Date : 02/07/2011
GAZA, July 2 (KUNA) -- Hundreds of Palestinian prisoners in Ashkelon
prison, south of Israel, continued their hunger strike for the second day in a
row in protest of Friday attacks by Isaeli prison forces.
Local radio stations reported on Saturday that "Nahshon and Metzada units
of Israeli Prison Service raided the jail, firing tear-gas canisters and
beating detainees with batons and hoses."
Following this attack, the inmates decided to go on a three-day hunger
strike which started yesterday, to protest against the Israeli repressive
policy against them.
This repressive policy came after the collapse of negotiations between
Israel and Hamas to reach an agreement to exchange prisoners.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced on June 23 that he had
instructed the Israeli Prison Service to toughen conditions for Palestinian
detainees to pressure Hamas to release captured Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit.
In a statement released to the media, Ashkelon prisoners described the
attack as "barbaric and vicious."
"The Israeli Prison Service went too far in committing these violations and
repressive policy that has been witnessed in the prisons of Ashkelon, Ramon
and Ohali Kidar," the statement went on.
"It is the beginning of a war to defend ourselves, our dignity, and our
rights as detainees," the Palestinian prisoners said defiantly in the
statement, adding that "solitary confinements, tougher procedures and strip
searches will never intimidate us."
The Palestinian prisoners demanded the support of Palestinian people and
authorities to stop these aggressive procedures against them, the statement
concluded. (end)
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