BETHLEHEM, West Bank, 29 August 2004 — The majority of the thousands of Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails continued a two-week hunger strike yesterday, buoyed by a small concession on the part of Israel. On Friday night, the Bethlehem Palestinian Prisoners’ Association said some 800 detainees at Ashkelon prison had temporarily called off their strike after some of their demands were met.
The other 3,200 prisoners who have been protesting for better conditions remain on hunger strike, the association said. Some 8,000 Palestinians are currently held in Israeli prisons.
The authorities at Ashkelon had agreed to end solitary confinement in tiny cells for recalcitrant prisoners, as well as systematic “humiliating” body searches of prisoners who had been stripped naked, the group said. However, the jail management still refused to remove glass panels between prisoners and visitors, give free access to telephones, stop punishing inmates by fines and allow them to take university courses by correspondence.
