Palestinians call off mass hunger strike as Israel agrees to their demands

Hundreds of Palestinians stage a demonstration to protest Israel’s oppression of Palestinian prisoners in jails and to support the detainees, on 8 September 2021 in Jabalia, Gaza. [Ali Jadallah – Anadolu Agency]

Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails today called off a hunger strike they were planning to start on Friday after the Israel Prison Services (IPS) agreed to their demands that included ending the collective punishment imposed against them following the escape of six prisoners from Gilboa prison last week, according to the Palestinian Prisoner Society (PPS).

WAFA reported the prisoners were planning to start a hunger strike on Friday that would have involved all 4,500 Palestinians incarcerated in Israel.

The IPS implemented punitive measures against all the prisoners following news that six Palestinians had escaped from the high security Gilboa Prison last week. Prison authorities raided cells, attacked detainees, moving them to other prisons, separating them, isolating some, and denying them certain rights, including family visits and buying essentials from the canteen.

Four of the six escapees have been caught, while two remain at large.

READ: Palestinian escapee recaptured and ‘tortured’

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