The head of the Palestinian Prisoners and Ex-Prisoners Affairs Authority, Qaddoura Fares, said today, Tuesday, April 16, 2024, that Israel has killed 16 prisoners of unknown identity and dozens of Gaza prisoners since October 7, 2023.
This came during a press conference held at the headquarters of the Prisoners’ Affairs Authority in Ramallah, on the eve of Palestinian Prisoner’s Day, corresponding to April 17 of each year.
Fares added, “Since October 7, Palestinian prisoners have been facing a fierce attack that is the ugliest in the history of the prisoner movement.”
He added: “The Israeli war of annihilation in the Gaza Strip is being waged against the Palestinian people today, and it is taking forms and shapes, centered in Gaza and extending everywhere.”
He stated that “the conditions in Israeli prisons are catastrophic, as Israel killed 16 prisoners known by name, while dozens of Gaza Strip prisoners were killed without knowing their number and names.”
He pointed out that “Israel is committing unprecedented crimes and has entered a new era of conflict.”
The Palestinian official pointed out that in light of all these crimes, the international community continues to remain silent.
Fares accused Israel of “luring the prisoners into confrontation in order to suppress and kill them,” pointing out the presence of armed jailers inside the departments.
He called for Palestinian Prisoner’s Day to be “a turning point in terms of popular action against Israel in the West Bank and Jerusalem through marches denouncing those crimes.”
Palestinian Prisoner’s Day this year comes in the wake of a devastating war in Gaza during which Israeli forces arrested thousands of Palestinians in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank. Tel Aviv faces accusations from Palestinian authorities and local and international human rights organizations of carrying out torture and execution of prisoners on the ground and in its detention centers.
