Israel says 300 Palestinian inmates end hunger strike

According to minister, 920 prisoners still refusing food in protest at conditions; jails to set up four medical centers

By AFP 30 April 2017, 8:38 pm
Public Security Minister Gilad Erdan speaks at the Israel Police Independence Day ceremony at the National Headquarters of the Israel Police in Jerusalem on April 26, 2017. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)

A minister said Sunday that 300 Palestinians have agreed to end an almost two-week-old hunger strike launched in protest at the conditions of their detention.

Three hundred hunger strikers have “agreed to take food without having obtained” any of their demands, Public Security Minister Gilad Erdan told Army Radio.

“Negotiations are out of the question,” he said, adding that 920 Palestinian prisoners remained on hunger strike.

The Palestinians, for their part, said 1,500 prisoners were keeping up their fast in Israeli jails.

Palestinian women before a wall of 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)

Erdan also said the prison service planned to set up four medical centers inside jails “to avoid as much as possible the transfer of hunger striking detainees to civilian hospitals.”

The hunger strike began on April 17, with those taking part ingesting only water and salt. They have issued demands ranging from better medical care to phone access.

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