Palestinian resistance movement Hamas says the Tel Aviv regime has suspended family visits for prisoners from the besieged Gaza Strip in Israeli jails.
Hamas said in a statement on Thursday that the Israeli authorities had “surprisingly” decided not to allow any Gazans to visit family members in jails.
The Palestinian resistance movement denounced the Israeli decision as a “declaration of war.”
“This decision is the beginning of a war on (Hamas) prisoners and we will not allow it,” the statement read.
Hamas stressed that it held the Israeli authorities accountable for any deterioration in conditions of prisons in the coming period.
Relatives of Hamas members in jail were previously able to apply for permits to visit prisoners.
According to Israeli website Ynet, the measure is an attempt to force Hamas to release two Israelis believed to be held captive by the group, as well as the bodies of two troopers killed in the 2014 Israeli war on Gaza.
The Palestinian prisoners’ rights group Addameer earlier said that some 6,200 Palestinians, 320 of whom Gaza residents with different political affiliations, had been imprisoned by Israel since May.
Hundreds of Palestinian prisoners staged a 40-day hunger strike earlier this year to denounce the infringement of their basic human rights in Israeli custody.
The strikers demanded basic rights, such as an end to administrative detention, solitary confinement, and deliberate medical negligence. They also notably demanded the reinstatement of family visits facilitated by the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) to twice a month.
Source: Websites
