PA: All Wanted Terrorists In Gaza Free Of Restrictions, Demand Israel Release All Gazan Terrorists

2005-08-17

[IMRA: As President Bush and others continue to bend over backwards with their praise for the PA, the PA continues taking measures to insure that terror thrives and instability reigns in post-retreat Gaza]

PNA Officially Demands Israel to Release Gaza Strip Detainees

Hamayel: File of 'Wanted and Deported' Activists in Gaza to Be Closed

Palestine Media Center - PMC [Official PA website]

www.palestine-pmc.com/ details.asp?cat=1&id=962

The Palestinian National Authority (PNA) said it has officially demanded Israel to release the Gaza Strip detainees and said that the file of the "Wanted and Deported Fighters" in the Gaza Strip will be closed following the Israeli evacuation of the coastal strip, but Israel has yet to confirm the PNA statement.

"The Palestinian Authority officially asked Israel to release 650 prisoners from the Gaza Strip who were arrested by the Israeli army during the years of the occupation," Palestinian Minister of Detainee Affairs, Sufian abu Zayda told AFP on Monday.

Abu Zayda said that the Palestinian demand is in accordance to the International Law, and that Israel should release all of the Palestinian detainees after its withdrawal.

Israel argues that the evacuation of its settlers and military from the Gaza Strip means an end to its occupation of the coastal strip, which according to the 4th Geneva Convention entails the release of all POWs.

The PNA insists that an end to the Israeli occupation requires that the Jewish state frees all the Palestinian detainees, as well as ceding Israeli control of the Gaza airspace, sea, international border crossings and a safe passage linking the Strip with the West Bank.

"Given that Israel is bringing to an end its occupation of the Gaza Strip, it must release all prisoners being detained from this region," Abu Zayda said.

Abu Zayda said in statements to the Palestinian Radio that the Palestinians will be absolutely happy with the withdrawal if the POWs are released.

PNA Ministry of Detainees and Freed Detainees confirmed that the PNA officially demanded Israel to release the Gaza Strip detainees following the evacuation, saying that there are 650 detainees from the Gaza Strip in the jails of the Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF), Abdul-Fattah Hamayel, in charge of the file of the "Wanted and Deported Fighters in the Gaza Strip," said.

Hamayel added that the Israeli side handed the Palestinians, during talks regarding this issue, a list of 22 wanted anti-occupation activists from the Gaza Strip and 490 activists from the West Bank.

"The files of the activists included in the list will be officially closed following the Israel withdrawal," Hamayel said, indicating that this file "will be closed" following the Israeli evacuation of the Gaza Strip.

More than 9,000 Palestinian political prisoners are being detained in Israeli custody, including several held in prison for more than 25 years.

While the local and international media focuses exclusively on the Israeli redeployment in the Gaza Strip, the issue of prisoners is not discussed as a real and important legal and political issue.

This is the message from tens of prisoners' families to journalists and civil society organizations during a meeting held in the southern West Bank city of Hebron last week in support of the prisoners at this time, Ahmad Jaradat reported o Sunday (http://www.alternativenews.org).

The mother of a prisoner from the Dora town said that, "all the time the PNA officials told us that no agreement or arrangement will occur without solving the prisoners issue and freeing them, the freedom fighters." However, she added that, "since the first negotiations and agreements began, the prisoners' issue has been kept in the hands of the occupation."

Two weeks ago, a fire broke out in one section of the Ktsiot Detention Center in the Negev Desert. 240 prisoners lost their tents and and personal belongings. The prison administration transferred them to other section of the center that was closed in 1994, a section without electricity, sufficient water or furniture, Jaradat reported.

Numerous local organizations such as the Ansar Al Sajeeen Association and the Prisoner Supporters Association organized campaigns to gather food, furniture and other supplies required by the prisoners from all cities in West Bank.

On August 12, the prisoners in Shatta Prison described the situation there in a letter sent to the Palestinian Prisoners Association in Tulkarm.

In the letter they said that they face extensive overcrowding in the rooms, especially difficult in section 11 in the summer heat of the Middle East. Some of the prisoners here face difficulties in breathing. A physical investigation is ongoing in the prison and dogs are used. From time to time the prison guards beat the prisoners and damage letters from the prisoners' families. The prison administration often ignores the prisoners' need for medical treatment.

For example, Jawad Ishtayya lost his sight and required an operation. However, the prison administration ignored Ishtayya's case.

Iyad Nassar, from Tulkarm and imprisoned in the Hadareem Prison, noted in his letter to the Prisoner Association that "we are facing numerous aggressions and difficulties in the prison. In the hot days around 140 prisoners in section 4 are using just one air condition."

"The food is very bad in quality and quantity. The administration imposes solitary confinement on many prisoners for no reason. At any time the guards and police enter the prisoners' rooms, even during sleeping time. There is no real medical treatment for tens of cases," Nassar added.

On August 3, approximately 50 prisoners in the Ikfar Atzion Detention Center began a hunger strike because of the bad conditions in which they are living, according to a letter they sent to the Prisoners' Association in Bethlehem.

Source: IMRA – Independent Media Review and Analysis