- based Physicians for Human Rights released a statement on Sunday assure that Israel's treatment of four hunger-striking Palestinians is an "ethical failure”, adding that their rights were being violated. The NGO also stated that the fasting prisoners were denied visits from independent doctors and manacled during hospital checkups. "Physicians views with extreme gravity the fact that the rights of the hunger strikers are being violated time and again by various authorities, whose representatives act against the law, regulations, international conventions and medical ethics," it said. "This is a systemic moral, ethical and professional failure," it added. It was the latest in a chorus of protests from around the world about the condition of hunger-strikers Tareq Qaadan, Jafar Ezzedine, Ayman Sharawna and especially Samer Issawi, who has been fasting the longest. On Saturday the European Union called for Israel's "full respect of international human rights obligations towards all Palestinian detainees and prisoners."
