Gaza Community Mental Health Programme (GCMHP) Conducts a Seminar on
"Impact of Siege on Palestinian Detainees in the Israeli Jails"

As part of the campaign to minimize the impacts of siege on mental health of Gaza population, GCMHP organized a seminar on "The Impact of Siege on the Palestinian prisoners in Israeli Jails". The meeting was attended by a number of prisoners' relatives, representatives of international, governmental and civil society organization. The meeting took place at Commodore Hotel in Gaza City, and addressed various issues concerning the detainees and their sufferings in the Israeli Jails.

In this regard, Abdel Naser Farwana, specialist of prisoners issues, reviewed statistics from Ministry of Prisoners and Ex-detainees about the prisoners in the Israeli jails. He asserted that more than 11.500 detainees are still imprisoned in the Israeli jails, among them 98 women and 352 children. He added that 81 detainees have been detained for more than 20 years. In addition, he asserted that some of the Israeli practices including continuous prevention from family-visits are considered as war crimes according to the International Humanitarian Law and Geneva Fourth Convention against the detainees.

In term, Eyad Nasser, spokesman of ICRC, asserted on the role of his organization in protection of prisoners and offering services and facilities to them in the Jails. Also, Ra'fat Hamdonah, Director of Prisoners' Studies Center, talked about the role of media in highlighting the suffering of Palestinian prisoners, calling upon the local media to increase programs facilitates detainees' communication with their families. In his testimony, Mo'en Fares, a newly-released detainee after 15 year, explained that Palestinian detainees suffer exceedingly exacerbating siege at all lever, especially mental and spiritual sufferings. He added that disputes of political factions affect negatively on their situation inside the Israeli jails.

At the end, Dr. Nemer Abu Zarqa, Psychiatrist at GCMHP, talked about the negative psychosocial impacts of the siege and prevention from visits on the detainees and their families. He explained that the prevention resulted in appearance of critical symptoms, such as: panic, tension, easily provoking, and tendency for revenge. This siege is a form of psychological punishment committed against Palestinian detainees leave fatal ramifications on their mental health situation.