Ref: 30/2013
Date: 18 March 2013
Time: 12:40 GMT
The Palestinian Centre for Human Rights (PCHR) condemns the deportation of a Palestinian detainee, Ayman al-Sharawna, by Israeli forces to the Gaza Strip on Sunday, 17 March 2013, under a deal of which details have not been disclosed. According to reports about the deal, al-Sharawna must stay in Gaza for 10 years, before he can return to his home in Hebron. The deal ended Sharawna’s hunger strike, which had lasted for 260 days intermittently. PCHR believes that the decision to deport al-Sharawna to Gaza amounts to a forcible deportation, and reminds that deportation of protected persons is prohibited under Article 49 of the Geneva Convention Relative of the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War (Fourth Geneva Convention).
Once he arrived in Gaza, al-Sharawna was transported to Shifa Hospital in Gaza City, and was admitted to the intensive care unit, as his health condition deteriorated as a consequence of 260 days of hunger strike. According to representatives of human rights organizations who visited al-Sharawna in Elia Prison in Israel, where he was being detained, his health condition had been deteriorating, and he was suffering from pains throughout the body, temporary loss of his eyesight, and weight loss.
Israeli forces arrested Ayman al-Sharawna, 36, from his house in Dura village near Hebron in the southern West Bank, in January 2012. Al-Sharawna then declared a hunger strike on 01 July 2012 in protest against his re-arrest after having been released in the Shalit prisoners’ exchange. He had served 10 years of his 38-year imprisonment sentence. When he was released he was forced by the Israeli forces not to leave Hebron, and to refer to the Israeli intelligence every other month. In February 2012, al-Sharawna was placed in solitary confinement in Elia Prison, while the Israeli Supreme Court refused to intervene into his case. In mid March 2013, the Palestinian Ministry of Prisoners’ Affairs stated that he had lost 80% of his eyesight. On 17 March 2013, following 260 days of hunger strike, in two separate phases, he was deported to the Gaza Strip for 10 years under a deal with the Israeli authorities.
A court hearing was scheduled for today to confirm the remaining 28 years of his previous imprisonment, but as his heath condition deteriorated, hearings were held inside the prison.
PCHR expresses utmost concern over the policy of forcible deportation practiced by IOF against Palestinian civilians. PCHR reminds of similar cases that took place recently, including the deportation of 40 Palestinian prisoners to third countries, and 163 others to the Gaza Strip. These deportations took place in the context of the prisoners’ exchange between Palestinian resistance groups and Israel under which 1,027 Palestinian prisoners were released, in exchange for the release of an Israeli soldier, Gilad Shalit, who had been captured by Palestinian resistance groups.
PCHR condemns the deportation of al-Sharawna by the Israeli authorities to the Gaza Strip, and:
