Palestinian prisoners are subjected to “unprecedented, oppressive and brutal” at the hands of their Israeli jailers, the head of the Palestinian Committee of Prisoners’ Affairs, Issa Qaraqe, told a UN committee yesterday.

He went on to explain that the Israeli government had given a greenlight to the abuses.

Qaraqe met with the officials in the Jordanian capital Amman after Israel refused to allow them in to the occupied West Bank.

Read: Israeli forces assault Palestinian prisoners, relatives

Discussing the mass hunger strike which was undertaken by 1,500 prisoners on 17 April, Qaraqe explained that many had suffered detrimental deteriorations in their health following the strike, which was a peaceful form of resistance on the detainees’ part to demand basic rights, including family visits.

He asked the UN committee to immediately move and afford international humanitarian protection for Palestinian prisoners held in Israeli jails based on international law, as well as hold the Israeli occupation accountable for its violations.

Qaraqe called for all of the international groups and organisations to highlight the issue of the Palestinian prisoners and the Israeli violations against them in order to mobilise an international movement calling for stopping the Israeli violations against them.