The Israeli authorities continue to systematically violate the rights of more than 7,000 Palestinian detainees who are being held in Israeli prisons. The Israel Prison Service (IPS) relies on aggressive policies and procedures, including denial of family visits, medical negligence, solitary confinement, physical and psychological torture, and arbitrary strip search campaigns. Meanwhile, the Palestinian detainees struggle under inadequate shelter facilities, particularly in the winter, which increases the number of detainee patients.

According to information available to Al Mezan Center for Human Rights (Al Mezan), four Palestinian detainees are on hunger strike in protest against their administrative detention. Detainee Anas Ibrahim Shadeed, 19, resident of Dura in the Governorate of Hebron, and Ahmed Mohammed Abu Farah, 29, resident of Surif in the Governorate of Hebron, are on hunger strike for the eighty-second consecutive day. The two detainees have been referred to Assaf Harofeh hospital due to the deterioration in their health. Medical sources have reported, inter alia, chest pain and shortness of breath. Detainee Ammar Ibrahim Al Hamour, 28, from Jenin, also continues his hunger strike for the twenty-fifth consecutive day and Detainee Kifah Mohammed Hattab, 53, from Tulkarm, continue his hunger strike for the twenty-first day.

According to a joint report issued on 4 December 2016 by the Prisoner Support and Human Rights Association, Al Mezan, Palestinian Prisoner Club, and Committee of Detainees and Ex-Detainees Affairs, there are 7,000 Palestinian detainees held in Israeli prisons: 48 are women; 350 are minors, including 11 female minors; and 700 are being held under administrative detention.  

Al Mezan expresses our deep concern for the detainees’ health and holds the Israeli authorities responsible for their lives and well-being. The widespread ill-treatment that has been documented in Israeli prisons amounts to violations of the 1955 United Nations Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners, the Body of Principles for the Protection of All Persons under Any Form of Detention or Imprisonment adopted in 1988, the Fourth Geneva Convention Relative to the Protection of Civilians in Times of War, and the 1948 UN Convention Against Torture, which was ratified by the Israeli government in 1991.

Al Mezan calls on the international community to promptly intervene to exert pressure on Israel to end its systematic violations against Palestinian prisoners and detainees, and to ensure respect of international humanitarian law and international human rights law in its engagement with Palestinian prisoners and detainees.