Ramallah, March 13 (RHC)-- A Palestinian human rights group says more than 9,100 Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails are subjected to starvation with the arrival of the holy month of Ramadan.  The Palestinian Prisoners' Club (PPC) said in a statement on Tuesday that Palestinian prisoners face a policy of starvation which has worsened since the start of Israel’s genocidal war in the besieged Gaza Strip in early October 2023 as a result of a number of measures imposed by the occupying regime and its escalating crackdown.

The measures include confiscating the prisoners' remaining food supplies, reducing meals as well as poor quantity and quality food provided by the prison’s authorities which particularly affects the sick Palestinian prisoners and worsens their health conditions, it said.

The PPC went on to say that Israel deliberately brings food that is not cooked well, and in some detention centers and camps, specifically affiliated with the military, some expired canned food is provided to detainees.

In addition to the starvation policy, the Israeli regime has also deprived Palestinian inmates from practicing religious rituals, the rights group said, adding that prisoners were subjected to attacks several times after trying to perform prayer or even reading the holy book of Qur’an, the right group said.  It said thousands of detainees are unaware of prayer times inside the cells due to lack of means of communication with the outside world, including radios.

There are reportedly more than 9,100, including 3,558 administrative detainees, about 200 children, and 61 female prisoners.  Hundreds of the inmates have been incarcerated under so-called administrative detention, without trial or charge.

Palestinian detainees have continuously resorted to open-ended hunger strikes in an attempt to express outrage at their illegal detention.  Israel keeps Palestinian inmates under deplorable conditions without proper hygienic standards.  Palestinian inmates have also been subject to systematic torture, harassment, and repression.

Human rights organizations say Israel continues to violate all rights and freedoms granted to prisoners by the Fourth Geneva Convention and international laws. 

According to the Palestine Detainees Studies Center, around 60 percent of the Palestinian prisoners detained in Israeli jails suffer from chronic diseases, a number of whom died in detention or after being released due to the severity of their cases.