CAIRO: Tomorrow in the West Bank city of Ramallah, NGO workers and governmental offices plan to suspend work and take to the streets to protest in solidarity with a prison hunger strike in the Israeli-run Ofer Prison. The protest will start at 12 in front of Ofer Prison, an Israeli incarceration facility located inside the West Bank. The prison holds Palestinians that have been sentenced or held under Israeli administrative detention. Continuous reports of human rights violations have come out of the prison, including reports of imprisoned children. Representatives of the Palestinian Popular Front launched a hunger strike in the prison on September 27. Since then, prisoners from Hamas, Fatah, Islamic Jihad and the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine (DFLP) have joined. The hunger-strike is mainly a reaction to increased pressure put upon Palestinian prisoners since June, as a means to pressure Hamas into releasing the Israeli prisoner Gilad Shalit, who was captured just outside the Gaza Strip in 2006. Hamas has demanded the release of more than 1,000 prisoners in return for his freedom, but Israel has refused the deal. Prisoners at Ofer Prison have been forced into prolonged solitary confinements, family visits have been limited, and prisoners have been obligated to meet lawyers while wearing handcuffs. Prisoners stated that prison administration had agreed to loosen up on smaller issues, such as television allowances, but are still keeping prisoners in solitary confinement. The administration is set to hold a hearing to discuss the detainee's demands. The Palestinian Authority (PA) Prisoner Minister Issa Qarage spoke on Sunday from a hunger strike tent in Abu Dis to raise awareness about the issue. He criticized the discourse Israeli media has used to portray the prisoner's strike as a ploy for attention and petty demands. “Solitary confinement, as well as prevention of family visits, fines, and use of hand and feet cuffs, were the main demands of the movement,” he reaffirmed in his statements. Israel's prison service said on Sunday that more prisoners had joined the strike, increasing the number to 234 strikers. Reports have been made prisoner's health is deteriorating due to the hungerstrike, and that prison administration is not providing efficient medical checks. Various prisoner support groups have been protesting inside the West Bank to confirm the stagnating health condition of the prisoners on strike. Yasser Othman, Egypt's Ambassador to the Palestinian Authority met with the PA Prisoner's Minister Qarage to express his support for the strike. He conveyed a message from the Egyptian leadership that Cairo supported the Palestinian detainees and their struggle against poor jail conditions. According to latest reports from the Palestinian Authority, 6,000 Palestinians are being detained in Israeli prisons, including 219 in Administrative Detention who are held without charge. BM
