RAMALLAH: About 500 balloons were released in the West Bank city of Ramallah on Tuesday in solidarity with Palestinian children languishing in Israeli jails.

The demonstrators launched the balloons, with the colors of Palestinian flag (red, green, black and white) and the names of the jailed 500 children, at Al-Manarah Square in the city before touring the streets of Ramallah.

They chanted slogans demanding the release of the prisoners and urging Palestinian officials to “pay attention to their case.”

Um Mohammed, a mother of a prisoner, told Arab News that Israeli authorities barred her from visiting her son Mohammed since two years under “security pretexts.” She called on Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and the Palestinian leadership to “spare no effort to secure the release of our sons from Israeli prisons.”

She also called on the Palestinian people to support the detainees and their struggle through solidarity acts and protests.

Um Ibrahim said that Israeli soldiers insult them when they visit their sons. She added that the soldiers and inspectors “expose us to several kinds of abuses during the visits.”

She added that Israeli soldiers force parents of the detainees to go through naked body searches before visiting their detained relatives in some prisons.

Qaddoura Faris, head of Palestinian Prisoners Club (Nadi Al-Asir) and former Minister of Prisoners’ Affairs, said that “Israel is holding more than 360 children in the prisons of Majido, Damoun, Ofer and Telmond.”

He added that the children are facing daily Israeli torture and provocation. Faris added that the prisoners suffer various physical and psychological diseases as a result of the inhuman circumstances of living.

He described the cells where the children are confined as “graves” where no light could enter and which is closed most of the day.

According to Faris, the food provided to the detainees is bad and that the detainees are not allowed to take showers or even change their clothes while in solitary confinement.

Fares called on human rights groups and the international Red Cross to intervene.