WEST BANK (Dispatches) – More Palestinian prisoners will join the hunger strike in the Zionist regime’s jails should the regime’s prison service (IPS) not meet their demands and lift its sanctions, Quds Press has reported.
According to a statement issued by the Palestinian Prisoner Society (PPS), Quds Press said that the “resistance program” for the prisoners inside the Zionist regime’s jails “is escalating”.
The statement read: “If the IPS does not meet the demands of the hunger strikers and lift its sanctions imposed on the prisoners affiliated with the Islamic Jihad movement in Palestine, prisoners from other groups will join the hunger strike.”
On Wednesday, the PPS announced that 250 prisoners from the Islamic Jihad movement in Palestine started a hunger strike protesting against the Zionist regime’s punitive measures and sanctions imposed, following the escape of six Palestinian prisoners from the regime’s Gilboa prison on 6 September.
Meanwhile, the PPS reported that prisoners Mohammad Al-Amoudi and Hosni Issa escalated their hunger strike and stopped drinking water. As a result, their health conditions deteriorated and they were admitted to the prison clinic.
Furthermore, Friday marked the 86th day of Miqdad Al-Qawasmeh’s hunger strike, protesting against his continued so-called administrative detention—being held without charge or trial.
Last week, the International Red Cross expressed concern for Miqdad and another prisoner, Kayed Nammoura’s well-being, saying that there were concerns “about potentially irreversible consequences of such prolonged hunger strikes to their health and life.”
Miqdad is a 24-year-old resident of the southern occupied West Bank city of al-Kahlil and recently decided to escalate his hunger strike by refusing to take any supplements or fluids.
The PPS announced that the hunger strike is supported by all prisoners inside the regime’s jails and all Palestinian factions, who insist that the IPS must stop punitive measures against prisoners.
The Zionist regime’s use of administrative detention—imprisonment without charge or trial—against Palestinians “violates international conventions and other international standards for the right to a fair trial,” PPS said, adding that administrative detainees are routinely denied family visits and other rights that should be granted to them under the law.
Since the regime began its military occupation in 1967, it has imprisoned almost 800,000 Palestinians. Around 4,500 are being held at the moment, more than 350 of whom are held as administrative detainees.