GAZA CITY (AL Jazeera) – Palestinians gathered opposite the headquarters of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) in the besieged Gaza Strip to demand that the Zionist regime immediately release Palestinian prisoners.
The demonstration on Sunday was one of several held across the occupied Palestinian territories to mark Palestinian Prisoners Day, an occasion on which Palestinians traditionally show solidarity with those held in the regime’s prisons.
More than 4,400 Palestinians are currently held in the regime’s jails. More than 500 detainees, including women and minors, are held in “administrative detention”, under which suspects are held without charge or trial for an indefinite time period.
Samira al-Haj Ahmad, 56, who goes by Umm Raed, has joined the annual protests and taken part in weekly solidarity sit-ins for the past 17 years.
Her son Raed al-Hajj Ahmad is being detained at Nafha, a prison in the Naqab (Negev) region of the occupied territories. He was sentenced to 20 years.
“The suffering of our sons in Israeli prisons continues, difficult conditions and harsh treatment by the jailers,” she told Al Jazeera, holding Raed’s photo.
“The flower of my son’s youth went in prison. He was only 20 when he was detained, now he is 38,” she said. “Every month of Ramadan we miss him at the iftar table, our lives have no taste without him.”
Other events to mark the day took place in the districts of Ramallah, Nablus and Al-Khalil in the occupied West Bank, where participants walked in demonstrations and held banners to show solidarity with the prisoners.
Meanwhile, the Arab Parliament called on international human rights organizations to pressure the Zionist regime to end its repressive measures against Palestinian prisoners and to immediately release them.
The legislative body of the Arab League urged the international community and relevant international organizations on Monday to convene a conference on Palestinian prisoners and to intervene urgently to halt the regime’s practices and violations against detainees, the Palestinian Information Center reported.
It further held the Tel Aviv regime fully responsible for the lives of Palestinian prisoners, urging the occupying regime authorities to respect international law and provide the inmates with the necessary protection and put an end to the suffering of administrative detainees.
A Palestinian commission for prisoners says that the number of Palestinian prisoners held under the regime’s so-called administrative detention has increased to 650.
The Palestinian Commission of Detainees’ and Ex-Detainees’ Affairs said in a statement on Monday that the reason for the surge is that the regime has intensified its administrative detention orders in March and April, particularly in occupied East Al-Quds, Palestine’s official Wafa news agency reported.
The number before this stood at 450.