Day of Anger Planned when Israelis Seek to Downplay Prisoners’ Hunger Strike

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Over 100 Palestinians arrested  in Israeli prisons are reported to have stop their hunger strike, according to Israeli officials. Palestinian organizations challenged these reports.

At least 84 Palestinian prisoners  arrested  in Israel’s Gilboa prison are reported to have stop their hunger strike, a protest against what they claim to be inhumane detention conditions, according to an Israeli Prisons Service (IPS) spokesman.

More than 1000 Palestinian prisoners are protesting against the misuse of solitary confinement and detention without trial; they are also demanding an increase in family visitations and the improvement of medical care and amenities.

Palestinian ruling party Fatah has reportedly called on Palestinians to participate in a “day of rage” to support the prisoners. According to a report by the Jerusalem Post, Fatah is insisting  Palestinians “to clash with the occupier at all friction points.”

According to Palestinian news agency Ma’an News, one small protest march in central Ramallah turned violent Sunday as  Israeli police at the Beit El checkpoint shot rubber bullets at protesters. Protesters responses was that they set  trash bins on fire and hurl stones at the police.  The police used tear gas , according to the media.

Marwan Barghouti, the leader of the Fatah party, who is serving five lifetime sentences in prison for five counts of murder, is the one who led the protest. Gilad Erdan, Israel’s public security minister, claimed the hunger strike was really a front for an internal power struggle between Palestinian factions.

“The strike led by Barghouti is motivated by internal Palestinian politics and therefore includes unreasonable demands concerning the conditions in the prisons,” said Erdan, as quoted by the Times of Israel.