“Palestinian security prisoners can starve to death†Israeli Public Security Minister Tzachi Hanegbi said Friday, affirming that Israel does not intend to positively deal with prisoners’ demands.
In protest against grieve human conditions inside Israeli jails, some 8,000 Palestinian political prisoners announced earlier this month their intention to start an open ended hunger strike on August 18.
The prisoners are demanding public telephones in their cell blocks, the removal of glass separating them from visiting relatives, adequate health care, and an end to ‘intrusive’ body searches.
‘I reject outright all the terrorists’ requests,’ Hanegbi said Friday.
What is certain is that the prisoners are threatening to extend their hunger strike in a dramatic fashion, some even hinting that they would be willing to in fact die of hunger, imitating inmates in Turkey and Northern Ireland.
The prisons authority warned that if the hunger strike goes ahead, the prisoners will suffer the loss of existing privileges, including end to all family visits as well as a loss of television and radio privileges.
The Prisons authority prepared two special units with expertise in crowd dispersal and mass evacuation of injured prisoners to hospitals.
