Palestinians end hunger strike

UN warns of fresh violence due to Gaza crisis

RAMALLAH, Palestinian Territories, May 27, (Agencies): Hundreds of Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails on hunger strike since April 17 have ended their mass protest under a deal brokered by the Red Cross, Palestinian and Israeli sources said on Saturday.

Some 30 of the more than 800 hunger strikers had been hospitalised in recent days, raising fears of an escalation of clashes with Israeli security forces in the occupied West Bank.

Palestinian analysts hailed the deal as a victory for the hunger strikers after Israeli authorities repeatedly vowed not to negotiate with convicted “terrorists”.

Palestinian Authority prisoners’ affair chief Issa Qaraqe said it had come after some 20 hours of talks between Israeli officials and strike leader Marwan Barghouti, a figure revered among Palestinians but reviled by many Israelis.

Confirmed

An Israel Prisons Service spokeswoman confirmed the hunger strike was over but said the deal had been reached not with prisoners’ representatives but with the Palestinian Authority and the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC).

Israeli authorities conceded to one of the prisoners’ main demands — that they should have two family visits a month instead of the one they were entitled to before the strike, the spokeswoman said.

The ICRC had warned on Thursday that its doctors who have been visiting the prisoners were concerned about “potential irreversible health consequences”.

ICRC spokesman Jesus Serrano welcomed Saturday’s end of the strike and said it would do all it could to facilitate the additional visits.

The resolution of the strike coincided with the start of the Muslim dawnto-dusk fasting month of Ramadan.

Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas had urged US counterpart Donald Trump to raise the issue with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu during his visit to the region earlier this week.

He raised the issue again with Trump envoy Jason Greenblatt in a meeting at his headquarters in Ramallah on Thursday.

Demonstrations in support of the prisoners had been held across the West Bank, leading to repeated bloody clashes with Israeli security forces.

They come as the 50th anniversary nears of Israel’s seizure of the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, including east Jerusalem, in the Six-Day War.

The hunger strike was led by Barghouti, a prominent figure in his Fatah movement leader revered by many Palestinians in contrast to the increasingly unpopular president.

Dubbed the “Palestinian Mandela” by supporters, Barghouti is serving five life sentences on charges of involvement in murders committed during the second Palestinian intifada, or uprising, that have made him a hate figure for many on the Israeli right.

Vowed

Israeli Public Security Minister Gilad Erdan had vowed there would be no negotiations with the hunger strikers, calling them “terrorists and incarcerated murderers.”

But the Palestinian Authority’s Qaraqe said Israeli officials had held some 20 hours of negotiations with Barghouti to end the strike.

The United Nations Middle East envoy warned the Security Council on Friday that a power struggle between the rival Palestinian Fatah and Hamas movements had worsened a humanitarian crisis in Gaza that now risked exploding into another conflict.

“In Gaza we are walking into another crisis with our eyes wide open,” the envoy, Nickolay Mladenov, told the 15-member Council. “Unless urgent measures are taken to de-escalate, the crisis risks spiraling out of control with devastating consequences for Palestinians and Israelis alike.”

Controls

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas’ Fatah movement controls the Western-backed Palestinian Authority (PA), which governs the Israeli occupied West Bank. The Islamist Hamas movements runs the Gaza Strip after seizing control from Fatah a decade ago.

“The Palestinian Authority, Hamas ... and Israel, all have obligations for the welfare of Gaza’s residents and must live up to their responsibilities to address the crisis and overcome this political impasse,” Mladenov said.

Mladenov said that in April the PA cut salary allowances to nearly 60,000 public sector employees in Gaza and the Gaza power plant, which supplies a third of electricity, stopped working due to a dispute between the PA and Hamas over fuel tax.

He said power lines between Egypt and Gaza are down for technical reasons, leaving only Israeli electricity lines, which provide 60 percent of Gaza’s power. However, in April the PA said it would no longer pay Israel to supply Gaza.

Mladenov said that if that happened, electricity supply to Gaza would be further reduced by 30 percent, creating more hardship for the population.