- Palestine
- April 5, 2010
- 3 minutes read
Megiddo prisoners threaten to go on open hunger strike
In a joint statement, leaders of prisoners affiliated with Hamas, Fatah, the popular front, Islamic Jihad and the liberation front said that the detainees would take a number of steps including an open hunger strike if the Megiddo prison did not stop its violation of their rights.
They added that these protest steps would take place after the administration refused to respond to the letters submitted to it regarding its ongoing violations against the prisoners.
In a related context, the higher national committee for the support of prisoners said that the Israeli prisons authority deliberately and gradually targets the leaders of prisoners in its jails in order to humiliate them and break their will.
The committee stated on Saturday that the administrations of prisons follow planned steps aimed at tightening the noose around the prisoners’ leaders one by one and on a gradual basis so as not to attract attention to this matter.
The committee noted that the Israeli jailers had earlier focused on leader Abdullah Al-Barghouthi, placed him with insane criminals, and physically assaulted him more than once.
It added that other leaders namely Jamal Abu Al-Haija, Ahmed Saadat, Yahya Sinwar and Ibrahim Hamed were also punished with different ways such as isolating them in solitary cells and depriving them of family visits.
For his part, prisoner Abdelnasser Issa, a prominent Qassam leader, said that the Israeli military escalation against Gaza is part of its all-out war on the Palestinian resistance.
In a leaked letter, Issa added that the Israeli occupation decided to escalate its war being driven by the pale positions of the recent Arab summit and the connivance of the Palestinian Authority (PA).
He added that the fields of the Israeli war is manifold and complements each other in a crystal clear way manifested in its Judaization and settlement activities in Jerusalem and the West Bank, land confiscation, the smear campaign against the Palestinian resistance and the military attacks on Gaza.