Arab League requests UN probe over Israeli prisons

The Arab League is calling on the United Nations to open an international inquiry into “violations” against Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails as some inmates enter their third week of hunger strikes.

The pan-Arab body “invites the United Nations and its relevant specialized agencies to send an international commission of inquiry to Israeli prisons,” representatives say in a resolution.

The commission would “view the violations being committed against the prisoners of war,” and to press international actors to compel Israel to abide by the Geneva convention.

The move came as about 1,000 Palestinian prisoners are fasting in a protest launched on April 17 by jailed terrorist Marwan Barghouti demanding improved conditions including family visits, better medical care and phone access.

The Arab League also said that all “relevant international institutions and bodies” must “intervene immediately and urgently to compel the Israeli government to apply international humanitarian law,” according to the resolution.

— with AFP