Palestinian prisoners on hunger strike to protest internal split

By MOHAMMED MAR’I | ARAB NEWS

RAMALLAH: A senior Palestinian official on Sunday said that 6,000 Palestinian prisoner launched a one-day hunger strike to protest the internal Palestinian split and Israeli measures.

Qaddoura Faris, head of Palestinian Prisoners Club (Nadi Al-Asir), said that the prisoners in 23 Israeli prisons and detention camps participated in the strike under the slogan “unity for freedom.” 

The political unity in West Bank and Gaza Strip was severed since Hamas routed President Mahmoud Abbas' forces and ousted Fatah in deadly fighting in Gaza in 2007.

Faris, also former Minister of Prisoners Affairs, said that the prisoners “from all Palestinian factions” agreed to launch the strike on the Palestinian Prisoners Day to pressure the rival Palestinian movements of Fatah and Hamas to reach a reconciliation agreement.

He added that the prisoners began the strike against the “deliberate violation of their basic rights by the Israeli Prison Service.”

The official said that since its occupation of the Palestinian Territory in 1967, Israel has systematically violated the most basic rights granted by international and human rights conventions through inhumane treatment, restrictions on movements, killings, deportation, and detention.

The Palestinian Ministry of Detainees and ex-Detainees said that Israel has detained since 1967 more than 750,000 Palestinians, including more than 12,000 women and tens of thousands of children. Since the Second Intifada in 2000, Israel has detained more than 70,000 Palestinians.

The ministry said the number of martyrs in Israeli jails due to torture, deprivation of health treatment or deliberate killing has amounted to 202 since 1967 while 70 of these martyrs were killed due to torture, 51 due to deprivation of medical treatment, 74 by direct murder after detention and seven were shot by soldiers and prison guards.

Meanwhile, thousands of Palestinians demonstrated in the West Bank cities on the occasion of the Palestinian Prisoner Day.

The participants held Palestinian flags and posters of oldest detainees. They also called for rival Palestinian groups to reconcile and end a political split that divided the Gaza Strip and the West Bank.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said recently that there will not be a peace agreement before the release of all Palestinian prisoners and detainees from Israeli jails.

Since December 2009, the German mediator Gerhard Konard and Egypt had failed to finalize the prisoners’ swap deal for the release of kidnapped Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit in exchange for hundreds of Palestinian prisoners. The failure is due to differences between Hamas and Israel.

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