Nearly 200 Palestinian inmates held in Israeli prisons have reportedly gone on an open-ended hunger strike in protest at their detention without trial.
Palestinian sources said on Thursday that some 180 Palestinian prisoners had begun a mass hunger strike in the Israeli regime’s Ofer, Megiddo and Negev detention facilities.
The detainees on strike “have insisted they would go on with their hunger strike until they are released,” Palestinian Authority (PA) Deputy Minister of Prisoners Affairs Ziad Abu Ain said.
Meanwhile, Samer Smaan, a Palestinian lawyer who visited Israel’s Ofer prison, confirmed that 55 prisoners at the detention facility had been isolated from other inmates after they announced their hunger strike.
The latest hunger strike came after the Tel Aviv regime failed to release a group of 104 Palestinian prisoners in late March under a deal for the resumption of its US-sponsored negotiations with the PA.
In February, Head of the Census Department at the PA Ministry of Detainees Abdul-Nasser Ferwana said the Tel Aviv regime is currently holding over 4,800 Palestinian inmates in seventeen prisons as well as detention and interrogation centers.
Palestinian sources say over 180 out of nearly 5,000 Palestinians in Israeli jails are under administrative detention.
Administrative detention is a sort of imprisonment without trial or charge, allowing the Israeli regime to incarcerate Palestinians for up to six months. The detention order can be renewed indefinite number of times.
Human rights groups often criticize Israeli prison authorities for rampant rights abuses in jails and reports of mysterious deaths of inmates in custody.
