Number of Palestinian prisoners up 26% since 2011 -
Figure released at Knesset meeting as government backs request to ban security detainees from making phone calls to families.
By Jonathan Lis | Jul. 2, 2015
Haaretz Daily Newspaper | Israel News
▻http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/.premium-1.663994
The number of Palestinians being held in Israel’s prisons has grown 26 percent since 2011, according to new government figures.
The numbers were revealed yesterday during a Knesset Constitution, Law and Justice Committee session, which decided that Palestinian security detainees will no longer be allowed to make telephone calls to their families while in detention.
Ehud Halevy, the Israel Prison Service’s legal adviser, presented the committee with up-to-date information about Palestinian prisoners at the meeting. “As of this morning, the IPS holds 5,686 prisoners, of whom 1,610 are detainees,” he said. After the swap deal that freed Gilad Shalit in October 2011, the Prison Service held some 4,500 Palestinian prisoners.