2,000 Palestinian inmates halt hunger strike after Israel yields to demands
More than 2,000 Palestinian prisoners have suspended their open-ended hunger strike after Israel yielded to their demands following strenuous negotiations with the prison administration.
The Palestinian Captive Movement said the situation in Israeli prisons was returning to normal after all the demands of the prisoners were fulfilled.
The prisoners planned to go on a mass hunger strike on the first day of Ramadan on Thursday in protest at Israeli restrictions and conditions at detention centers.
In early February, Israel's far-right security minister Itamar Ben-Gvir announced a series of restrictions on Palestinian prisoners, reducing shower time to four minutes and stopping bakeries in prisons for Palestinian inmates. Ben-Gvir has also been championing a bill to allow the death penalty for Palestinian prisoners and life sentences.
Negotiations between representatives of Palestinian inmates and Israeli prison authorities lasted until late Monday, with prisoners demanding that the Israeli prison service make a public announcement on suspending all repressive measures introduced by Ben-Gvir.
"Prisoners made it clear that if the Israeli prison service doesn't meet their demand of officially suspending Ben-Gvir's repressive measures before the hunger strike starts, they will add other demands, such as the liberation of prisoners with high or life sentences,” Amani Sarahneh, spokesperson for the Prisoners' Club, said.
The breakthrough came after the Lions' Den, a Palestinian umbrella group formed of resistance fighters from different factions in the occupied West Bank, announced its full readiness to engage in larger battles with the Israeli occupation in support of the prisoners.
It stressed the need for mobilization and escalation of struggle in support of the Palestine Captive Movement in Ramadan.
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