More than 300 Palestinians
have taken part in separate hunger strikes at Israeli prisons to voice
their outrage over mistreatment and show solidarity with a fellow
inmate.
The Palestinian Prisoners’ Society (PPS) said in a
statement on Thursday that 285 prisoners affiliated with the
Palestinian resistance movement Hamas have gone on hunger strike at
Eshel and Nafha prisons in the south of the occupied Palestinian
territories to protest oppressive measures by the Israeli Prison
Service.
The PPS added that 40 other prisoners from the Popular
Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) have also refused to take
their meals in support of Bilal Kayed.
The 35-year-old Palestinian
prisoner has been on hunger strike for 51 days in protest at his
administrative detention. He is now refusing to undergo medical
examinations unless released.
Palestinian prisoners’ rights group
Addameer announced on Monday that Kayed was handcuffed to his bed at the
Israeli Barzilai Medical Center in Ashkelon, and was wearing an alarm
device sensitive to sudden body movements. Israel has kept Bilal Kayed imprisoned since 2002.Kayed
was arrested in 2002 and spent 14 and a half years in Israeli jails. On
the day he was scheduled to be released on June 13, Tel Aviv decided to
expand his imprisonment term for another six months under the
administrative detention policy. The Palestinian man then went on a
hunger strike to express his opposition.
There are reportedly more
than 6,500 Palestinians held at Israeli jails. Hundreds of the inmates
have been incarcerated under the practice of administrative detention,
which is a policy under which Palestinian inmates are kept in Israeli
prisons for up to 11 years without trial or charge.
Palestinian
inmates regularly hold hunger strikes in protest at both the
administrative detention policy and harsh prison conditions.
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