Thirty-one years have passed since Diaa al-Agha, Gaza’s longest-serving prisoner in Israeli jails, was imprisoned by the Israeli occupation authorities. During all that long time ever since, his mother has only been dreaming of having a chance to hug him. “For 31 years, he has been detained in the Israeli occupation prisons. We miss him at iftar during Ramadan, and we miss him in all our events and holidays. I fear that I will die without being be able to hug him,” says Najat Al-Agha, Diaa’s mother. As a matter of fact, although families of Palestinian prisoners are allowed sometimes to visit their imprisoned relatives in Israeli jails, the prisoners are only allowed to talk to their visiting relatives through a telephone with a heavy glass bar separating them from the visitors, making it impossible to have physical contact. Diaa Zakaria Al-Agha, 48 year old, is sentenced to life in prison, and is one of the Palestinian prisoners who were arrested before the signing of the Oslo Accord in 1993 and who are still in prison until now. His mother explains, “Since his arrest, I have not been able to sleep or live normally. I miss him in every detail of my life. When Diaa was arrested, I was 42 years old, and now I am 73. I am afraid that I will not see him. All holidays are meaningless now.” “I am preoccupied by suffering, grief, and pain, and I only think about Diaa. He was a youngster when he was arrested. Every night, I wish to stay alive and see him. I wish to hug him like every mother who hugs her son,” adds the 73-year-old mother. She continues, “Diaa is different from his brothers. He loves children, he’s very social, and loves his companions. All the prisoners know him and love him.” The mother says her last visit to her son in prison coincided with the Mother’s Day on March 21. She recalls the moment when she arrived for the visit, saying, “It was as if I was visiting him for the first time… When I saw him, he was sitting and he got up quickly. He put his cheek on the glass separating the prisoner from his/her family and I kissed him [the glass] for a while. Some of the prisoners looked at me and said: God willing, you will kiss him without glass soon.’ The mother sobs, “I have been to Switzerland, France, Morocco, Egypt, the Arab League, Algeria, Iraq and other countries. I did not miss an institution concerned with human rights. I explained to them the concerns of the families and children of the prisoners in Israeli occupation prisons, the fatigue associated with family visitation to prisons. I told them about the mothers who fathers who died while their children were inside prison.” “The idea of a mother or father calling the name of their captive son while they are taking their last breath in life is painful and heartbreaking. There are mothers who are deprived of visitation,” Al-Agha says in pain. Al-Agha points out: “We leave at three o’clock in the morning towards the gate [of the prison]. We arrive after an hours-long journey. As soon as the bus carrying the prisoners’ families enters the yards of the prison, the Israeli occupation searches us and forces us to take off our clothes in the extreme cold while we are barefoot.” The mother says she was prevented from visiting her son Diaa multiple times for several years, as is the case with many of the prisoners’ families under flimsy pretexts by the Israeli occupation authorities.

Source: Palestine News & Information Agency (WAFA)