS, dozens of Palestinian women have currently been languishing behind bars at Israel's notorious Damon prison. They are subjected to very harsh conditions and constantly monitored through surveillance cameras.
The female Palestinian prisoners have to spend most of their days in damp and humid rooms, particularly in the winter, the PPS said.
In September, 26-year-old Anhar al-Deek, in her ninth month of pregnancy, was released from Damon prison to house arrest in the village of Kafr Nai’ma in the West Bank after paying a bond of more than $12,000.
A number of rights advocacy groups earlier this year reported on the occasion of International Mother’s Day that Israel was holding several Palestinian mothers in jail, adding that they are subject to various kinds of torture and not allowed to meet with their relatives.
Since 2015, the number of Palestinian women who have been arrested has reached more than 900, among them mothers of prisoners, martyrs and minor girls, according to a report by the Palestinian Prisoners Club (PPC) and the Addameer Prisoner Support and Human Rights Association.
Hunger-striking Palestinian inmate Hisham Abu Hawwash
Hunger-striking Palestinian inmate Hisham Abu Hawwash cannot move anymore, his lawyer says, nearly 130 days after the prisoner began his hunger strike in protest at his indefinite, unfair and unexplained imprisonment by Israel.
Jawad Boulus, Abu Hawwash’s lawyer, said on Thursday that his client, who has been on hunger strike for the past 129 days, has lost his ability to move, and is suffering from speaking difficulty, Palestine’s official Wafa news agency reported.
He warned that although Abu Hawwash is in critical condition and in dire need for medical follow-up and hospitalization, the Israel Prison Service (IPS) has kept him in prison and refused to move him to hospital for due treatment.
“Despite the critical health condition of Abu Hawwash, the IPS is still rejecting to move him to a civil hospital, and is seemingly aiming to impose this as a reality in the issue of the hunger-strikers,” said Boulus in a statement shared by the Palestinian Prisoners' Society (PPS).
“The demand to move Abu Hawwash to hospital requires additional efforts. The IPS used to move the [hunger-striking] prisoners to a civil hospital after some time into their hunger strike, [but] today it deliberately keeps them in prison,” the lawyer added.
Boulus also noted that moving hunger-striking prisoners to a civil hospital has become a condition for the court to suspend the administrative detention, which is a sort of imprisonment without trial or charge.
Earlier this month, the Prisoners and Ex-prisoners Affairs Authority said that Abu Hawwash was in “tragic condition.” The rights group said the 40-year-old inmate suffers from weakness in the bones and muscles, a sharp weight loss, and sharp pains all over his body.
He has also become unable to move or to speak, but Israeli courts continue to reject his release appeals, it added.
Abu Hawwash's family has already warned that he may die any moment as a result of his prolonged hunger strike, calling for urgent action to save his life before it is too late.
Abu Hawwash is one of the four prisoners who went on extended hunger strikes against their detention without charge. The other prisoners were Kayed Fasfous, Ayyad al-Harimi, and Lo’ai al-Ashqar.
Palestinian detainees have continuously resorted to open-ended hunger strikes in an attempt to express their outrage at their detention.
More than 7,000 Palestinian prisoners are currently held in some 17 Israeli jails, with dozens of them serving multiple life sentences.
Hundreds of detainees, including women and minors, are being held under the so-called administrative detention in various Israeli prisons, with some of them being held in that condition for up to 11 years without any charges.
The detention takes place on orders from a military commander and on the basis of what the Israeli regime describes as "secret" evidence. Israeli jail authorities also keep Palestinian prisoners under deplorable conditions.
Multiple Palestinian factions have called for a "day of rage" on Friday in support of the prisoners.
Hamas officials have warned that crossing the "red lines" in treatment of prisoners would have "repercussions on the region."
