Family visit to Palestinian prisoners cancelled because of Israeli closure of West Bank

RAMALLAH, (PIC)-- A responsible source in the International Commission of the Red Cross announced on Tuesday that all scheduled family visits to Palestinian prisoners in Israeli occupation jails on Tuesday were called off. The source explained that the visits were not possible in the light of the Israeli occupation authority's decision to impose a hermetic closure on the West Bank as of Monday night. He added that the visits would resume after the closure is lifted by Saturday night when the Jewish Passover feast comes to an end. Meanwhile, the PA prisoners' ministry in the Gaza Strip said in a press release on Monday that the IOA had embarked on quelling measures against Hamas prisoners in the Negev desert prison. Prisoners said in telephone contacts that the prison authority was transferring a big number of prisoners from one ward to another and from one prison to another. The ministry asserted that the IOA measures would not succeed in forcing Palestinian resistance factions capturing the Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit to change a single Palestinian prisoner included in the list they demand for the release of Shalit. It appealed to concerned international institutions to intervene and prevent the IOA from committing more crimes against those prisoners, which amount to war crimes punishable under the international law.