Palestinian Legislative Council member in charge of the prisoner issue, Issa Qaraqa' received a letter from two political prisoners. Abu Ali Yatta and Jamal Huwail issued their statement from Israeli prison indicating that all political prisoners will join in declaring an open hunger strike on 5 February if the internal fighting has not ceased.
The statement reads in part, “Prisoners of various factions and affiliations have lived through the most difficult moments of pain and suffering, and consider bloodshed at the hands of Palestinians to be a serious violation of the suffering of the prisoners and the sacrifices of those killed.
The political prisoners continue to write, "There is no recourse for the prisoners but to declare an open hunger strike in protest of the security problems that threaten to set back the national project many years in an effort to restore the Palestinian cause.”
The statement issued to the former Director of the Palestinian Prisoner Society called for all fighters to withdraw from the streets and return to the national dialogue on the basis of the Prisoners Document which became the National Accord Document. Serious inquiries are also necessary in taking to task the perpetrators of the crimes, Yatta and Huwail added.
“What is happening is an insult to everything and is evidence that all programs and slogans are failures. The prisoners live in shame and weakness while watching the goings on in front of the wardens who deride them.”
The letter also criticized the Legislative Council for not taking more of a role in stopping the internal conflict as it was elected by the Palestinian people. The political prisoners called on the masses to make moves to stop the “appropriation of Palestinian blood,” stating that no one is “allowed to use a Palestinian rifle against a Palestinian.”
