Arab League urges ICRC to help end abuses against Palestinian inmates

The Arab League has turned to the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) to stand up for the Palestinian prisoners in Israeli regime jails and help end the regime’s rights abuses there.

According to reports, on Wednesday, Arab League Secretary General Ahmed Aboul Gheit sent a letter to ICRC President Peter Maurer, calling on the committee to “urgently intervene with Israeli authorities to stop the various abuses being committed against those prisoners of war.”

Since April 17, over 1,500 Palestinian inmates have been refusing food in protest at the conditions of Israeli prisons.

The open-ended hunger strike was initially called by Marwan Barghouti, who is serving five life sentences in an Israeli prison for his role in the second Palestinian Intifada (uprising) against Tel Aviv.

Barghouti has accused the illegal Zionist entity of “inhumane” treatment of prisoners and “judicial apartheid” in a New York Times opinion piece published earlier this month outlining the reasons behind the mass hunger strike.

Reports said earlier this week that Barghouti’s health conditions have been critically deteriorating during the past week.

The letter further urged the ICRC to demand Israel “ensure treating Palestinian prisoners on hunger strike according to norms and standards set in international humanitarian law.”

The Arab League said in a statement that Aboul Gheit’s letter is part of contacts “with international actors to stop violations against Palestinian prisoners of war in Israeli prisons.”

On Tuesday, the Arab League head sent a similar letter to UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres, calling on him to condemn Israeli human rights violations.

He also said the world body should take practical measures and make the regime respect international law as the occupying power, based on the Fourth Geneva Convention.

SS