The Battle of Empty Stomachs : Palestinian prisoners win !
BETHLEHEM (Ma’an) — Detainees on Monday signed a deal with the Israeli prison authority to end their mass hunger strike, officials told Ma’an.
Prisoner representatives from each of the factions agreed to the deal in Ashkelon jail, prisoners society chief Qaddura Fares said.
Senior Hamas official Saleh Arouri, who was a member of the negotiations team, confirmed that a deal was signed following Egyptian mediation.
In comments to the Hamas-affiliated new site Palestine Information Center, he said Israel agreed to provide a list of accusations to administrative detainees, or release them at the end of their term.
Authorities agreed to release all detainees from solitary confinement over the next 72 hours, he said.
Israel will also lift a ban on family visits for detainees from the Gaza Strip, and revoke the so-called Shalit law, according to the official.
Israel’s “Shalit law,” restricted prisoners’ access to families and to educational materials as punishment for the five-year captivity of Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit in the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip.
The law remains in force despite a prisoner swap deal which saw hundreds of Palestinian detainees released in October in exchange for the soldier’s freedom.
An Israeli prison authority spokeswoman could not immediately be reached for comment.
Earlier Monday, Qaddura Fares said a senior Egyptian officer was en route to an Israeli jail to move forward talks to end detainees’ hunger strike, after Palestinian officials said negotiations had hit a snag.
The official said Israeli authorities had balked at the agreement’s call for the release of any inmate whose detention term, usually a six-month period that can be renewed by a military court, has ended.
In the past month, around 2,000 prisoners joined a group of administrative detainees on hunger-strike, according to prisoners groups’ estimates.
Bilal Diab, 27, and Thaer Halahla, 33 —both held without charge — have gone for 77 days without food.
On Monday, thousands of people held a rally in Gaza in support of the hunger strikers. “We will give our souls and blood to redeem the prisoners,” the crowd chanted.
at the same time , this joy is not completed to know that they didn’t gain their freedom yet .