PA ministry holds Israel responsible for Negev prisoners’ lives after fire

The ministry of prisoners” affairs on Sunday held the IOA and the Israeli prisons authority fully responsible for the lives and safety of prisoners in the Negev prison after an electrical short sparked a fire in prisoners” tents which resulted in six suffocation cases.

In a statement received by the PIC, Riyadh Al-Ashqar, the director of the information office in the ministry, said that as a result of the poor electrical wiring which runs all over the tents in the prison, an electrical short happened leading one tent to catch fire which quickly extended to other tents.

Ashqar added that when the prison administration delayed bringing fire engines to extinguish the fire, the prisoners rushed to put it off to prevent its spread, but after 40 minutes, the fire engines arrived and controlled the rest of the fire.
 
The Palestinian official stated that the prison administration does not care for the lives of prisoners when it leaves electrical wires exposed and close to their tents especially during rainy weather.

In the same context, the Palestinian center for the defense of prisoners said in a statement received by the PIC that the IOA deliberately pursues a policy of neglect in all fields against Palestinian prisoners in its jails.

It called on the Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails to take escalatory action against the IOA and the prison administrations in order to force them to improve their living, medical and humanitarian conditions inside prisons.

The center pointed out that the Israeli prison administrations deliberately maltreat and neglect prisoners because they do this away from the media, calling on all organizations concerned with human rights to condemn these violations against Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails and to work on putting an end to the Israeli disregard for their lives.