Posted on 14-6-2003

Prisoners Of Israel
From Palestine Monitor, July 10, 2003

The Palestinian Prisoners society reported this week that four Palestinain
prisoners, who were being held by the Israeli auhorities in the Qaddoumi
detention center, had been transferred to a prison hospital.

Issa Qaraka, the head of the Prisoner's society, said on the 4th of July
the four prisoners carried out acts that endangered their lives, in order
to protest the dire conditions in which they are kept in the detention
facility; one drank a bottle of shampoo, another injured himself by banging
his head on the wall of his cell, another slit his wrists and the other man
swallowed small metal and plastic objects.

Ahmad Sharab, a lawyer who met with some other prisoners from the detention
facility, was told that the acts were not acts of suicide, but rather
protesting the fact that all the detainees are being held at the facility
without charge, some have been there for several months, it is not a
facility designed for long term prisoners and as a consequence the
prisoners are kept in dreadful conditions and many of the men require
medical treament which is denied them. Furthermore, none of the men have
been permitted access to lawyers in the detention center.

Fatmeh An-Natsche, another lawyer who has spoken to the men since they were
transferred, said that after the men had carried out their protest they
were denied medical treatment for 24 hours; eventually a nurse was brought
in to attend to the men but provided no treatment.

Their protests came during a hunger strike in which all 34 detainees at the
facility were participating; their hunger strike began on the July 2. The
hunger strike was called off after the men were given medical treatment.

For more information contact: The Palestine Monitor www.palestinemonitor.org