May 5, 2009

GAZA, (PIC)-- The PA ministry of prisoners and ex-prisoners' affairs in Gaza has accused Tuesday the Israeli occupation authorities of kidnapping 345 Palestinian citizens, including 40 minors during the past month of April.

Although the month of April witnessed a number of activities in support of the Palestinian prisoners incarcerated in Israeli jails, which were considered as the biggest in this regard, repressive Israeli measures against the Palestinian captives persisted despite strong condemnation from local and international human rights groups.

According Riyadh Al-Ashkar, the information officer in the ministry, the IOA rounded up hundreds of Palestinian citizens across the West Bank, Jerusalem, and fishermen from the besieged Gaza Strip.

The PA official also disclosed that the kidnapped Palestinian children were tortured and humiliated at the hands of the IOF troops, noting that the number of Palestinian children captives in the Israeli jails has jumped to more than 430 children.

Among the kidnapped children was Palestinian girl Maymona Jebreen, 16, who was visiting her brother in the Israeli detention camp of Ofer before the Israeli occupation police arrested her, alleging she was hiding a knife. Her father and her other two brothers were also rounded up later on by the IOA troops.

According to the ministry's record, at least 10 Palestinian fishermen were kidnapped by the Israeli navy while they were fishing off the Gaza shores.

Moreover, Ashkar accused the IOA of deliberately neglecting sick Palestinian captives in the Israeli jails that led to worsening their health condition further; underlining that number of sick Palestinian captives was rapidly increasing as a result of this inhumane policy.

He explained that the vicious Israeli campaign against the Palestinian captives increased after an extremist Israeli party seized the portfolio of "internal security" in the new Israeli cabinet, which is directly supervising the Israeli prison authority (IPA).

A couple of weeks ago, Palestinian captives refused to wear the orange uniform that the IPA tried to impose on them, stressing they are prisoners of war, and not criminals as the IPA wishes to portray them.

At least three Palestinian detainees got wounded after clashes erupted between the Palestinian captives, and the IOF troops at the Ashkilon prison.

Moreover, the ministry accused the IPA of denying the Palestinian captives the right to learn, saying that the IPA reduced the number of books the captives could read from eight books to one book only, in addition to denying them watching certain TV news channels like Al-Jazeera.

But Palestinian female captives were completely denied any book to read, the ministry pointed out

In addition to that, the administrative detention terms of many Palestinian detainees, including MPs from Hamas Movement were arbitrarily extended by Israeli courts without any legal justification, the ministry highlighted.

At least two Hamas officials, including former vice-premier Dr. Naser Al-Dein Al-Shaer, and the prominent Hamas leader in the West Bank Rafat Naseef went on hunger strike in protest of their illegal detention.