Rearrested Palestinian inmates put in solitary confinement in Israeli jails, say lawyers

The six Palestinian prisoners, who recently tunneled their way out of a maximum security Israeli detention center and were all recaptured nearly two weeks later, have been transferred to solitary confinement, lawyers say.

In a post on his Facebook page on Friday, the lawyer representing one of the inmates Mohamed Qassem Ardah, said Israel's Prison Service (IPS) had moved the Palestinians to solitary incarceration in different jails after the Tel Aviv regime’s authorities concluded their investigation into the successful jailbreak.

Khaled Mahajna also described the IPS decision as "arbitrary.”

Additionally, Karim Ajwa, a lawyer in the Palestinian Authority's Prisoners and Freed Prisoners Committee, said Ardah has been placed in a small and dirty cell in Ashkelon prison. 

Ardah is being monitored constantly in solitary confinement, including when he uses the toilet, depriving him of privacy, Ajwa said, adding that the Palestinian is even considering a hunger strike if his prison conditions worsen in the coming days.

Prisoner Zakaria Zubeidi is being held in the notorious Eshel prison, according to reports. Ayham Kamanji has been moved to solitary confinement in Ohli Kedar prison and Yaqoub Mahmoud Qadri to Rimonim prison while Munadil Nfeiat and Mahmoud Abdullah Ardah are kept in Ayalon prison.

The Palestinian Prisoners Committee said that Israel intensified its pressure on Palestinian inmates, viewing them as "dangerous and a source of threat.”

The occupying regime, it added, had started a campaign to transfer prisoners between jails, so each Palestinian prisoner will not spend more than six months in the same cell and no more than a year in the same prison section.

Hazem Qasem, the spokesman for the Gaza-based Hamas resistance movement, said Israel uses solitary confinement to "break the will of the prisoners, but each time it fails.”

"Israel is attempting to procure revenge from those prisoners and put them in solitary confinement,” he noted.

"This retaliatory behavior manifests the extent of [the jailbreak] insult posed to the administration of the occupation prisons and the entire Israeli security system."

Some 200 rights groups urge protection for rearrested Palesetinian inmates

Almost 200 human rights organizations have held Israel fully responsible for the lives of six Palestinians who escaped from Gilboa Prison and were rearrested later.

The six Palestinians broke out of Israel’s high-security Gilboa prison on September 4 using tools as basic as a spoon. 

A massive manhunt was launched by Isreali forces and almost a fortnight later, four of the inmates were rearrested. The remaining two were also taken into Israeli custody on September 17.

The jailbreak has been hailed as a victory by Palestinians, while Israelis have decried it as a major security and intelligence failure.

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