[News] Palestinian Prisoners keep on hunger strike

[News at freedomarchives.org]

GAZA, August 23, 2004 (IPC + Agencies)— With the eighth consecutive
day of their hunger strike, thousands of Palestinian prisoners in
various Israeli jails and concentration camps remained determined to
keep on protesting their harsh detention conditions, as solidarity
with them has intensified.

The Head of the Palestinian Prisoners Society (PPS), Esa Qaraqe',
was quoted as saying that about 800 patient prisoners declared they
would join their inmates unless the prisoners' demands were met by
Israeli occupying authorities.

Qarqe' told Aljazeera satellite channel that Israeli authorities
have not so far complied with the strike, slamming against the wall
all of their humanitarian demands and taking further punitive
measures including seizing fans, cigarettes, books as well as radio
and TV sets.

In a statement issued yesterday by Ansar Al Asra (Prisoners'
Supporters) local society, the administrations of both Gilboa and
Hadarim concentration camps have imposed humiliating actions against
the prisoners, such as forcibly striping them.

The society revealed that some prisoners have been transferred to
criminal detention centers just as the case of Tawfiq Abu Na'eem,
the prisoners' spokesman, who was moved from the Nafha prison to the
Beer Sheva prison in southern Israel, in an attempt to break the
hunger strike.

In the meantime, civilians in Gaza, Qalqilia, Hebron and other
cities marched in large demonstrations yesterday in solidarity with
the prisoners, as several prisoners' families declared they would
embark on a hunger strike in support with those inside the jails.

The Palestinian National Authority (PNA) has submitted a memorandum
to the United Nations, demanding the Palestinian prisoners to be
dealt with by Israel as `prisoners of war' in accordance with the
1949 Fourth Geneva Convention for the Protection of Civilian Persons
in Times of War, of which Israel is a signatory.

Israel still holds approximately 7200 Palestinians, including
women, children, elderly and patients, under harsh detention
conditions, inside its various jails and concentration camps.





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