July 31st, 2006

Ramallah - Palestinian prisoners in the infamous Israeli Negev prison went on a hunger strike Monday in condemnation of the Israeli massacre in the Lebanese town of Qana as well as the intensified quelling measures the IPA is exercising against them.

More than 2,320 Palestinian detainees in that prison heeded calls from their jailed political blocs and returned their meals, adding they were on a hunger strike over the Israeli butchery in the tiny Lebanese village where 60 Lebanese civilians, 37 of them children, sheltering in one of the town’s buildings were buried under rubble at dawn Sunday.

Israeli warplanes dropped their heavy bombs and unleashed a number of their missiles at the building; thus, leveling it to the ground. Rescue workers spent a hard time in getting the severed small bodies from under the debris.

The prisoners elaborated that they were also protesting the intensified Israeli prisons authority (IPA) quelling measures against them and the deliberate medical neglect of sick Palestinian captives.

More than 50 Palestinian prisoners in that jail were reportedly suffering chronic diseases; yet; they weren’t accorded proper attention or offered the suitable medication as mandated by international treaties and statutes.

Arbitrary extension of the administrative detention terms of a number of captives without any justified reason or grounds, and the severe manhandling of other captives were also among the incidents that spurred the hunger strike, according to the prisoners’ sources.

More than 10,000 Palestinian citizens, among them 350 children and 130 women in addition to scores of elderly people, were unjustly incarcerated in harsh conditions in Israeli jails for many years now, with the entire “civilized” world paying no attention to their sufferings.

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