A Palestinian Burns Israeli Guard Room

Ramallah, MINA – A Palestinian political prisoner in Nafha prison, south of the Israeli colony on Wednesday set fire to a room used by guards as a form of protest ignoring the prison administration’s detainees’ health conditions.

According to Qadri Abu Bakr, Head of the Palestinian Authority’s Commission on Prisoners Affairs, said the detainee named Ayman Sharabati, who was serving a life sentence.

He set fire to the room as prisoners walked out of their cells daily to protest the way the Israeli Prison Service (IPS) handled the health situation in the prison.

“IPS expels all doctors and nurses from prison and only maintains one nurse in each prison,” Abu Bakr said as quoted from Wafa News Agency on Thursday, March 26.

He stressed if the policy continues, it can produce serious reactions from prisoners.

He also described the situation as part of Israel’s policy on the medical negligence of detainees.

Regarding four prisoners in Magiddo prison who were quarantined after they were suspected of contracting the coronavirus (COVID-19), Abu Bakar said a lawyer from the commission had contacted prisoners who showed no symptoms of the virus.

The Addameer Detention and Human Rights Support Institute also said that his lawyer, Samer Samán, managed to talk on the telephone to the four detainees who were placed in quarantine at the Ramleh prison clinic.

It is said that detainees told lawyers, they have not been tested for COVID-19.

Their temperature is taken twice a day, and so far no medical tests have been carried out.

Abu Bakar urged the Red Cross and other human rights organizations to intervene on behalf of the detainees to ensure that they receive proper medical care during the pandemic.

Previously, a similar call was made by Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammad Shtayyeh during his meeting with the head of the Jerusalem Red Cross office.

At present there are more than 5,000 Palestinian prisoners serving time in Israeli prisons for opposing their occupation of Palestinian lands. (T/RE1)

Mi’raj News Agency (MINA)