Exile of prisoners \'a war crime\'

Israel's exile of prisoners to the Gaza Strip and abroad is a serious war crime, rights groups said Monday. Israel and Hamas agreed to deport over 200 prisoners as part of a deal to release 1,027 detainees from Israeli jails in exchange for a soldier held in Gaza. Some 166 prisoners will be deported to Gaza and 40 to third countries in the first phase of the swap, expected to take place Tuesday. In a joint statement Monday, prisoner rights group Addameer and legal rights organization Al-Haq highlighted that while the deal was cause for celebration for 1,028 families, aspects of the exchange were "fundamentally at odds with international law." Unlawful deportation or transfer breaches the Fourth Geneva Convention and "qualifies as one of the most serious war crimes," the groups said. The protections of the Fourth Geneva Convention are inviolable, even if prisoners consent to exile and even though Hamas negotiated the deal, the statement said, pointing to the "stark asymmetry in power" between the Palestinian and Israeli parties. Addameer director Sahar Francis noted that Israel has hermetically sealed off Gaza from the West Bank, and that exile to the blockaded coastal enclave "in many cases can be seen as a second prison sentence." At least eight women prisoners were left out of the deal, the groups added, despite Israel's agreement that all female detainees would be released. Al-Haq director Shawan Jabarin said "prospects for (the prisoners') release continue to be dictated by Israeli political interests, just as the fate of 1,027 prisoners was staked on the release of a single Israeli soldier, whose capture has further adversely affected the rights of countless more Palestinians living under Israeli blockade in the Gaza Strip." The groups demanded "a fair and permanent resolution" to the plight of political prisoners, "arrested on the basis of Israeli military orders that criminalize any form of opposition to the occupation; tried by Israeli military tribunals that do not conform to international due process standards or held in administrative detention without charge or trial; and imprisoned in harsh and illegal detention conditions."