Minister of Prisoners’ Affairs, Issa Qaraqe’ said, Sunday, that the Israeli prison administration has distributed leaflets to all Palestinian prisoners held in Israeli jails, in an official renege on a previous agreement with the prisoners reached in 2012 under the Egyptian auspices.WAFA reports that the agreement, made with Israel to end a previous mass hunger strike in 2012 under Egyptian auspices, promised to limit administrative detention and renewal of detention without establishing clear legal grounds, in addition to the end of solitary confinement barring of family visits for Gaza prisoners, and to improve the living conditions of the prisoners.
“Israel’s reneging on this agreement comes in response to the continued hunger strike by the administrative prisoners, who have been on an open-ended hunger strike for 32 consecutive days demanding an end to the policy of administrative detention against them,” said Qaraqe’.
According to Qaraqe’, many of the hunger strikers were urgently transferred to hospital facilities after their health condition seriously deteriorated due to refraining from taking salt and dietary supplements, as well as boycotting prison clinics.
Furthermore, attorney Hanan al-Khateeb, of the Ministry of Prisoners’ Affairs, has said that the hunger strikers are currently suffering from sharp weight loss, vomiting, headache, joint pain, dizziness and severe insomnia, in addition to other symptoms.
The previous agreement ended the strike of 2,000 Palestinian prisoners, and was also meant to end the policy itself but, as of March 1, 183 Palestinians were still being held under administrative detention and the number is always increasing. (See IMEMC Special Report: ‘800,000 Palestinians Imprisoned By Israel Since 1967’.)
