The Israel Prison Authority has doubled the maximum permitted family visits for imprisoned terrorists, Walla News reports. About a year ago, the imprisoned so-called “security prisoners” ended their hunger strikes, and now, they are rewarded in with increased visitations. There were over 150,000 family visits in the last year, which translates to two monthly visits each for 6,200 imprisoned terrorists.

Dr. Simcha Goldin, who is the father of Lt. Hadar Goldin HY”D, whose body is being held by Hamas since 2014 commented on this. He explained that prior to their hunger strike, the imprisoned terrorists were only entitled to one monthly visit, with transportation costs covered by the International Red Cross. Now they receive another monthly visit and the transportation costs are underwritten by the PA (Palestinian Authority).

The parents of Hadar are asking Public Security Minister Gilad Erdan to detail what perks these prisoners are receiving and he wants to know if they include access to this summer’s Mondial Games from Russia.

Walla News reports that talks with senior Palestinians to end last year’s hunger strike among the prisoners led by arch terrorist Marwan Barghouti, were held in the Ashkelon Prison. Talks lasted for 20 consecutive hours, but Israel Prison Authority (IPA) officials deny this was the case.

Walla adds, the hunger strike began on April 17th with 1,100 prisoners taking part. Most of the hunger-strikers were aligned with Fatah. According to the IPA figures, during the 40 days until the strike ended, the number of hunger-strikes climbed to 1,578 but during the process, 750 of the prisoners bailed out. On the 29th day of the strike, Barghouti announced a list of demands. The letter submitted to IPA officials contained no less than 19 pages. They wrote, “Even Yigal Amir, the murderer of a Prime Minister, and even those who burned the Darawshe family to death are entitled to family visits.”

The IPA rejects the Walla report, which it calls inaccurate. It explains anything to do with transportation for family members for visitations is handled by the International Red Cross. IPA officials add there has been no change, explaining imprisoned Hamas terrorists from Gaza do not receive visitations. The IPA adds the hunger strike was a failure, and most of their demands were not achieved despite reports to the contrary.

(YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)