SCORES OF PALESTINIAN PRISONERS TAKEN TO HOSPITAL

Gaza, 3 Sya’ban 1435/2 June 2014 (MINA) – Scores of hunger-striking Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails have been taken to several hospitals due to their critical health conditions.

Israeli medical officials said on Sunday that seventy Palestinian prisoners, whose hunger strike has entered its second month, were hospitalized after developing severe health conditions, Press TV quoted by Mi’raj Islamic News Agency (MINA) as reporting.

The prisoners were reportedly receiving emergency treatment to recover. Israeli officials also noted 100 more Palestinian detainees are still on hunger strike inside Israeli jails.

A jailed leader from Palestinian resistance movement Hamas, meanwhile, said that all jailed members of the Palestinian group will start an open-ended hunger strike on Monday.

Hanan Ashrawi, a senior member of the Palestine Liberation Organization, said that the hunger strikers “represent the most selfless struggle for justice and freedom in Palestine” and referred to their hunger strike as “an essential tool of nonviolence.”

The Palestinian Ministry of Prisoners Affairs says 1,500 inmates have joined the action against Israel’s arbitrary “administrative detention” policy.

More than 120 Palestinian prisoners have been on an open-ended hunger strike since April 24 in protest at the Israeli administrative detention, which is a sort of imprisonment without trial or charge that allows Israel to incarcerate Palestinians for up to six months.

The detention order can be renewed for indefinite periods of time. Human rights groups have also condemned the administrative detention. Palestinian officials are calling on Arab leaders to urgently intervene and prevent the situation from getting worse.

More than 5,000 Palestinians are reportedly being held in Israeli prisons, nearly 200 of them under administrative detention orders. (T/P012/E01)

Mi’raj Islamic News Agency (MINA)