Scabies spreading among prisoners; visits cancelled: Prisoners’ organizations

RAMALLAH: The Palestinian Detainees and Ex-Detainees Affairs Commission and the Palestinian Prisoner's Society (PPS) said that the Israeli Prison Services (IPS) in the prisons of Ramon and Nafha informed the lawyers who organize visits to the detainees that the scheduled visits were canceled without specifying a time period, under the pretext of imposing a quarantine on all sections of the prisoners due to the spread of scabies among the prisoners on a large scale. The two organizations explained in a joint statement that scabies has spread widely among the detainees in several prisons - specifically - in the prisons of Naqab, Megiddo, Nafha, and Rimon as a result of the retaliatory measures imposed by the IPS on the prisoners and detainees after October 7, which fall within the systematic and escalating policies of torture and abuse against the prisoners, which constitute one aspect of the ongoing genocide waged against the Palestinian people in Gaza. They stated that based on dozens of testimonies conveye d by lawyers from detainees inside prisons, in addition to testimonies of released prisoners, scabies has spread widely for months in several central prisons, adding that the IPS has actually turned the disease into a tool of torture and abuse by deliberately committing medical crimes against them, by depriving them of treatment, and not taking any of the necessary measures as a prison authority to prevent the spread of the disease. It confirmed that many detainees went out for visits sometimes after some time had passed since they were infected and that their bodies appeared disfigured from the disease, blood, and ulcers on their bodies due to severe itching. The prisoners' organizations pointed out that the IPS measures imposed on prisoners, in addition to torture, were the main reason for the spread of the disease, most notably the lack of necessary quantities of cleaning materials, including those used to maintain personal hygiene, reducing the quantities of water and the periods available to the prison er to shower, and withdrawing clothes from prisoners. Today, the majority of prisoners rely on piece of clothes, and some of them have been wearing the same clothes for long periods and are forced to wash them and wear them while they are wet, in addition to the state of severe overcrowding inside the sections with the escalation of daily detention campaigns. The lack of ventilation and the isolation of prisoners in cells that lack sunlight have greatly contributed to the spread of diseases. They added that the biggest crime committed by the prison administration against detainees despite the spread of the disease is the deliberate transfer of those infected with contagious diseases from one section to another, which contributed to the increase in the number of infections, noting that among the infected are child prisoners, specifically in the children's section in Megiddo Prison. The Palestinian Detainees and Ex-Detainees Affairs Commission and the PPS held the IPS fully responsible for the fate of the d etainees, especially since the prisons where scabies has spread contain dozens of sick prisoners, some of whom suffer from chronic and serious diseases. They reiterated their demands for the international human rights system to overcome the ongoing state of international impotence in the face of the genocide, and to make clear decisions to hold the Israeli occupation state accountable and to stop the comprehensive aggression against Palestinian people, including the crimes committed against prisoners and detainees in the occupation prisons and camps. Source: Palestine News and Information Agency – WAFA