Palestinian activists have begun a hunger strike in solidarity with thousands of their compatriots in Israeli jails, Press TV reports.

During a Monday rally in the West Bank city of Ramallah, representatives of the Palestinian Prisoner Committee and the Campaign to Free Ahmad Sa’adat, secretary general of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), went on hunger strike in solidarity with Palestinians in Israeli jails.

Families of prisoners, the leaders of Palestinian civil society organizations and governmental institutions held the rally to call on international organizations to put pressure on Israel to abide by international laws concerning political prisoners and prisoners of war.

Last week, thousands of Palestinian inmates in Israeli prisons began a three-day hunger strike to protest "an escalating series of punitive measures by the Israel Prison Service (IPS)”.

Around 200 prisoners from the PFLP and some others said they began an open-ended hunger strike to protest the continued solitary confinement of Sa’adat who has been in such condition for the last four years.

The IPS has oppressed the prisoners who went on hunger strike, denying them visits by their families and lawyers.

Sahar Francis from Addemeer Association, a prisoners’ rights group, told Press TV that prison officials refused to give her permission to visit the inmates under strike.

Currently, there are some 7,000 Palestinians held in Israeli prisons.

(Press TV)