| http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/world/middle_east/newsid_1939000/1939099.stm Sunday, 21 April, 2002, 16:27 GMT 17:27 UK Israel in prisoner transfer row Human rights campaigners say Israel is illegally transferring Palestinians arrested in the West Bank to a notorious prison camp in southern Israel. Hundreds of detainees have been moved from the Israeli army's (IDF) Ofer camp, near Ramallah, to Ketziot, in the Negev desert, the Israeli human rights group B'Tselem claims. The IDF has confirmed it reopened the prison earlier this month, six years after it closed. The Public Committee Against Torture in Israel (PCATI), which represents Palestinians detained by Israel, says Israel is violating the Fourth Geneva Convention on Human Rights by transferring Palestinians to the camp. It has submitted a petition to Israel's Supreme Court to try to close the prison down. The IDF told BBC News Online it could not yet comment on the legal position of the prisoner transfers. Ansar III Thousands of prisoners were held at Ketziot during the first Palestinian intifada (uprising), which lasted from 1987 to 1993. Detainees and civil rights groups have complained about harsh conditions at the tented camp, including overcrowding, exposure to heat in the day and freezing temperatures at night. The prison became known to Palestinians as Ansar III, after jails run by the Israeli army in southern Lebanon and Gaza. PCATI says Ketziot falls below standards set by the United Nations. "There are people living in tents and sleeping half on the ground," PCATI director Hannah Freedman told BBC News Online. "There are snakes and scorpions and conditions are very hard," she said. An IDF spokeswoman said prisoners were transferred to Ketziot to alleviate overcrowding in Ofer. She said the desert prison had been fully refurbished before it reopened. Mass arrests Israel says it has arrested 4,250 Palestinians since it began its offensive in the West Bank last month after a wave of Palestinian suicide bombings killed scores of Israelis. It says many of those detained have been released. B'Tselem claims more than 300 prisoners have been moved to Ketziot. The Palestinian security chief in the West Bank, Jibril Rajoub, said the re-opening of the camp would harden Palestinian resolve. "The Israelis will discover that they are wrong in their belief that opening this prison... will break the determination and the unity of the Palestinian people," he said. |
