
Despite the fears of Coronavirus spread out, the Israeli authorities arrested (357) Palestinians on March 2020
The Israeli authorities continued to arrest Palestinians, and according to information provided by Palestinian organizations (357) Palestinians have been arrested on March 2020, including (48) minors and (4) women. Detainees' institutions and human rights organizations (the Commission of Detainees and Ex-detainees' Affairs, the Palestinian Society Prisoner's Club, Al Dameer Association for Human Rights) pointed out that the occupation authorities arrested (192) citizens from Jerusalem, (33) from Ramallah, (45) from Hebron, (19) from Jenin, (3) from Bethlehem, (23) from Nablus, (11) from Tulkarem, (18) from Qalqilia, (5) from Tubas, and (8) from Gaza Strip. (5000) detainees are currently imprisoned in Israeli jails including (41) women, (180) minors and (430) administrative detainees, while (92) new administrative detention orders have been issued. Suffering of detainees in Israeli prisons and the fears of spreading Coronavirus among them are increasing: There are many fears on the fate of detainees in light of spreading the coronavirus, accompanied by deliberate procrastinations by the administration of prisons in providing the necessary preventive measures inside sections of prisons, in addition to the overcrowding inside prisons, which may lead to the infection of many detainees, especially after announcing cases for jailors. However, in spite of providing preventive measures to stop the spread out of coronavirus, the administration of prisons imposed punitive and abusing measures against detainees, such as withdrawing some cleaning materials from the cantina. In addition, (4) detainees have been held in quarantine at the clinic of Ramla prison, after discovering a confirmed case at Betah Tekva detention center. In 31/3/2020, the detainee Nour Al-Deen Sarsour have been released and the medical examinations confirmed his infection with coronavirus, which created a state of fear and concern among detainees at Ofer prison. Detainees asked for many demands to protect themselves, such as making checkups for all detainees in all sections, especially section (14) where the detainee Sarsour was held, in addition to section (13) where many detainees contacted with Sarsour. It is worthy to mention that the administration of prisons stopped family visits since the first week of March, pointing out that this measure is to prevent spreading coronavirus, but it did not take any other preventive measures inside prison sections. In addition, all courts have been suspended , where many detainees who are under interrogation or those who have not been charged yet are prevented from direct contact with their lawyers, and only allowed to contact them on phone. In the same context, the administration of prisons refused to provide public land lines for detainees to conact their families, where some detainees have been allowed to contact their families after efforts done by human rights organizations. The International Committee of the Red Cross is the only committee that contact with detainees. Despite the inability to obtain information on the conditions of detention in all Israeli prisons, institutions confirmed that a state of carelessness prevailed in prisons. (700) detainees are encountering the jailors and Coronavirus pandemic, while the world is facing Coronavirus pandemic with all possibilities. In light of the precautionary measures to combat the virus, approximately 5,000 Palestinian detainees are suffering from difficult conditions, which can be described as inhuman and unhealthy. This increases the fears of the spread of this pandemic among detainees, especially the sick ones. However, in lights of these hard circumstances of detainees, the lack of preventive measures and refusing to provide cleaning materials and sanitizers the, fears of coronavirus infection increase, especially among sick detainees and the elderly who suffer from immune deficiency. There are (16) detainees held in tragic conditions at Al-Ramlah clinic. Monitoring reports showed that (222) detainees have been martyred since 1967, due to the policy of medical negligence, which is one of the most prominent policies used by the administration of prisons against detainees. It is worthy to mention that many detainees did not have any disease before getting arrested, and that many detainees have been martyred after a short time of releasing them such as; Naem Shawamreh and Zuhair Lubbadeh. Detainees' institutions request immediate intervention to release detainees from the Israeli jails, especially sick detainees, elderly, children and women, and calls on the necessity to create a neutral international committee to participate in examining the detainees and make sure of their safety. Detainees' institutions also called on the International Committee of the Red Cross to do its best in contacting with detainees and their families, and practice pressure on the administration of prisons to provide the necessary preventive measures to stop the spread out of coronavirus among detainees.