More Palestinian Prisoners to Join Hunger Strike

A banner with a picture of jailed Palestinian uprising leader Marwan Barghouti and some fellow inmates.

Ramallah, 7 Sya’ban 1438/4 May 2017 (MINA) – Fifty Palestinian prisoners will join imprisoned compatriots in the 17-day hunger strike as of tomorrow Thursday, KUNA quoted the head of the freed prisoners’ affairs, Issa Qaraqea as saying on Wednesday.

Qaraqea, speaking at a tent erected in the middle of the West bank town of Ramallah in solidarity with the prisoners’ cause, said among those who would join the protest would be Ahmad Saadat, General Secretary of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, leaders from the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine, and the Islamic movements, Hamas and Islamic Jihad.

Also in the group is Nael Al-Barghouthi, who had spent 27 years in the Israeli prisons.

He had been freed in a prisoners’ swap in 2011 but was re-detained in 2014.

Later, he was sentenced to life behind bars by an Israeli court.

Khaleda Jarrar, a leader in the PFLP, said the step by the new group of protesting prisoners would boost the strike and foil Israel’s schemes to undermine it.

More than 1,700 Palestinian prisoners are observing hunger strike to protest arbitrary detention, solitary confinement, medical negligence and prohibition of publications.

Israeli prison authorities have isolated the protesting inmates, barring them from meeting their families or lawyers. (T/RS5/RS1)

Mi’raj Islamic News Agency (MINA)