RAMALLAH (Ma'an) -- Eight Palestinian prisoners in Israeli custody have launched hunger strike action to end the solitary confinement of jailed Gaza engineer Dirar Abu Sisi. Karim Ajwah, who represents the Palestinian Authority ministry of detainee affairs, told Ma'an that Issam Barghouthi, Uday Salim, Iyad al-Bao, Mahmoud Abdul-Latif, Uday Sunuqrut, Muath Masalmah, Anis Dweik and Fadi Nimnim launched hunger strike action on August 25 to protest Abu Sisi's solitary confinement. All eight hunger strikers have been moved to Ashkelon prison, where they are now in isolation cells, Ajwah said. They have also been denied access to meet with prisoner representatives. Abu Sisi, an engineer who was former technical director at Gaza's sole electricity plant, disappeared from a train in Ukraine in February 2011. Israel later announced it was holding him. According to the PA ministry, Abu Sisi has spent his entire detention in solitary confinement. more

Wednesday [August 28, 2013] Palestinian detainee Dirar Abu Sisi stopped his hunger strike after reaching an agreement with the Administration of Israeli Bir Shiva (Be’er As-Sabe’) Prion, south of the country, to remove him from his solitary confinement. The Ahrar Center for Detainees Studies and Human Rights has reported that The Prison Administration also agreed to allow Sisi to call his family once a month, and to allow the representatives of the detainees, in the prison, to visit him at any given time. Fuad Al-Khoffash, head of the Ahrar Center, stated that Sisi ended his trike once he was removed from his cell, and added that the Prison Administration also removed eight detainees from their solitary confinement cells. The eight detainees were forced into solitary confinement for holding hunger strike in solidarity with Sisi. Israeli Mossad agents kidnapped engineer Dirar Abu Sisi back in February 2011 in Ukraine when he traveled with his wife, Veronica, to seek citizenship...

RAMALLAH (Ma'an) -- The Israeli Prison Service has transferred Dirar Abu Sisi, an engineer from Gaza who was abducted in Ukraine, to Ramle prison clinic, the PA ministry of prisoners' affairs said Saturday. Ministry lawyer Rami al-Alami said Abu Sisi suffered from health problems in his heart, kidney, gallbladder and eyes. Raafat Hamdona, director of the Gaza prisoner center, told AFP that Abu Sisi began a hunger strike on Aug. 16 to demand his release from solitary imprisonment and be allowed visits of members of his family from Gaza. Israeli Prison Service spokeswoman Sivan Weizman said Thursday that Abu Sisi had begun a hunger strike three days earlier and that "all his personal items and electric appliances were removed from his cell, except for a fan." more

One year after Israel promised to allow Palestinian prisoners to receive visits from their families, it is still denying Dirar Abu Sisi the right to see his loved ones. Abu Sisi, the deputy engineer of Gaza’s only power plant, was abducted in Ukraine, the country of his wife’s birth, in early 2011. He has been held in an Israeli prison since then. Throughout that time, his wife Veronika has only been able to have three telephone chats with him. “The last call, which took ten minutes, was in January 2012,” she said. “When my mother died back in Ukraine, they refused to let us have a phone conversation.” Tal Linoy, an Israeli attorney who is representing Abu Sisi, accused Israel of reneging on commitments that it made to Palestinian prisoners last year following a mass hunger strike. As well as agreeing to allow family visits, Israel pledged to end solitary confinement. Yet Abu Sisi is still held in isolation. Although Abu Sisi has not yet been tried for any offense, the Israeli l...

RAMALLAH (Ma’an) -- A Palestinian man held in solitary confinement by Israel for two years is losing his ability to recall language and has speech impairments, a lawyer who visited him in jail said Sunday. The lawyer for the Palestinian prisoners society said Dirar Abu Sisi, an engineer from Gaza, is suffering from a number of health problems in his isolation cell. Abu Sisi disappeared in February 2011 while traveling on a train in Ukraine and Israel later announced that it was holding him in a southern Israeli jail. He was the only prisoner excluded from a May 2012 deal with Israeli authorities to end solitary confinement, according to prisoners rights group Addameer. more

Dirar Abu Sisi, the 43-year-old deputy engineer of the only power plant in the Gaza Strip, went on a one-day hunger strike Thursday to protest against being held in solitary confinement by Israel. His fast marks the latest episode in a mysterious story of abduction and torture. In February 2011, Abu Sisi traveled to Ukraine, his wife Veronika’s native country, to seek citizenship after Operation Cast Lead, Israel’s winter 2008-09 attack on the Gaza Strip, made him fear for the safety of their six children. On 18 February, he boarded an overnight train from Kharkiv to Kiev, hoping to meet his brother Yousef, a resident of the Netherlands, for the first time in 15 years. But he never reached Kiev. During the night, three men, two of them wearing Ukrainian military uniforms, boarded his compartment, flashed a badge from the Security Service of Ukraine, and demanded that Abu Sisi leave with them. At around 1am, they forced him off the train. “My last contact with Dirar was imm...

RAMALLAH (Ma'an) -- A Gaza engineer kidnapped by Israel in the Ukraine last year is the last remaining prisoner held in solitary confinement, after the hunger-strike deal sought to end the practice, his lawyer said Tuesday. Dirar Abu Sisi is still being held in an isolation cell in Ashkelon prison, while all others have been returned to normal wards, lawyer Karim Karim Ajwah said, noting his case was "kept secret in an unusual way." Abu Sisi disappeared in February 2011 while traveling on a train in Ukraine and Israel later announced that it was holding him in a southern Israeli jail. A former head of the Gaza power plant, he is accused of working with Hamas to improve its rocket technologies. more

Ukraine still hasn't complained about Israel kidnapping a Palestinian engineer on its territory. Now Israel's courts have published their trumped up charges - he designed rockets. Basically, anyone with a scientific and engineering background could be part of the rocket-designing and manufacturing infrastructure. Only if Gaza is thrown back to some pre-industrial stone age will Israel be satisfied. Dirar Abu Sisi is being charged with attempted murder, being a member of a terrorist organisation and developing weaponry. A Palestinian engineer has been charged with hundreds of counts of attempted murder and accused of developing missiles that the Islamist group Hamas fired from Gaza against Israelis. Dirar Abu Sisi, a director of the Gaza Strip's sole power station, said he was kidnapped during a visit to Ukraine in February and transferred secretly to Israel. A court in the southern Israeli city of Beersheba handed down a 15-page indictment, revealing the allegations at the ...