In a significant move, nearly 1,000 Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails initiated an indefinite hunger strike, protesting against the treatment they have been subjected to, according to the German News Agency.
The “Prisoner Media Office” declared in a statement released on Thursday evening, local time, that about a thousand Palestinian prisoners from various jails entered an open-ended hunger strike at 7 PM in response to what was described as the “aggression of the prison administration”.
Ahmed Al-Qudra, Director of the Prisoner Media Office, briefly stated, “Following the prisoners’ collective strike, every Palestinian should rally and take to the streets to support the prisoners in their battle against the oppressor.”
Further emphasizing the gravity of the situation, Al-Qudra urged Palestinians to participate in large-scale marches after Friday prayers, expressing their collective anger against the Zionist aggression towards the prisoners. He also called on mosque preachers throughout Palestinian territories to remind their congregations of the prisoners’ suffering during their Friday sermons.
Earlier on the same day, the “Prisoners’ Commission” and the “Palestinian Prisoner Club” mentioned that the threatened strike by the detainees was a direct response to the ongoing offensive tactics implemented by the Israeli prison administrations against the detainees. Recent incidents have included raids on several prison sections and the individual transfers targeting movement leaders within the Ramon prison.
Palestinian detainees often resort to hunger strikes as a tactic to pressure prison administrations into addressing their demands.
In a tragic development last May, Palestinian detainee Khader Adnan passed away in one of the Israeli prisons during his hunger strike.
Last year, Israeli authorities arrested 7,000 Palestinians from the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, among which were 882 children and 172 women. This tally for administrative detainees was described as “the highest in over a decade.”
