GAZA (PIC)– Hamas prisoners in the Israeli jail of Askalan have declared they would go on hunger strike twice weekly to demand improvement of harsh incarceration conditions Riyadh Al-Ashqar the spokesman for the prisoners ministry in Gaza said on Sunday.
He said that the strike to be observed on Saturdays and Tuesdays each week was also meant to pressure the prison administration into improving their conditions adding that they started it last Tuesday and yesterday.
Ashqar noted that prisoners of other factions were studying joining the strike which mainly demands an end to the policy of medical neglect. He cited the case of Dirar Abu Sisi who has been in isolation since his kidnap from the Ukraine and is suffering high blood pressure kidney problems and headaches and has lost 30 kilograms of his weight.
The spokesman said that the prisoners also demand an end to solitary confinement and to the policy of depriving them of family visits especially those from Gaza who have been deprived of this right for the past five and a half years.
He quoted the prisoners as threatening escalation in their protest in the event the prison administration did not respond to their demands and asked for the Palestinian people’s support for their demands with all means possible.
