Palestinian detainees go on hunger strike in protest at conditions

December 18, 2024 

Palestinian prisoners were brought to Abu Youssef Al-Najjar Hospital in Rafah in south of Gaza as a result of the torture inflicted upon them during detention by Israeli forces in inhumane conditions [Firas Al-Shaer]

Palestinian prisoners held in Israel’s Menashe detention camp have gone on hunger strike in protest at the harsh conditions in the camp, the Palestinian Information Centre has reported. According to the Detainees’ and Ex-Detainees’ Commission and the Palestinian Prisoners’ Society, the detainees told their lawyers of their protest during a video conference call in one of the occupation regime’s courts.

The two organisations said in a joint statement today that 100 detainees are being held in Menashe camp as of yesterday. The pointed out that the camp is one of several established by the occupation regime since the escalation of its arrest campaigns in the occupied West Bank since the onset of the genocide against the Palestinians in Gaza in October 2023. Menashe is in the north of the West Bank near Salem camp and is run by the occupation army. So too are the Etzion and Huwara detention centres, which were established during the second intifada (2000-2005). The conditions in the latter two camps are said to be among the worst of all the Israeli detention centres.

The joint statement highlighted the fact that there are dozens of reports from human rights groups documenting the harsh and degrading detention conditions over the years. These have now, it is reported, got worse since October 2023. Torture and abuse are said to be a feature of life for detainees, especially in the Etzion camp.

One detainee told his lawyer through the court that the camp does not provide warm water, not even during severe cold spells, and it lacks a clinic, with neither a doctor nor a nurse on site. Some detainees suffer from health issues while all suffer from hunger and a shortage of adequate clothing.

Despite numerous calls from specialist institutions to close the Etzion and Huwara camps, the occupation regime insists on using them for the army’s abuse and torture of detainees. Instead of closing such “torture camps”, the Israeli regime is expanding the network of army-run camps built to house Palestinians from Gaza.

The detainees’ organisations stressed that lawyers are making every effort to have the conditions within such camps improved, and for detainees to be allowed visits from relatives, something that is usually denied.