78-year-old woman denied visit to her son

The Israeli Prison Service turned back a 78-year-old woman when visiting her son Abdel Nasser Issa, who is serving a life sentence in the Hadarim prison, after a cell phone chip was allegedly found in his possession, said human rights researcher Ahmed Al Beitawi.

The prison authority has taken a strict stand recently against the use of mobile phones in the prison, banning prisoners from visits and placing them in solitary confinement as a punitive measure for finding cellular devices.

Devices have been planted in all sections of the Hadarim prison to scramble phone connections made by prisoners on phones the prison system claims were smuggled into the facility as contraband. The waves emitted from the devices are harmful to health.

The prison administration alongside special forces raided the entire section 11 of the Nafha Prison on Monday in search of mobile phones, moving the entire population to another section of the prison, and cutting the electric from 5:30am to 9:30am. Personal possessions were tampered with during the search.

In a separate development, a new section bare of the necessities of life was built in the Hadarim prison. There are reportedly no chairs, tables, or storage equipments in the section. The kitchen has been shut down. Five of its eight bathrooms are out of order.