60 Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails today launched an open-ended hunger strike in solidarity with three of their fellow inmates held in solitary confinement, according to the Palestinian news agency WAFA.

The spokesman for the Commission of the Detainees and Ex-Detainees Affairs, Hassan Abed-Rabbo, told WAFA that some 60 prisoners affiliated with Fatah and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) began the hunger strike in protest of the Israeli Prison Service’s (IPS) decision to continue to hold three leaders of the prisoners’ movement incommunicado.

The prisoners’ leaders were identified as Wael al-Jaghoub, Hatem Qawasmi, and Omar Khurwat, with Qawasmi and Khurwat held in isolation for six months.

This came two days after 30 other prisoners started an open-ended hunger strike in solidarity with Maher al-Akhras who has been on hunger strike for 81 days in protest of his administrative detention.

Abed-Rabbo pointed out that more prisoners were expected to join the strike.

(WAFA, PC, Social Media)