Relatives of prisoners appeal for end to strip search

Relatives of Palestinian prisoners in Israeli occupation jails have appealed to the human rights groups and the Red Cross to pressure the Israeli occupation authority (IOA) into halting strip searches.

They said that the IOA deliberately forces wives and mothers of prisoners to strip inside the search rooms at Jalama crossing.

One of the women said that an Israeli female conscript told her to completely strip for search but she refused and asked for canceling the visit. However, the conscript insisted that the woman must be searched even if the visit was cancelled.

The IOA intentionally enforces strip searches so as to break the determination of the prisoners and their relatives while alleging it is looking for mobile phones.

The Prisoners’ Center for Studies asserted a couple of days ago that the Israeli occupation forces (IOF) violated the sanctity of Palestinian prisoners’ families during their journey to visit the prisoners in the Israeli prisons.

Tawfeeq Abunaeem, a prisoner in the Israeli jail Hadarim, regretted the practices of the IOF soldiers against prisoners’ mothers, and said: “The Israeli army forced three of the prisoners’ mothers to strip in closed inspection rooms. Although the mothers refused the practice and preferred to turn back home without meeting their children, the Israeli army insisted on inspecting them”, added Abunaeem.

Hadarim prisoners, who feel angry about the ill-treatment of their families, have sent complaints to human rights organizations in Israel and protest letters to the Arab members of Israeli Knesset, the Red Cross and the Israeli prisons authority.

Director of the Center Ra’fat Hamdona said: “Confrontations between the prisoners and the prison administrations might take place as a result of such practices”.