Arab League calls on Red Cross to intervene in prisoner hunger strike

On 10th day of strike, regional bloc calls for action against alleged Israeli ‘abuse‘ of striking Palestinian security inmates

By AFP and ToI Staff 26 April 2017, 10:23 pm

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Arab League Secretary General Ahmed Abul-Gheit (L) welcomes Lebanese President Michel Aoun at an Arab League meeting in Cairo on February 14, 2017. / AFP PHOTO / STRINGER

CAIRO — Arab League chief Ahmed Aboul Gheit on Wednesday urged the International Committee of the Red Cross to intervene with Israeli authorities to halt what he called their “abuse” of Palestinian prisoners.

Aboul Gheit sent a letter to ICRC president Peter Maurer requesting “the committee (ICRC) urgently intervene with Israeli authorities to stop the various abuses being committed against those prisoners of war,” the Arab League said.

The move came as some 1,500 Palestinian security prisoners entered the 10th day of a hunger strike over demands ranging from improved medical care to greater access to telephone calls.

The detainees, led by Marwan Barghouti, who is serving five life terms for murder, launched the hunger strike on April 17.

Palestinian women walk past a wall bearing posters including a portrait of Palestinian leader and prominent prisoner Marwan Barghouti, during a rally in the West Bank city of Ramallah in support of him and other prisoners on hunger strike in Israeli jails on April 24, 2017. (AFP PHOTO / ABBAS MOMANI) — Palestinian women walk past a wall bearing posters including a portrait of Palestinian leader and prominent prisoner Marwan Barghouti, during a rally in the West Bank city of Ramallah in support of him and other prisoners on hunger strike in Israeli jails on April 24, 2017. (AFP/Abbas Momani)

Aboul Gheit’s letter is part of contacts “with international actors to stop violations against Palestinian prisoners of war in Israeli prisons,” the League said in a statement.

He called for the ICRC to demand that Israel “treat Palestinian prisoners on hunger strike according to norms and standards set in international humanitarian law.”

The Arab League chief sent a similar letter on Tuesday to United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres.

Israel vociferously denies that the Palestinians are prisoners of war.

“The Palestinian prisoners are not political prisoners. They are convicted terrorists and murderers,” the Foreign Ministry said in a statement recently. “They were brought to justice and are treated properly under international law.”

Israel has refused to negotiate with the prisoners.