Some 25 Palestinian political prisoners at the Israeli prison of Naqab have tested positive for COVID-19, amid a surge of cases linked to the Omicron variant across the occupying state of Israel, the Palestinian Authority’s Detainees Affairs Commission said today.
The Palestinian Prisoner’s Society (PPS), a prisoner advocacy group affiliated with Fatah Movement, said all of the 25 prisoners, all incarcerated at section 25 of the prison, have been isolated from the rest of the prisoners after their tests came out positive.
According to rights groups, at least 388 Palestinian prisoners and detainees in Israeli prisons have tested positive for the highly contagious virus since the beginning of the pandemic two years ago.
The Naqab Prison, or Ktzi’ot Prison, is one of the most densely crowed Israeli prisons allocated for the detention of Palestinian political prisoners, with 1,200 prisoners currently incarcerated there. It located in the Naqab desert some 72 km south-west of Beersheba.
Source: Palestinian News & Information Agency