RAMALLAH, The Detainees and Ex-Detainees Affairs Commission said Mohammad Arda, one of six Palestinian prisoners who escaped from a high-security Israeli jail on September 6 and were recaptured days later, embarked today on an open-ended hunger strike in protest against the Israeli prison service punitive measures against him and the harsh conditions of his solitary confinement.

The commission’s lawyer, Kareem Ajwa, said new punitive measures were imposed on Arda following an internal hearing that was held at Asqalan prison, where Arda was transferred six days ago, including keeping him in isolation for 14 days without any personal belongings, banning him from family visits and buying essentials from the canteen for two months, in addition to imposing financial fines on him.

Arda is being isolated without blankets and a pillow in a small, dirty, and unventilated cell that lacks the basic humanitarian requirement. Arda told the lawyer that he has not been able to take a shower for days because he is being monitored around the clock by surveillance cameras.

Mahmoud Abdallah Arda, 46, from Arraba town near Jenin, was arrested in 1996 and serving a life sentence.

Source: Palestinian News & Info Agency