Some 350 security prisoners at Shikma jail have suspended their two-week hunger strike until Monday.
Israeli prison authority said Friday that doctors accompanied prisoners when they resumed eating, claiming that prisoners approached the prison administration demanding food, and denying that any concessions were made or promised.
From his side, the head of Palestinian Prisoners Association Issa Qaraqie said Friday that Shikma Prisoners decided to suspend their strike until Monday after the prison administration conceded to some of their demands, including calling of strip searches, allowing more family visits and better visits conditions, and taking prisoners out of solitary confinement. (Click for detailes)
Qaraqie also said that negotiations between prisoners and jail administration are to resume Monday on other key issue, such as removing the glass partition during visist and allowing university-level studies to detainees.
The head of the Palestinian Authority commission for Prisoners’ issues Sakher Habash said Friday that the Israeli prison authority conceded to all prisoners demands except of plastic shields during family visits and public phones in prison sections.
Habash confirmed that Shikma prisoners decided to suspend their strike tell Monday to test the real intentions of the prison authority.
Electronic news site Arabs48 quoted a private prisoners source to have said that Shikma prisoners’ decision to suspend the strike was not coordinated with other prisoners.
The source expressed dissatisfaction with Shikma prisoners’ unilateral decision, saying that the strike leadership decided to step up the strike by boycotting the Sunday medical check.
Meanwhile, Israel is subjected to an increasing international pressure to provide an appropriate solution to the prisoners’ hunger strike.
A statement issued by the UN envoy to the Middle East, Terje Roed-Larsen, called on Israel to ‘comply with its international obligations and to make every effort to find, with the prisoners, an appropriate resolution to the hunger strike.’
The Red Cross said Friday it had visited prisoners during the hunger strike and was planning to ‘strengthen its team of medical doctors’ to better monitor the strikers’ health.
Larsen reminded Israel of its obligations under a UN convention and ‘relevant international human rights instruments which provide for the protection of detainees and prisoners.’
U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan hoped “that the matter will be resolved soon in a manner consistent with international humanitarian law.’
