Israel Punitively Moves Ashkelon Detainees to Other Prisons

Israeli Prisons Services Monday morning punitively transferred all Palestinian prisoners from the Israeli prison of Ashkelon to other prisons, according to the Prisoners’ Affairs Commission.

The Commission said in a press release that a total of 47 prisoners were violently relocated to other prisons as a form of collective punishment.

Last month, Palestinian prisoners held in Ashkelon prison started an opened-ended hunger strike in protest of their detention conditions.

The prisoners demanded improvements in their conditions, including halting daily raids by Israeli wardens, lifting financial punitive measures, improving medical treatment for ill prisoners and returning their representative Nasser Abu Hmeid, who had been transferred to Nafha prison, among others.

Currently, there are around 5,152 Palestinians in Israeli prisons, with 479 being held in administrative detention, according to the Israeli human rights organization B’Tselem.

Administrative detention allows for internment without trial or charge for six-month intervals that can be renewed indefinitely. The policy has been strongly criticized by the international community as well as both Israeli and Palestinian rights activists