Palestinian prisoners to start protest steps within one week

The Palestinian prisoners held in Israeli jails announced on Monday their intention to embark on systematic protest steps starting with comprehensive disobedience in all jails on March 10 to protest the continuation of the Israeli persecution.

The head of the Palestinian Authority Detainees and Ex-detainees Committee, Issa Qaraqi, warned of a possible explosion inside the Israeli jails in the very near future. He said, “The persistence of the Israeli authorities in violating prisoners’ rights is no longer tolerated”.

Qaraqi said, in a statement on Monday, the situation in Israeli jails has become so dangerous in light of the Israeli harassment and punitive measures aiming at undermining Palestinian prisoners and weakening the fighting spirit among captives.

He pointed out that the Palestinian detainees will start protest steps announcing a state of disobedience against the Israeli laws from March 10 onwards.

“This will include refraining from going outside their rooms for break times and count procedure, getting the electrical appliances outside their rooms and gradual hunger strikes,” he said.

“A comprehensive hunger strike will be waged on April 17, which marks the Palestinian Prisoner Day. The Prisoners have threatened to torch rooms and blankets in case the Israeli Prison Service (IPS) did not respond to the detainees’ just demands”, he warned.

The most significant demands include medical treatment, ending of the policy of solitary confinement and other arbitrary punitive measures, the collective and individual, ending the administrative detention and allowing family visits, he elaborated.