On Thursday 1 April 2010, Palestinian detainees in Israeli prisons announced a strike until the end of April.
 The detainees announced they will go on a hunger strike and halt meeting their families for five days on 7, 12, 17, 22, and 27 April.
This strike is being held to express solidarity with Gazan detainees who are deprived of their rights to family visits as well as to protest against the ill-treatment that their families receive during their visits and the inhumane treatment, for example body searches, at Israeli checkpoints.
    According to Al Mezan’s lawyer, Palestinian detainees have been deprived of their right to visitation since July 2007.
Families in Gaza have not been able to visit their relatives in Israeli prisons.
 The visits are usually observed by the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), which cooperates with the Israeli authorities to issue the necessary permits.
 Due to a previous agreement with the Israeli authorities, the ICRC follows the movements of the families from the Gaza Strip to the Israeli prisons to make sure they arrive.
  There are about 9.
000 Palestinian detainees detained in 28 Israeli prisons and imprisonment centers.
900 of the 9000 are Gazans detainees.
    Al Mezan Centre for Human Rights condemns the systematic and continuous inhumane treatment of Palestinian detainees carried out by Israel.
Palestinian and Arab detainees are subject to degrading treatment in breach of their most basic rights accorded by international humanitarian law (IHL) and human rights standards.
Palestinian detainees are subject to the following violations: ·         Palestinian detainees are held in places of detention which do not accord with international standards for the treatment of detainees.
Places of detention do not provide protection from extreme weather conditions and large numbers of prisoners are held in cramped and confined spaces.
The Prison Administration also deliberately dims lighting in detention facilities which damages the eyesight of prisoners over time.
Essential maintenance is not carried out at these places of detention.
   ·         Detainees are provided with poor quality meals, which are sometimes spoiled, and are insufficient in quantity, which leads to malnutrition.
This violates international standards on the treatment of prisoners which state that prison authorities must provide detainees with food of nutritional value adequate for health and strength.
·         The Prison Administration conducts arbitrary search campaigns during which prisoners are strip-searched.
The detainees are also beaten, hit with batons, tear gassed, shot with bullets and placed in solitary confinement for long periods of time and their belongings are confiscated.
·         Detainees are not provided with adequate medical services which are limited to the provision of very basic health care for sick detainees.
These services do not meet their urgent health needs.
     Al Mezan Center for Human Rights asserts the right of detainees to communicate with people outside the prison including their right to family visits.
Al Mezan Calls on the ICRC to exert pressure on Israel to ensure the right of detainees to visitation, to enlarge the group of relatives who are allowed to visit their relatives to include, at least, second and third relatives.
Al Mezan also calls for prolonging visits time and to stop the inhumane treatment against the families of detainees.
                Al Mezan expresses its strong condemnation of the systematic inhumane treatment of Palestinian detainees carried out by Israel, which starts from the detention stage, through to unfair trial standards and detention conditions.
  Al Mezan calls on the international community to exert pressure on Israel to respect IHL and human rights standards, and especially the right of detainees to periodic prison visits, and to abide by the United Nations Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners adopted in 1955 as well as other relevant international standards.
It also calls on the international community to take effective and urgent action to ensure the release of all Palestinian detainees.
              Ends