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Palestinian prisoners continue hunger strike, demonstrations held in solidarity

05 October 2011 18:59 (UTC +04:00)

Baku-APA. The hunger strike of hundreds of Palestinian and Arab prisoners in the Israeli jails went on for the eighth day on Wednesday, while rallies and demonstrations were held in the Palestinian territories to show solidarity with them, APA reports quoting Xinhua.

Witnesses said dozens of family members of the Palestinian prisoners demonstrated on Wednesday in front of the Israeli military prison of Ofer in the West Bank. They waved Palestinian flags and carried the pictures of the prisoners and banners calling for solidarity with them.

Israeli army forces fired tear gas canisters and rubber bullets to disperse the demonstrators, the witnesses said, adding that several demonstrators and local reporters inhaled tear gas and were treated in the field. The demonstrators threw stones at the soldiers in return.

At al-Manara Square in the West Bank city of Ramallah, dozens of Palestinians continued their sit-in in a tent in front of the headquarters of the International Committee of the Red Cross. Inside the tent, several Palestinians went on a hunger strike in solidarity with the prisoners.

In central Nablus city in the West Bank, dozens of relatives and friends of the striking prisoners joined the tent of sit-in erected earlier this week in solidarity with the prisoners. Notables and leaders of various factions also joined them.

Five of the demonstrators in the city declared a hunger strike in solidarity with the prisoners, while in east Jerusalem dozens of Palestinians demonstrated in front of the ICRC in the holy city, waving Palestinian flags and pictures of the prisoners and chanting slogans in solidarity with them.

In the Gaza Strip, hundreds of Palestinians, including relatives of the prisoners, representatives of various local organizations and leaders of factions, joined a march from the headquarters of the ICRC in Gaza city up to the Erez Crossing on the borders between the Gaza Strip and Israel.

The demonstrators called for ending the tightened measures imposed on the prisoners in the Israeli jails by the Israeli Prisons Authorities. They also called on the international organizations of laws and rights to pressure on Israel to improve the living conditions of the prisoners.

The demonstrators carried a Palestinian flag that was 20 meters long and 7 meters wide on their way from Gaza City to the border areas. Officials and activists who joined the demonstration accused Israel of practicing inhuman measures against the prisoners.

One of the participants, Ahmed Salama, said that the Israeli Prisons Authorities "are practicing a real aggression on the prisoners that reveals the real inhuman and immoral face of the Israeli government."

"The Palestinian powers and factions are needed to form a national program aimed at freeing all the prisoners from the jails of the Israeli occupation," said Salama, adding that all the international rights and laws organizations are needed to work with the Palestinians on the release of the prisoners.

Meanwhile, Eassa Qaraqea, the Palestinian minister of prisoners affairs in the West Bank, on Wednesday accused Israel of carrying out "a campaign of repression and unfair punishment against the prisoners who are going on with a hunger strike to gain their legal rights."

He said in a press statement emailed to reporters that "amid the atmosphere of terror and not offering the prisoners the proper medical treatment, while patient prisoners refrained from taking their medicine, we warn the Israeli authorities of any consequences."

Attallah Abu Sebbah, the minister of prisoners affairs of the de facto Hamas government in Gaza, told reporters that the Israeli prisons authorities "are deliberately humiliating the prisoners in their jails and neglecting their legal rights as prisoners. It clearly violates the international laws of the prisoners."

Last Wednesday, around 6,000 Palestinian and Arab prisoners began a hunger strike and a series of protesting activities, such as disobeying the rules and instructions of the prisons authorities, not wearing the prisoner uniforms and refusing to stand in the daily queues of counting.

They demanded to stop the Israeli prisons authorities’ policy of isolating the prisoners in solitary cells and allow their families to visit them every week instead of one visit per month. They also asked for improved living conditions and increased hours to watch satellite TV.