RAMALLAH, December 26, 2017 (WAFA) - The government condemned on Tuesday an attack by an Israeli lawmaker  on the families of Palestinian prisoners as they were heading to visit their sons in an Israeli jail on Monday.

Extremist member of the Israeli parliament, the Knesset, Oren Hazan, boarded the bus bringing families of prisoners from Gaza on a Red Cross planned visit to see their sons held in a prison inside Israel and assaulted them. He posted his verbal assault on social media.

Government spokesman Yousef al-Mahmoud called on the International Committee of the Red Cross to condemn the attack, accusing Hazan of racist behavior and of committing a crime against the mothers and families of the prisoners.

He said that “what Hazan had done indicates the extent of racism among Israeli officials as a result of the prolonged occupation, which leads to further extremism.”

He said the incitement in Israel was also evident in the way the occupation authority has dealt with the Palestinian teenager, Ahed Tamimi, pointing out that this incitement represents the level of extremism in the mentality of the occupation.

Tamimi was arrested along with her mother and cousin for confronting Israeli soldiers who raided her family home in the village of Nabi Saleh, near Ramallah, 10 days ago.

Mahmoud called on international organizations and signatories of the convention to protect the rights of children to press the Israeli government to release Tamimi and the rest of the Palestinian children held in Israeli prisons.

M.K.