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The Israeli Prison Service has hospitalized 40 Palestinian prisoners, spokeswoman Sivan Weizman said on Wednesday. She described their condition as “reasonable” and said that they were, at different stages, taken to a hospital. The prisoners were on a hunger strike for over a month, protesting the terms of their imprisonment.
Weizman said that all the prisoners on strike were administrative detainees, and had refused food for almost five weeks to protest the fact that they were being held without trial. She added that they are being treated in nine different hospitals. Palestinians officials, however, claim that the lives of many of the prisoners were in danger. They called for international pressure so as to find a solution for the situation.
Weizman added that other inmates have since joined the strike, and there a total of 240 prisoners now refusing to eat food. She said that the number transferred to hospitals is expected to rise.
Issa Qaraqe, the Palestinian Prisoner Minister, said that some of the inmates on strike were in a “very grave” condition. He said that Palestinian officials were in touch with their Israeli counterparts “to avoid any complications that could lead to prisoner deaths”.
On a radio program, Qaraqe gave a very graphic description of their condition. “Most are vomiting blood and fainting. They can’t walk, they’re in terrible pain. We are afraid some will die if the situation continues and Israel keeps using the same measures against them. In the last two days there has been the daily transfer of prisoners from one prison to another, one cell to another, exhausting them and making their situation worse”, he said.
“It’s clear that prison authorities are trying to break the strike in any way possible, even if prisoners die”, Qaraqe added, calling for the UN Security Council to “move against Israel’s intransigence.”
There are around 5,000 Palestinian inmates in Israeli prisons. Almost 200 of them are under administrative detention, which means they can be imprisoned without trial for six months. Additionally, a military court can renew the administrative detention order of a prisoner indefinitely.