The freed prisoner Wafa Mahdawi: The captives have their hopes for the deal "big and real" and are sure against themselves against Corona

Atef Douglas-Nablus

The released Palestinian prisoner, Wafaa Mahdawi, said immediately upon her release that Palestinian women prisoners in the prisons of the Israeli occupation have great and real hopes of releasing them based on the latest information coming from Gaza about a "honorable" exchange deal, based on what the media circulated to the leader of the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) In the Gaza Strip, Yahya Sinwar.

And the Israeli occupation authorities released the captive Mahdawi Thursday evening from Damoon Prison, northern Israel, after she ended her 18-month prison sentence and a fine of more than 12,000 dollars.

Mahdawi said in a special call to Al Jazeera Net that the women prisoners were looking forward to the good and that some of them had started preparing their possessions in preparation for their release, as Hamas demanded, as a first step to complete the deal, to release the captured children, women, and the big and sick prisoners in exchange for information about the captured soldiers in Hamas in Gaza.

Corona and the message
Mehdawi conveyed the prisoners ’message on the Palestinian prisoner’s day, which falls on Friday, in which they demanded the speedy release of them, especially as among them are mothers and patients who do not receive more than one“ Acamole pill ”for treatment.

The released captive stated the conditions of the captives in light of the outbreak of the Corna virus, that they were dependent on themselves for the prevention of the disease, and they did not wait for the prisoner, who provided only simple sterilization materials such as "chlorine", and indicated that they followed a self-diet by avoiding gatherings during times of boom and maintaining the utmost hygiene and not being Contact and mixing with prisoners, "being the first source of infection."

She said that the jailers still stormed the rooms to make the number twice a day, "but with less guards and they wear masks", and they spray some sterilizers on the door handles.

Despite the occupation’s decision to stop visits to families and to stop the court sessions in order to prevent the spread of the Corona virus, the prison authorities responded only to some of the prisoners and with the approval of the Israeli General Security Service (Shin Bet) after pressuring and sitting in the prison yard by calling their families to check on them.

The release of Wafaa Mahdawi came after more than thirty court hearings that the freed prisoner was subjected to, as the occupation refused the appeal submitted by the lawyers to reduce the sentence until he served her imprisonment for that period and fined her financially.

Reducing the release
Ghassan Mahdawi, brother of Wafa, said in a telephone conversation with Al-Jazeera Net that the occupation "rip off" the release of his sister, as it was scheduled to be released near the Jalameh checkpoint, north of Jenin, in the northern West Bank, but he was released from the Salem checkpoint, west of the city, to make them happy.

Mahdawi added that his sister, Wafa, as any Palestinian prisoner was received from a medical staff who had conducted the necessary tests to avoid her infection with the Corona virus, and confirmed that she would be subject to quarantine in her home.

Mahdawi was arrested days after her son, martyr Ashraf Na'alawah, carried out an operation in the Barkan Industrial Settlement, perched on the lands of Salfit, in the northern West Bank in early October 2018, in which two settlers killed and a third was wounded, after they were shot inside their workplace with a locally manufactured gun. Known as "Carlo".

The collective punishment of Ashraf Na`alawah’s family, who was martyred two months after the chase, continued, as he demolished his family’s home and arrested his father, brother, and sister and her husband. Walid Na`alawah, the husband of the freed prisoner Mahdawi, was sentenced to 18 months in prison and fined more than a thousand dollars, while his son Amjad was sentenced to more than a thousand dollars. Imprisonment for two years and a fine of about 20 thousand dollars.

The Occupation Court sentenced her daughter, Fayrouz, a pharmacist, to 54 days in prison and her husband, Dr. Nasr Shuraim, to eight months in prison.

Torture policy
The Palestinian Prisoner Club, a human rights organization that monitors the affairs of Palestinian prisoners in the occupation prisons, had said in a previous statement that the occupation authorities, during the past year 2019 and the current 2020, had restored the policy of torture of captive women, and had quoted female prisoners as saying that some of the torture operations "continued for more than Month".

The methods of torture and abuse practiced by the occupation authorities against the women prisoners, according to a previous statement of the Prisoner Club published on the International Mother's Day, between being shot during arrests and searched after stripping, and being held in cells that are not suitable for living.

They were also subjected to interrogation and for long periods of time, accompanied by physical and psychological torture methods, including shabeh in its various positions, and their restrictions throughout the investigation period.

The club confirmed that the 41 female captives suffer from difficult life conditions in Damoon Prison, where there are cameras in Al-Furah Square, and high humidity in the rooms during the winter period, and the female prisoners are forced to use covers to close the bathrooms, and the prison administration intends to cut the repeated power supply They must, as well as the “busta” (prison bus) that constitute an additional torment trip for them, especially those suffering from difficult diseases.