RAMALLAH/GAZA, Jan. 22 (Xinhua) -- Palestinians organized sit-ins in the West Bank and Gaza Strip after an attack by Israeli Prison Authority's (IPA) special units that lead to dozens of injuries among Palestinian prisoners.
Palestinians protested the attack by several simultaneous sit-ins in front of the International Red Cross Society offices in Nablus, Ramallah, Bethlehem and Hebron.
The protesters raised posters of veteran detainees and slogans condemning the attack and the inhumane treatment of prisoners inside Israeli jails.
More than 100 Palestinian prisoners in Ofer prison, southwest of Ramallah, were injured by rubber coated bullets and suffocated over tear gas as a result of "a brutal attack on Monday by special Israeli forces on the cells of the prisoners", according to the Palestinian Prisoner's Society (PPS).
Head of PPS, Qadura Faris, warned of the heightened tensions in the Israeli jails as a result of the continued IPA violent raids into cells of inmates. He added that prisoners in Ofer jail rejected their meals on Monday and Tuesday in protest.
Head of the PLO Detainees Affairs Commission, Qadri Abu Baker, told xinhua that the prisoners had to sleep on the bare floor after their mattresses and covers were taken away, and some cells were burnt in the aftermath of the raids, holding Israel responsible for the mounting tensions inside its jails.
Abu Baker warmed that the tensions in Ofer prison may spread to other jails "if the IPA doesn't stop its violations against prisoners."
According to the PPS, six of the injured prisoners are suffering from bone breaks, 40 were injured in the head and the rest were hit with rubber coated bullets and tear gas grenades.
Palestinian factions held a demonstration in Ramallah city calling for the release of Palestinian prisoners and demanding an international probe into the treatment of Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails.
Israel Radio reported Monday that a number of Palestinian prisoners violated the prison's disciplines and set fire into the prison's rooms after the prison's administration punished 12 prisoners for hiding smuggled cellular phones.
An official Palestinian figure said that Israel holds in Offer prison around 1,200 Palestinian prisoners out of 6,000 Palestinians in Israeli jails and detention camps.
Meanwhile, the Palestinian Authority ministry of foreign affairs called on the International Committee of the Red Cross and other human rights groups to move as immediately as possible "to stop the Israeli crime against the prisoners."
The ministry said in a press statement that Israel "is trying throughout attacking the prisoners to escalate violence in the region and create a status of tension," adding that the world's right organizations "should stop their silence and rescue the prisoners."
