October 23, 2007

TULKARM, (PIC)-- The clinical death of prisoner Mohamed Al-Ashqar was officially announced in the Soroka hospital in Beersheba on Monday evening where he was transferred after sustaining serious wounds during the aggression committed by the Israeli Negev prison's police backed up by Israeli special riot unit called "Nahshon" against Palestinian prisoners.

For his part, director of the prisoners' studies center Ra'fat Hamdona revealed that an Israeli bullet had penetrated Ashqar's forehead leading to his clinical death, pointing out that the Israeli policemen brutally handcuffed the victim while being on a hospital bed and tried to bar his mother from visiting him, but later she was allowed to have a look at him for only five minutes after the Red Cross intervened.

Ashqar, hailing from the Saida village, north of Tulkarm, was one of the Islamic Jihad activists and had been serving a three-and-a half year prison term and only two months remained for his release.

With the death of Ashqar, the number of Palestinian prisoners killed since 1967 in Israeli jail has risen to 192 victims including 73 killed since the beginning of the first intifada in 1987.

The Negev prison police backed up by Israeli special riot unit called Nahshon had attacked at dawn Monday the Palestinian prisoners in their tents using internationally-forbidden weapons as well as batons, and sonic and tear gas, which led to the injury of about 300 Palestinian prisoners, a number of them were seriously injured and taken to the Soroka Hospital.

The prison wardens did not take into account the presence of patients amongst prisoners whose health conditions worsened because they inhaled huge amounts of gas and smoke of tear and sonic bombs exploded near them ... The jailors also handcuffed more than 1,200 Palestinian prisoners with plastic strips since Monday dawn until now.

The Negev prisoners reported that they lost all their belongings when the Israeli police burnt their tents.

The Negev prison administration had justified its attack against the Palestinian prisoners saying they opposed night inspections, which was categorically denied by the prisoners; although, there was an agreement between the prisoners' representatives and the prison's administration not to search their tents and cells at such late times.

For his part, Abdulnasser Farwana, the specialist in the affairs of prisoners and a manager of statistics department in the PA ministry of prisoners in Gaza, considered what happened to Ashqar as a war crime in every sense of the word and requires serious moves at all levels, holding the IOA and the Negev prison administration fully responsible for his death.

Farwana underlined that the Israeli policy of suppression against Palestinian prisoners has escalated this year and risen to 50 assaults in which special Israeli assault units called "Nahshon and Metsada" involved in the attacks.

The specialist appealed to the whole world to urgently intervene to halt this dangerous Israeli escalation and to save the lives of more than 11,000 Palestinians imprisoned in Israeli jails.

He also called for forming an international committee for investigating not only the circumstances of the death of Ashqar but also in the death of dozens of Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails as well as the daily Israeli crimes committed against prisoners, which are blatantly inconsistent with all international laws and conventions particularly the Fourth Geneva Convention.

In another serious development, a large number of PA security elements assaulted on Monday evening Palestinian participants in a march organized in solidarity with the Negev prisoners organized by Hamas Movement in Al-Khalil city, southern West Bank.

Local sources reported the PA security elements have wounded five Palestinians, one of them was directly shot, and arrested three others.