Originally posted to The Middle East Monitor website, 19 April 2021
April 17 marks Palestinian Prisoners’ Day, an international day of action for Palestinian political prisoners.
Israel detains about 4,500 Palestinians in its jails, among them 41 women and 140 children below 18 years. Since the beginning of 2021, Israeli authorities have arrested nearly 1,400 Palestinians.
Nearly 550 inmates suffer from various diseases and require close monitoring and healthcare. At least 10 inmates suffer from cancer of varying degrees, including Fouad al-Shobaki, 82, the oldest of the prisoners. So far, 368 jailed Palestinians have been infected with the coronavirus.
Some Palestinians have spent 40 years in captivity with 543 sentenced to several life sentences.
Prisoners’ Day has been commemorated annually since 1974 after the first Palestinian detainee – Mahmoud Hijazi – was released in a swap deal with Israel.
Link to original post: https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20210419-gaza-marks-palestinian-prisoners-day/
