Issa Qaraqe, Head of the Palestinian Committee of Prisoners’ Affairs, said a joint committee of Palestinian prisoners who were on hunger strike are expected to meet with officials of the Israel Prison Service (IPS) on Monday, June 5, in order to “discuss the remaining demands of the prisoners.”
On Tuesday, the leader of the strike Barghouthi said that the hunger strikers were able to “extract a number of just and humanitarian achievements” from prison authorities, and that prisoners had agreed to the formation of a “committee of senior officials of the prison service” to continue dialogue with representatives of the Palestinian prisoners during the following days “to discuss all issues without exception.”
Mothers of Palestinian Prisoners celebrate in the streets the end of the hunger strike. It is a cry of joy❤#DignityWon pic.twitter.com/785qyyMKbk
— Pal_st (@Stefaniafodd) May 27, 2017
The hunger-striking prisoners had been calling for an end to the denial of family visits, the right to pursue higher education, appropriate medical care and treatment, and an end to solitary confinement and administrative detention – imprisonment without charge or trial – among other demands for basic rights.
According to prisoners’ rights group Addameer, 6,300 Palestinians were held in Israeli prisons as of April, most of whom are being held inside the Israeli territory in contravention to international law which forbids holding Palestinians from the West Bank and Gaza outside the occupied territory.
Addameer has reported that 40 percent of the male Palestinian population has been detained by Israeli authorities at some point in their lives.
(Maan, PC, Social Media)
