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Al-Qeeq: Hunger striking prisoners’ determination ‘sky-high’

May 9, 2017 at 3:08 pm

Palestinian hunger striker Muhammad Al-Qeeq in hospital on 13 February 2016 [View from East Jerusalem/Facebook]

In spite of the dangers to their health, hunger-striking Palestinian prisoners are standing firm and their commitment is “sky-high”, hunger striking journalist Muhammad Al-Qeeq wrote in a letter smuggled out of prison.

In the letter, published by the Gaza-based Asra Media Office, Al-Qeeq said that he had already lost six kilogrammes since joining the mass hunger strike five days ago. “Once they have made up their minds to face the occupier with their empty stomachs, heroic prisoners will have the final word,” he affirmed.

Al-Qeeq urged the Palestinian public to intensify solidarity activities, especially at Palestinian universities in the occupied West Bank. “University students have always pioneered solidarity activities with prisoners,” he said.

Read: Sit-in at European Parliament in support Of Palestinian hunger strikers

The journalist was famous for undertaking a gruelling 94-day hunger strike in Israeli prison in 2016, and took on a second hunger strike that came to a close in March after he reached a deal with Israel.

Immediately after the strike began on Palestinian Prisoners’ Day on 17 April, the Israel Prison Service banned lawyer and family visits for hunger strikers. For the first 20 days of the strike, lawyers were only given access to Ofer and Askhelon prisons.

On Sunday, lawyers were able to visit hunger-striking prisoners in Ktziot and Nitzan prison for the first time, after IPS was compelled to permit lawyer visits following an Israeli Supreme Court petition filed by legal NGO Adalah and the Palestinian Committee of Prisoners’ Affairs.

Israeli authorities have detained approximately one million Palestinians since the establishment of the state of Israel in 1948 and the subsequent occupation of the West Bank, East Jerusalem, and the Gaza Strip in 1967, according to Palestinian organisations.

According to prisoners’ rights organisation Addameer, some 6,300 Palestinians were being held in Israeli custody as of April.