20 child prisoners in "Hasharon" begin an open-ended hunger strike
Gaza Ministry of Detainee Affairs: Media Unit
13 June 2012
According to private sources in the Ministry of Detainees' Affairs in Gaza, 20 child prisoners at "Hasharon" prison
yesterday (Tuesday, 12 June) began an indefinite hunger strike in protest at the difficult conditions in which they
live, and the lack of response by prison management to their demands.
17 year-old Ahmed Lafi announced that 20 prisoners began the open-ended hunger strike to protest against the conditions
experienced by prisoners in this prison for minors, and the deterioration of their living conditions. Family members are
not allowed to visit with each other, they are not permitted to study, there is no laundry so they have to wash their
clothes by hand
He explained that the prison administration still persists in the torture and humiliation of child prisoners even after
the signing of the agreement to end the Battle of the Empty Stomachs hunger strike between the High Committee of the
Leadership of the Strike and the prison service, adding that the prison administration isolates any prisoner trying to
claim their rights, and places them in solitary confinement. He also said that the cells are like dungeons, the
bathrooms are without doors, and there is a lack of food with only one bowl of rice between eight youths. In addition,
they are subjected to inspections and provocations carried out by the Israeli intelligence.
The Department of Prisons also used hideous torture methods to extract confessions from these young people, brutally
violating all international conventions that protect the rights of children.
The Israeli occupation authorities are still holding around 190 children under 18 years of age in its jails and
detention camps, in circumstances similar to those in which adult prisoners are held, in terms of space, cruelty and
inhuman treatment, malnutrition and lack of health care, such that the separation between minors and adults makes no
difference to their treatment and cruelty to which they are subjected.
ends