Israeli forces Wednesday evening quelled a protest in solidarity with Palestinian prisoners at the entrance of Beit town, south of Nablus, injuring dozens, according to medical sources.
Ahmad Jibril, the head of the Emergency and Ambulance Department at the Palestinian Red Crescent Society (PRCS), said that Israeli forces opened fire towards the villagers who protested in solidarity with prisoners facing brutal Israeli mistreatment in Israeli prisons, injuring seven by rubber-coated steel bullets and causing some 17 others to suffocate from tear gas.
Palestinians took to the streets in other different parts of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip in condemnation of Israeli repression of prisoners in Israeli jails.
Israeli special units and soldiers Wednesday cracked down on several prisons, including Ketziot’s Section 6 in the Naqab and Rimon Prison, in an attempt to disperse some 400 prisoners affiliated with Islamic Jihad and relocate them to other prisons, prompting prisoners to set seven cells on fire.
The planned relocation of the Jihad-affiliated prisoners was part of a set of punitive and repressive measures taken by the Israeli Prison Service (IPS) following Monday’s escape of six prisoners, including five members of the movement, from the highly-fortified Gilboa Prison.
Other than the planned redistribution or dispersion of Jihad-affiliated prisoners, the punitive measures imposed by IPS included banning prisoners from leaving their rooms, depriving them of using facilities such as sinks, kitchens and cafeterias, in addition to banning lawyers and family visits.
This has prompted the Palestinian Detainees and Ex-Detainees Affairs Commission to caution against sliding into “open confrontation” in prisons.
Israeli forces continue to carry out a massive manhunt to locate the escapees, yet their whereabouts remain unknown.
Source: Palestinian News & Info Agency