RAMALLAH, April 18, 2017 (WAFA) – The Israeli Prison Service (IPS) cancelled family visits to prisons and lawyers were barred from visiting prisoners on hunger strike in Gilboa prison, the Media Committee of Freedom and Dignity said on Tuesday.

Spokesman for the committee, Abdul Fattah Douleh, said the IPS informed the Red Cross that family visits to prisons have been cancelled, describing the move as a punitive measure.

The Gilboa prison administration Tuesday also banned lawyers from visiting striking prisoners, alleging that “the prisoners cannot walk and reach the visitation rooms,” said the committee.

Meanwhile, Qaddoura Fares, head of the Palestinian Prisoner’s Society (PPS), confirmed that the IPS carried out large-scale transfers of the hunger striking prisoners and assembled many in single sections in some prisons.

Strike leaders Marwan Barghouti and Karim Younis were transferred from Hadarim Prison to solitary confinement in Jalameh. Other prisoners were also transferred from Nafha prison to solitary confinement in Ayala prison.

M.N./M.K.