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Live UpdateFrom the Liveblog of Thursday, March 9, 2017
Hamas accused of blocking access to prisoners
A Gaza-based NGO is accusing the security services of the Palestinian territory’s Hamas rulers of preventing it from seeing prisoners on hunger strike.
Members of the Hamas military wing at a memorial in the southern Gaza Strip town of Rafah on January 31, 2017, for Mohamed Zouari, a 49-year-old Tunisian engineer and drone expert, who was killed at the wheel of his car outside his house in Tunisia in December 2016. (AFP/Said Khatib)
The Hamas interior ministry denies the allegations, saying it respects the rule of law and that there are no such hunger strikes.
The Independent Commission for Human Rights says in a statement that it has repeatedly been denied access to several prisoners said to be refusing food in protest at their detention.
— AFP
