The Hamas supreme leadership body in Israeli jails announced on Sunday their full support for the Freedom and Dignity hunger strike which will be launched on Monday by the Palestinian prisoners demanding their rights and defending their dignity.
The Hamas leadership confirmed in a statement the participation of the Hamas prisoners in Hadarim prison in the hunger strike alongside the other prisoners affiliated with other factions.
They saluted all prisoners engaged in this battle and affirmed that they will not hesitate to support the strike by all means.
They warned the Israel Prison Service (IPS) against harming the striking prisoners stressing that any delay in meeting the fair demands of the prisoners would escalate the situation in all prisons.
Thousands of Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails will start an open hunger strike on 17th April 2017 to regain many of their rights which they were denied by the IPS and which they were able to clinch in previous strikes.
The Palestinian prisoners have launched 23 hunger strikes in Israeli jails since 1967 the most recent of which was a 63-day hunger strike by administrative detainees in 2014. Since 2012 the prisoners especially the administrative detainees have carried out dozens of individual hunger strikes and they are still ongoing.
6500 prisoners are being held in Israeli jails including 58 women 300 children 500 administrative detainees and 1800 sick prisoners.
The most important demands that the prisoners seek to achieve are ending the isolation and the administrative detention policies providing a public phone for prisoners to communicate with their families as well as other demands related to medical treatment and family visits.
