Israeli Prison Officials Get More Repressive: Hundreds Of Palestinian Prisoners Go On Food Strike, Two Taken To Hospital

Israeli prison illustration. (Wikimedia Commons/Christopher Michel)

JAKARTA - About 250 Palestinian prisoners launched a hunger strike on Wednesday in protest against what they claim are the repressive conditions imposed on Israeli prisons since six prisoners escaped from Gilboa Prison and were recaptured, according to the Palestinian Islamic Jihad movement (PIJ). .

PIJ said the hunger strike was a protest against what he called the repressive measures that had been applied to PIJ detainees since last September. The alleged actions include the isolation and distribution of detainees to separate rooms to prevent them from holding meetings, according to the announcement.

On Wednesday evening, PIJ Secretary General Ziyad al-Nakhalah asserted that the movement "will not leave its children in Israeli prisons as victims in the hands of the enemy."

"We will stand with them and support them with all we have, even if this requires us to fight for them, and no agreement or other considerations can prevent us from doing so," Nakhalah warned, citing The Jerusalem Post Oct. 13.

Meanwhile, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) announced on Tuesday that it would go on a hunger strike together with PIJ prisoners to support them.

The PFLP stressed that the strike will continue until the situation in Israeli prisons returns to the way it was before six prisoners escaped from Gilboa Prison and the isolated detainees were released from isolation.

It is known that six detainees in Israeli-Palestinian prisons have been on hunger strike for a long time, including Kayed Fasfous (91 days), Muqdad Qawasmeh (84 days), Alaa Aaraj (67 days), Hesham Abu Hawwash (58 days), Rayeq Besharat ( 53 days). ) and Shadi Abu Akr (50 days), according to the Palestinian WAFA news agency.

Fasfous and Qawasameh are both in serious condition and refuse to receive medical assistance, according to Palestinian reports. Fasfous has lost 30 kilograms and is hospitalized at Barzilai Medical Center, according to WAFA.

Meanwhile, Qawasameh was hospitalized at Kaplan Medical Center in a serious condition, with his family telling Palestinian media on Tuesday he was in severe pain, suffering from memory loss and difficulty speaking.