Palestinian prisoners begin landmark hunger strike

Palestinian administrative detainees in Israeli prisons began an open-ended hunger strike on Monday in protest against their detention for extended periods of time without trial, Palestine’s Prisoners Centre said.

In a statement released by the prisoners centre, it was confirmed that four administrative prisoners have begun a hunger strike which will be expanded and extended if the Israeli prison services do not respond to their demands.

More administrative prisoners, including ten MPs, are planning to join the hunger strike day after day. There are over 200 administrative prisoners in Israeli prisons, all of whom will be joining the hunger strike within days.

The prisoners began discussions about this strike several months ago, and decided to start a collective protest because of Israel’s continuous detention of Palestinians without setting trials for them, and because of the Israeli prisons services’ repeated retraction of individual agreements to end administrative detention.

Palestine’s Prisoners Centre said that the hunger strikers have called for widespread Palestinian official and popular support for their action. They said that it would be a historical strike as they are planning to achieve landmark results regarding Israel’s policy of administrative detention.

Most administrative prisoners live in tents located in al-Naqab Prison where weather conditions are sweltering during the summer months and extremely cold during the winter.