Over 6,000 Palestinians currently held in Israeli prisons: NGOs

YemenExtra

Israel is holding a total of 6,500 Palestinians, including women, children and lawmakers, in prisons and detention facilities across the occupied territories, three Palestinian non-governmental organizations say.

In a joint press released on Saturday, the Commission of Detainees and Ex-Detainees Affairs (CDA), the Palestinian Prisoners’ Society and the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics (PCBS) said 57 women and 300 children were among the detainees.

The statement noted that 500 inmates were being incarcerated under the practice of administrative detention, which is a policy under which Palestinian inmates are kept in Israeli detention facilities without trial or charge.

Some Palestinian prisoners have been held in administrative detention for up to 11 years.

The report comes as some 1,500 prisoners from all Palestinian political factions are planning to start an open-ended hunger strike on Monday, which marks Palestinian Prisoners’ Day, in protest at harsh prison conditions and restrictions on family visits.