Hamas, Islamic Jihad: Israel raid on Palestinian detainees at Ofer reflects regime's terrorist nature

Hamas and Islamic Jihad resistance movements have condemned in the strongest terms a raid by special Israeli prison units on a section of Ofer Prison, west of Ramallah in the occupied West Bank, and their assault against Palestinian detainees as a criminal act reflecting the Tel Aviv regime’s terrorist nature.

“Such attacks come as part of Israel’s brutality against our prisoners, and constitutes a miserable attempt aimed at restoration of the Zionist entity’s shattered prestige,” Hamas said.

The movement then called for “exposition of Israeli inhumane acts and crimes against Palestinian prisoners.”

For its part, the Islamic Jihad movement denounced “the brutal attack that the Nazi occupying regime committed on Sunday evening against Palestinian prisoners in Ofer Prison. This brutal attack reveals a clear picture of the vicious nature of the regime.”

“The harassment of and assaults on prisoners illustrate the aggressive and cruel nature of the regime. It also shows the abhorrent moral decline and crisis that the Zionist entity is living in,” it said in a statement.

The Gaza-based group noted that the Israeli regime, facing the steadfastness and resilience of the Palestinian nation, was forced to agree to the captives-for-prisoners swap deal. “This shattered the regime's fake prestige,” the movement said.

The Hamas-run Prisoners’ Media Office said “prisoners were beaten and sprayed with gas” during Israeli forces’ raid on Ofer Prison," adding that no details about possible injuries were quickly available.

Israel’s abuse of Palestinian prisoners amounts to full-fledged war crime: Hamas

The Hamas resistance movement says Israel

Over dozen Palestinian women suffer from maltreatment, abuse in Damon Prison

Meanwhile, the Palestinian Commission of Detainees’ and Ex-Detainees’ Affairs has reported that 13 female Palestinian prisoners held at Damon Prison are facing increasingly harsh incarceration conditions at the hands of Israeli jailers.

The commission said in a statement on Sunday that the detained women are forced to stay in cold cells, with windows left open and scarce supplies of clothing and blankets amid chilly temperatures.

The statement added that the women are suffering from different forms of maltreatment. They are reportedly shackled, blindfolded and dragged when they are escorted to the infirmary or to see lawyers.

The female detainees are also frequently and unexpectedly transferred between cells — a measure that is intended to deprive them of any sense of stability inside the prison, the Commission pointed out.

Some of the women told a visiting lawyer that prison guards enter their cells during the night while they are asleep. In light of these break-ins, they have to sleep with headscarves.

Israel keeps Palestinian inmates, particularly those abducted by the occupying regime from Gaza, under deplorable conditions without proper hygienic standards. Palestinian inmates have also been subject to systematic torture, harassment, and repression.

Israel ‘systematically terrorizing’ freed Palestinian prisoners: Media Office

The Gaza-based Prisoners Media Office says the Israeli regime “systematically” harassed and persecuted Palestinian prisoners and their families before and after their release.

Human rights organizations say Israel continues to violate all rights and freedom granted to prisoners by the Fourth Geneva Convention and the international law. 

According to the Palestine Detainees Studies Center, around 60 percent of the Palestinian prisoners detained in Israeli jails suffer from chronic diseases, a number of whom died in detention or after being released due to the severity of their cases.

Palestinian detainees have continuously resorted to open-ended hunger strike in an attempt to express outrage at their illegal detention.

Press TV’s website can also be accessed at the following alternate addresses:

www.presstv.ir