At least 120 Palestinian inmates in an Israeli jail have continued their open-ended hunger strike for the second consecutive day in protest against the regime’s repressive measures, a Palestinian prisoners advocacy group has said.
In a statement released on Monday, the Palestinian Prisoner’s Society (PPS) said the Palestinian political prisoners started the mass strike to protest against the ‘inhumane conditions’ at Israel’s notorious Negev Prison. The commission said the inmates announced their decision to launch a hunger strike in response to the new repressive measures imposed on them by Israeli prison authorities.
“The protest step constitutes a response to the repressive measures practiced against Palestinian prisoners in sections 26, 27, and 8 in Negev prison,” the PPS said, adding that the Israeli prison service isolated the prisoners and deprived them of their basic human needs.
Around 1,000 Palestinian prisoners are set to launch an indefinite mass hunger strike in Israeli prisons across the occupied territories on Thursday in protest against the regime’s repression.
The development came after Israeli forces stormed several sections in Megiddo, Ofer, and Negev desert prisons on Saturday, attacking Palestinian prisoners and placing a group of them in solitary confinement.
Meanwhile, Palestinian political prisoners are refusing to exit their cells in several Israeli jails following a decision to transfer a female prisoner, who is affiliated with the Islamic Jihad resistance movement, to solitary confinement in Damon prison.
Hundreds of Palestinian prisoners are held under administrative detention, in which Israel keeps the detainees without charge for up to six months, a period which can be extended an infinite number of times. The detention takes place on orders from a military commander and on the basis of what the Israeli regime describes as ‘secret’ evidence. Some prisoners have been held in administrative detention for up to 11 years.
Rights groups describe Israel’s use of administrative detention as a “bankrupt tactic” and have long called on Israel to end this move.
