The Israel authorities have deported a Palestinian prisoner to the Gaza Strip who was released on Wednesday evening after serving a nine-year prison sentence.
  On 21 April 2010, Ahmed Said Sabbah, 38, who lives in Thanaba village, east of Tulkrem District in the West Bank, was told by an official from the prison administration that he would be released at Erez crossing in the Gaza Strip.
If he refused he was told he would be detained for a further six months and face other measures as decided by the Israeli army.
Sabbah’s family had been waiting for him at the Al Thahria checkpoint in the West Bank.
    The IOF did not give Sabbah the opportunity to appeal before any judicial or military committee or body.
This actually violates the new military orders, which themselves violate international humanitarian law (IHL).
  Al Mezan asserts that the Israeli military order 1650 gravely violates international law.
Article 49 of the Fourth Geneva Convention Relative to the Protection of Civilians in Times of War, of 1949, prohibits an occupying power from forcibly transferring protected persons, and limits the expulsion to very strict conditions.
The occupying power may undertake expulsion only if imperative military reasons so demand, which is not applicable to Sabbah's case because there are no hostilities in the West Bank at present.
  Al Mezan Center for Human Rights strongly condemns the expulsion of Sabbah and expresses its deep concern regarding the risk that a large number Palestinians' could be expelled under the military order 1650.
Al Mezan asserts the forcible transfer of Palestinians is only part of Israel’s violations in the OPT.
Al Mezan calls on the international community particularly the high contracting parties to the Fourth Geneva Convention to immediately intervene to stop the continuous Israeli violations of human rights and IHL in the OPT and to provide international protection to the Palestinians in the OPT.
  Sabbah was expelled to the Gaza Strip under the military order 1650 regarding the “Prevention of Infiltrators' in the West Bank.
According to this order, the Israeli military commander could expel any person who is present in the West Bank without a permit from the IOF.
  Sabbah's ID card was issued in 1994 in the Gaza Strip.
In 1995 he moved to the West Bank.
Since 2000 the IOF refused to change thousands of addresses of Palestinians who have moved from the Gaza Strip and now live in the West Bank.
The IOF has particularly increased its deportation of Palestinians from the West Bank to the Gaza Strip since the beginning of the second Intifada in 2000.
On Friday 10 May 2002, 13 Palestinians were deported to Cyprus and 26 persons were forced to move to the Gaza Strip.
On 4 September 2002, the IOF forced two brothers: Kifah and Intisar Ahmed 'Ajori to move to the Gaza Strip.
On 18 May 2003, the IOF deported Mahmoud Suliman As-Sa'di.
In addition, the IOF issued an order to expel several administrative detainees from the West Bank to the Gaza Strip.
  Sabbah had served a full imprisonment sentence after been arrested on 1 November 2001 and was supposed to be released on September 2009, but the IOF did not release him.
  In his statement to Al Mezan, Sabbah said: 'I lived in Jordan in one of the Fatah camps.
In 1994, I came to the Gaza Strip and lived there.
I worked for the Palestinian police.
While I was in the Gaza Strip, I got a Palestinian ID card.
In November 1995, I travelled to Tulkarem in the West Bank.
I'm married and am a father of a child.
On 1 November 2001, the IOF arrested me in Tulkarem city.
On 19 May 2003, Israeli Salem military court accused me of several charges and sentenced me to nine years imprisonment.
I served a full imprisonment sentence in the Israeli prisons.
Two and half years before finishing my sentence, I was transferred to Negev prison.
During my imprisonment there I was deprived of family visits.
I suffered from a lack of medical treatment.
On Wednesday 21 April 2010, I had served my imprisonment sentence.
After carrying out all release procedures, one of the officials from the Israeli prison administration came to me and told me that the IOF would release me, but at Erez crossing in the Gaza Strip.
He also told me if I refused I would sign a paper and I would be detained for a further six months and face other measures as determined by the Israeli military.
I was transferred to Erez and I reached there in the evening hours of the same day.
Then, I've been told that my wife and my family were waiting for me at Al Thahria checkpoint in the West Bank.
'    Sabbah told Al Mezan that he would set up a protest tent at Erez crossing to express his objection against his expulsion to the Gaza Strip.
He also said that he would stay in the tent until his return to the West Bank to live with his family.
    End   For interviews or more information contact: Mahmoud Abu Rahma on +972 (0) 599609310 or email: mahmoud@mezan.
org