Ramallah – Some 1 500 Palestinian prisoners out of approximately 6 300 Palestinians held by Israel entered the 14th day of an open-ended hunger strike on Sunday, with Israeli prison authorities ramping up punitive measures in an attempt to pressure prisoners to break their strikes – as the health of hunger strikers continued to decline.
Since the launch of the strike, the Israeil Prison Service (IPS) has continuously been transferring hunger strikers into solitary confinement and between different Israeli prisons in an attempt to separate hunger strikers from one another and break the strike.
The media committee said that IPS has continued to ban lawyers from visiting Palestinian prisoners on hunger strike, except at Ofer prison in the central occupied West Bank district of Ramallah and Ashkelon prison in southern Israel.
An IPS spokesperson declined to comment on the ongoing ban of lawyer visitations.
Following a visit to Ofer prison, lawyer Luay Akka from the Palestinian Committee of Prisoners’ Affairs said that hunger strikers were still being subjected to daily raids in the early dawn hours, with IPS officers also attempting to conduct strip searches on hunger-striking prisoners.
Prisoners in Ofer have reported that IPS officers confiscated their clothes, leaving them with only their prison uniforms that they are permitted to wash just once a week. They have also been deprived of access to cold water, despite the warm weather, according to Akka.
Akka said that IPS forces were confiscating salt that hunger strikers have been using to balance their health amid the strike, and that prison officers have also been taunting prisoners by placing food in front of them, which Akka denounced as “psychological torture.”
IPS spokesperson Hana Herbst responded to the accusation, saying that "prison staffs offer the prisoners meals and some of the hunger strikers choose to eat," claiming that the practice has lowered the number of hunger striking prisoners to under 1,000 – despite reports indicating that the strike's participants had risen to 1,700.
The spokesperson however declined to comment on prisoners being denied access to cold water, or the confiscation of clothing and salt.
Meanwhile, the media committee said that the medical conditions of hunger strikers were on a steady decline, reporting symptoms such as severe pains throughout their bodies, severe headaches, and continued weight loss.
After Akka visited hunger striking prisoners Fadi Abu Eita, Luay al-Mansi, Sharar Mansour, and Ahmad al-Sharabati in Ofer prison on Saturday, they informed the lawyer that the healths of ten hunger strikers had severely deteriorated, one of whom had fainted and was taken to the prison’s clinic.
The media committee also announced on Saturday that lawyers from prisoners' support groups like PPS and the prisoners' committee would completely boycott Israeli court in cases related to political Palestinian prisoners.
A similar boycott was announced on the second day of the hunger strike, but the media committee clarified that the lawyers had decided to stop pleading on behalf of Palestinian prisoners, except in hearings over whether or not to extend the remand of detainees.
Meanwhile, the Palestinian Authority (PA) government said Sunday that it held Israel completely responsible for the lives of Palestinian detainees held in Israeli custody.
PA spokesperson Tariq Rishmawi said in statement that the detention of Palestinians – including children, women, and those suffering from chronic illnesses – required immediate intervention by the international community.
He denounced the ongoing “racist incitement campaign” launched by Israeli authorities and media, which has attempted to portray all Palestinian prisoners as murderers and terrorists.
Rishmawi said Palestinian prisoners on hunger strike were “national heroes,” and that the reputation of the international community was “on the line,” regarding its ability to hold Israel accountable for its crimes.
The PA spokesperson also expressed appreciation for mounting public support for the hunger strike across the occupied Palestinian territory, in Israel, and abroad, and called upon the Palestinian people to organize more events “to express the unity of Palestinian people under the leadership of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.”
The Justice and Peace Commission of the Assembly of the Catholic Ordinaries of the Holy Land expressed its support of the hunger strike in a statement released Saturday. “The aim of this desperate act is to shed light, both locally and internationally, on the inhuman conditions in which they are detained by the Israeli Authorities,” the statement said.
The commission said it “affirms the necessity of the application of international law with regard to political prisoners,” and “condemns the use of detention without trial, all forms of collective punishment, as well as the use of duress and torture for whatever reason.”
“We urge the Israeli Authorities to hear the cry of the prisoners, to respect their human dignity, and to open a new door towards the making of peace,” the statement said.