RESTRICTION SUMMARY: Beit Lahia - 24 February 2023. Palestinians take part in racing Pigeon sport as supporting of prisoner in Israeli jails on a beach along the Gaza sea barrier on the border with Israel near Kibbutz Zikim, north of Beit Lahia in the northern Gaza Strip.

0.1 SOUNDBITE (in Arabic) Ghassan Kallab, Secretary of the Palestinian Homing Pigeon Sports Union.

STORYLINE:

The head of the Palestinian Prisoner’s Society, Qaddoura Fares, today criticized the Israeli parliament's approval in a preliminary reading of a bill aimed at depriving Palestinian freedom fighters incarcerated in Israel of their right to medical treatment, including surgeries, saying the law legislates the slow killing of Palestinians.

He said in a statement that the Israeli authorities, led by the Israel Prison Services, have for decades devised all kinds of tools to kill the prisoners, and the term used today to describe this as medical negligence is no longer sufficient in light of the situation of hundreds of cases of sick prisoners.

“It is actually a slow killing process,” he said.

"Although international laws and norms guarantee the right to treatment and health care for prisoners, the occupation authorities continue to ignore everything that has been approved by the international system, without any concern, and in light of the international silence, the occupation authorities will continue to invent racist legislations and laws, which appear at first glance that they only affect the Palestinian when in reality they lay the foundation for rules that affect all of humanity,” said Faris.

He warned that the laws aim to deny the freedom fighters whatever rights were left for them, forcing them to declare a mutiny against all these laws and the new measures led by the Israeli cabinet minister Itamar Ben Gvir.

Footage by /APA