"We will start a hunger strike and be called to open confrontations outside": Escalation in the Palestinian prisoners' protest | Israel today

The protest of the Palestinian prisoners in the prisons in Israel in anticipation of escalation.

The supreme emergency committee of the prisoners' movement in the prisons announced that from tomorrow (Sunday) the prisoners will begin to dismantle the organizational frameworks to which they belong.

This refers to the various committees that represent the Palestinian prisoners in the prisons vis-à-vis the authorities and the prison service.

The committees are structured according to organizational affiliation.

These serve as a sort of representation for the Palestinian prisoners from the various factions including Fatah, Hamas and Islamic Jihad.

threatening to escalate.

Gilboa prison, archive, photo: Gil Eliyahu-Gini

Through this protest measure, led by the prisoners in the prison, they want to make it difficult for the prison service and the authorities in Israel, with the goal being to show that there is no clear address with which to negotiate.

"Israel will now have to treat each and every prisoner individually," they said on the Palestinian side.

The prisoners' struggle began last week, during which some of them returned meals and refused to report to a security check, which forced the guards to forcibly remove them from their cells.

The prisoners' movement claims that Israel has withdrawn from the understandings reached in March of this year, in which it was agreed to ease the conditions of imprisonment and stop the punishment measures.

After the escape of the six prisoners from Gilboa prison, sanctions were imposed on prisoners in Israeli prisons, following which the prisoners started a series of protest measures.

At the time, they protested their dispersion among different prisons and the transfer of some of them to solitary confinement.

Now the leadership of the prisoners in the prison claim that Israel is not living up to the summaries that were reached.

Demonstration for security prisoners, archive, photo: Michel dot Kom

The supreme emergency committee of the prisoners in the prison announced a gradual escalation of the struggle to the point of starting a hunger strike if their demands are not met.

According to the plan, on Thursday next week, about 1000 prisoners will go on hunger strike.

In addition, the prisoners called on the Palestinian public to create a front of support from the outside, and to go to the points of conflict with Israel.

At the same time, the administrative detainee Khalil Awawda continues his hunger strike for 168 days now, and according to medical reports his health continues to deteriorate. On the Palestinian side, several protest rallies were recently organized against the administrative detention system, and they demanded an end to it. 

Hunger strike: Khalil Awavada,

In the meantime, a member of the Hamas Political Bureau, Zahar Jabarin, said today that "there are currently no negotiations in the prisoner exchange case."

According to him, "Israel is dealing with the issue in the media without there being any significant change in practice. There has been no progress in this case for about eight months."

He also noted that Hamas has "a clear decision to invest every effort to free the heroic prisoners in all possible ways and means."

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