Tulkarem families allowed jail visits for first time in 3 months
Published today (updated) 21/09/2014 17:03
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=728824

TULKAREM (Ma'an) -- About 200 Palestinian families left Tulkarem in the
northern West Bank to Israel's Negev prison on Sunday morning to visit their
children after having been deprived of visits for three months, a prisoner
rights group said.

The Tulkarem branch of the Palestinian Prisoner's Society said in a
statement that Israeli prison authorities have been imposing "collective
punishment" on Tulkarem-area prisoners since June, refusing to allow family
members to see their imprisoned relatives.

The statement said that even today, the wife of Palestinian prisoner Hasan
Theib from Tulkarem was denied a family visit despite the lifting of
restrictions on most other families.

More than 7,000 Palestinians are currently being held in Israeli prisons,
including 2,000 arrested just in the last three months. Of those, more than
500 are being held in administrative detention without charge or trial.

Under international law, it is illegal to transfer prisoners outside of the
occupied territory in which they are detained, and the families of
Palestinian prisoners face many obstacles in obtaining permits to see their
imprisoned relatives.