PLO Libel: Israel "violates" female Palestinian prisoners – they falsely claim that "physical and mental torture are being carried out against the women"
Video posted on the Facebook page of the PLO Commission of Prisoners’ Affairs
Director of PLO Commission of Prisoners’ Affairs Qadri Abu Bakr: “Good morning, everyone. Before anything else, we send our best blessings to the Martyrs of Palestine, to the prisoner Martyrs whose number in the prisons stands at 226 prisoner Martyrs. We also send blessings to our heroic prisoners in the prisons whose number stands at more than 5,000 prisoners, including 37 young women and women. I bless our brothers, the hunger striking prisoners, whose number stands at five and who have served a period of more than four months while hunger striking – Kayed Fasfous (PMW was unable to determine the nature of his crimes -Ed.) and others. I bless the prisoners who succeeded in extricating their freedom in spite of the occupation by digging a tunnel for more than a year (refers to Gilboa Prison escape; see note below -Ed.). This was tantamount to a victory for the prisoners and the Palestinian people. One of the Israeli generals described this operation as equal in value to the October War operation (i.e., 1973 Yom Kippur War), of course in its morale-related, political, security, and military sense…
I want to note that the number of military prisoners (i.e., terrorist prisoners from the PA Security Forces – Ed.) in the prisons stands at approximately 350 prisoners. In the past it was said that the revolution is the only form of revolution that victory does not come through it, but rather through the accumulating simple victories. After a series of pain and suffering, for a long time the Palestinian women have been and still are the fuel of this revolution.And they are still swallowing the pain and suffering to reach victory. In the various territories of the homeland, in its border cities, in the Israeli oppressive solitary confinement cells, and in the occupation’s prisons, there various type of pressure and physical and mental torture are being carried out against [the women]…
The regulations of international humanitarian law are responsible for additional and special protection for women, but the Zionist occupation authorities have violated all the legally defined laws in the international agreements and violated them very blatantly against female prisoners in their true identity as mothers of children or wage earners for their families, university students or those who are still in school. They could be the fiancées of prisoners, they could be single in the prime of their youth, and they could be married. But all this did not prevent the occupation forces from implementing all ways of humiliating and oppressing them. One of many examples is the ways of pressuring and intimidating them and the use of their families and children in order to receive information. We direct attention to the cause of the arrest of women, which has increased significantly since 2015, and until now the number of female prisoners who were arrested since 2015 stands at approximately 10,000 female prisoners. The latest new statistics indicate that the number of female Palestinian prisoners has reached 37 prisoners, with theiraverage age being between 19-60, and the number of mothers stands at 9 prisoners…
The [PLO] Commission of Prisoners’ Affairs has approximately 50 lawyers who are monitoring the affairs of the male and female prisoners in the prisons. In other words, among the topics that we are monitoring [are topics] such as legal monitoring in the military courts by a large team of capable lawyers, monitoring the families of the female prisoners and fulfilling their demands, monitoring the problems and providing legal counseling, monitoring the female prisoners’ medical needs, monitoring and submitting complaints on the violation of laws, monitoring all the public institutions and parties in the field of women’s [issues], and instilling awareness and organizing committees and conferences in order to direct attention to the legal violations against our female prisoners in the occupation’s prisons and publicizing them.”
2021 Gilboa Prison escape – 6 Palestinian terrorist prisoners escaped from Israel's Gilboa Prison on Sept. 6, 2021, by widening the hole of the shower drainpipe in the floor of their cell. One terrorist is from Fatah - Zakariya Zubeidi, and the other five are from Islamic Jihad - Ayham Kamamji, Muhammad Ardah, Mahmoud Ardah, Yaqub Qaderi, and Munadil Nafiyat. Four of the terrorists were recaptured after five days: Zubeidi, Ardah, Ardah, and Qaderi. Kamamji and Nafiyat were arrested in Jenin on Sept. 18, 2021 along with two accomplices. Zubeidi was head of the Al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades (Fatah's military wing) in the Jenin area during the PA terror campaign (the second Intifada, 2000-2005), when he oversaw numerous lethal attacks, and he also carried out shooting attacks in 2018-2019. Kamamji participated in the murder of 18-year-old Eliyahu Asheri on June 25, 2006, and planned to blow up a bus using an exploding car. Muhammad Ardah participated in initiating and executing a suicide bombing on bus no. 823 on Nov. 29, 2001, in which 3 people were murdered and many others were wounded. Mahmoud Ardah was involved in numerous attacks; the website of Islamic Jihad’s military wing defined him as the "commander" of the prison escape. Qaderi committed a shooting attack on Sept. 18, 2002 with an accomplice in which Israeli Yosef Ajami was murdered and a foreign worker was wounded. Nafiyat was being held in administrative detention.