AMMAN — Families of Jordanian prisoners in Israel are scheduled to visit their jailed relatives on February 27, activists said on Thursday.
Fadi Farah, spokesperson of the National Committee for Prisoners in Israel, told The Jordan Times that the Foreign Ministry has officially notified families of 16 out of 24 Jordanian prisoners in Israel about the date of the arranged visits.
“We have requested that the families of the remaining eight prisoners be allowed to visit their jailed relatives, but the Foreign Ministry has not yet provided any response,” Farah said.
The other eight prisoners, he added, are Hani Khamaiseh, Nasser Daraghmeh, Raafat Esous, Riyadh Saleh, Ahmad Khreis, Mohammad Fuqahaa, Ayman Eladam and Thamer Elburq
He added that Abdullah Barghouthi, who is serving 67 life sentences, is among the prisoners allowed family visits.
As requested by the Israeli side, only three family members will be allowed to visit each prisoner, who will speak to them for no more than 90 minutes through thick glass.
Officials at the Foreign Ministry were not available for comment.
In previous remarks to The Jordan Times, Shireen Nafe, a member of the media team supporting Jordanian prisoners in Israel, Fedaa, said that five of the Jordanian prisoners in Israel, who had been on a hunger strike demanded better visitation arrangements, including allowing five family members to visit regularly and speak to them face-to-face for at least four hours, as one of the conditions to end their strike.
The five prisoners — Barghouthi, Alaa Hammad, Hamzeh Dabbas, Mohammad Rimawi and Muneer Merei — began a hunger strike on May 2, 2013. Four of them ended the strike after 201 days when Israeli prison authorities offered to meet some of their demands, but Hammad pressed on with his strike in hopes of obtaining his freedom.
In December last year, Hammad “suspended” his hunger strike for four days, pending a positive response to his demands.
Hammad, who is serving a 12-year sentence, requested that six of his relatives in Jerusalem and his wife in Jordan be allowed to visit him in Eshel prison and that laser eye surgery be arranged for him.
But the prisoner later resumed his hunger strike after his demands were not fully met, according to Fedaa.
Nafe said that freed Jordanian prisoner Asmaa Hamed, however, was not allowed to visit her Palestinian husband Ibrahim Hamed, who is serving 54 life sentences.
A total of 125 Jordanians are held in Israeli jails, according to Palestinian Minister of Prisoners Affairs Issa Qaraqe.
