Israeli occupation has detained 800 Palestinians, including women and children, since the outbreak of Coronavirus pandemic

OCCUPIED AL-QUDS, (ST)- The Palestinian Committee for Prisoners and Ex-Prisoners Affairs has stressed that since the outbreak of Coronavirus pandemic early last March, the Israeli occupation forces have detained more than 800 Palestinians including 90 children and 10 women and ignored all international calls for releasing the captives in order to avoid a real humanitarian crisis amid coronavirus.

Head of the Commission’s Studies and Documentation Unit Abdul Naser Farawneh said in a statement on Sunday that the last few months witnessed a dangerous Israeli escalation that included detention campaigns and violations against the Palestinians, particularly in occupied al-Quds where the number of detained Palestinians almost equals half the total number of detainees from other cities and towns of the West Bank, according to Maan News Agency.

The statement affirmed that the occupation authorities continued their arbitrary measures, aggressive acts and abuses against the Palestinian detainees in the Israeli jails. They did not take necessary safety and preventive measures to protect the prisoners from the risk of infection with Coronavirus, causing increasing anxiety to the prisoners and their families.

 The statement called on international organizations, mainly the Red Cross and the World health organization to send an international medical team to visit the occupation jails, inspect the health conditions of the Palestinian prisoners, provide treatment to patients and ensure protection to uninfected prisoners.

Some 4800 Palestinian captives, including 39 women, 180 children and dozens of elderly, have been suffering from hard detention circumstances inside the Israeli jails. 1800 of these prisoners are suffering from different illnesses, including serious diseases like cancer, cardiac diseases, kidney failure, hepatitis and paraplegia.

Hamda Mustafa