Independent committee: Hunger strikers in PA jails in serious health condition

Monday 3 January 2011

Independent committee: Hunger strikers in PA jails in serious health condition

03/01/2011 - 12:32 PM

RAMALLAH, (PIC)-- Head of the Palestinian independent committee Mamdouh Al-Aker said that the hunger strike staged by some political detainees in the Palestinian authority's jails is a troubling issue and could be seen as a protest step taken by the prisoners after their exposure to physiological or physical abuse.

Aker told the Palestinian information center (PIC) that a delegation of lawyers sent by the independent committee was able on Sunday for the first time since the hunger striker started their protest step to visit them in Bethlehem hospital.

He added the hunger strikers stopped taking any fluids and are determined to continue their hunger strike until they are released from PA jails.

The head of the committee affirmed that the hospital administration told the lawyers that a number of the hunger strikers were transferred to the hospital many times during the last two days, pointing that the abstention from taking any food for 43 days is not easy and reflects negatively on the health of the hunger striker.

The official also noted that the committee asked the PA intelligence many times before to allow it to visit the hunger strikers, but it always refused this request at the pretext that it needs permission from high-level security parties.

In a related context, informed sources told the PIC that Sheikh Ziyad Meshaal and Iyas Hamdan joined Hamas official Tayseer Aruri and went on hunger strike after the PA security apparatuses reneged on its promise to release them.

For its part, the family of political detainee Faris Ashuli, 16, from Assira town that he was exposed to physical abuse and solitary conferment by the PA preventive security in its jail in Nablus city after he decided to go on hunger strike, but he refused to give up his strike despite the torture.

For his part, Palestinian minister of prisoners' affairs Mohamed Al-Ghoul held Fatah and its authority fully responsible for the lives of political detainees from all factions in its jails, stressing that their rights are protected by law and cannot be dropped by prescription.

In a sit-in held Gaza in solidarity with detainees in PA jails, Ghoul noted that when Palestinian prisoners go on hunger strike in Israeli jails, they could get their demands, but in PA jails they get nothing and are let to die slowly.

He appealed to Arab parliaments and governments, the UN, and the organization of the Islamic conference to intervene to save the lives of political detainees in PA jails.
Hamas Movement also in a press release on Sunday held de facto president Mahmoud Abbas and his security militias fully and directly responsible for the lives of all hunger strikers in its jails, especially detainee Muhanad Nairoukh who reportedly entered the stage of clinical death.

In another incident, 11 Palestinian citizens affiliated with Hamas was reportedly kidnapped by the PA security militias in the last two days in the cities of Nablus, Tulkarem, Ramallah and Al-Khalil, according to different local sources on Monday.