Palestinian Prisoners’ Hunger Strike Enters 6th Day

By Staff, Agencies

A hunger strike by Palestinian prisoners entered its sixth day after the failure of talks with the ‘Israel’ Prison Services [IPS] over their deteriorating conditions in the Zionist jails earlier this week.

The Zionist administration tried to exert pressure on detainees by saying that it won’t negotiate with those on strike, but it failed in its attempts, said sources close to the Palestinian Authority Prisoners Affairs Commission.

It also summoned the prisoners’ representatives to negotiate with them, but it didn’t meet many of their demands.

Till the moment, dozens of Palestinian prisoners have been on an open-ended hunger strike that started on Monday, demanding better conditions.

Since the beginning of 2019, tension has prevailed in all ‘Israeli’ occupation prisons due to the measures taken by the IPS against Palestinian detainees.

Tension has increased in recent days after the enemy’s Special Forces stormed a number of detention centers, assaulted prisoners by beating them and firing tear gas, which caused dozens of casualties.

Since the beginning of the strike, two rounds of talks have taken place, the last of which was on Thursday.

Relatively, PA Prisoners Affairs Commission spokesman Hassan Abd Rabbo said Friday that the strike in ‘Israeli’ prisons has entered a new stage, following the failure of negotiations with the prisons’ administration.

The administration paralyzed the negotiations when it refused to meet any of the prisoners’ demands, he added, fearing an escalation in the dispute between both sides.

Abd Rabbo explained that the administration tried to persuade prisoners to suspend their hunger strike, in exchange for allowing each inmate to make a phone call two or three times a week.

Yet, it refused to lift sanctions on prisoners, allow for visits by families of Hamas inmates coming from Gaza Strip and dismantle jamming devices.

Palestinian prisoners had demanded that the IPS remove all e-jamming devices recently put in several prisons.

They also demanded that ‘Israel’ gives visitation rights to families of Gazan prisoners, installing public phones in jails, improving medical services, ending solitary confinement and raids on cells.