Clashes at Palestinian protest to support jailed hunger strikers
Stones, rubber bullets and water cannon used
RAMALLAH // Clashes erupted in the occupied West Bank yesterday between Israeli soldiers and hundreds of Palestinians protesting in support of hunger strikers in Israeli jails.
At least two Palestinians were hit in the legs by rubber bullets and had to be taken away on stretchers. Hooded and masked youths threw stones at Israeli soldiers, who responded with rubber bullets and water cannon containing foul-smelling liquid.
The clashes broke out at a checkpoint at the entrance to Ramallah and near the Israeli settlement of Beit El, the site of regular demonstrations against the occupation.
The protest was called in support of hundreds of Palestinian prisoners who have been on hunger strike in Israeli jails since April 17.
“We are entering an extremely critical period” for the hunger strikers, Qadura Fares, head of the Palestinian Prisoners Club, said at a rally in Ramallah.
“A large number of prisoners can no longer move from their bed or take care of their basic needs.”
The clashes came as the Red Cross visited the leader of the hunger strike, Marwan Barghouti.
The group was unable to provide an update on his health “in accordance with the principles of medical confidentiality”.
Before yesterday the group had been allowed access to other prisoners on hunger strike but not Barghouti.
Hunger strikers issued a list of demands including better medical services, family visits and more dignified detention conditions.
Israel said conditions met all international standards. Barghouti, a senior member of Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas’s Fatah party and a highly popular figure among Palestinians, is serving five life sentences over his role in the second Palestinian intifada, or uprising.
This week, Israel produced footage it claimed showed him secretly breaking his fast in his cell.
But his wife, Fadwa, rejected the footage, claiming it was fake.
She said it was propaganda “intended to break the morale of prisoners”.
Many of the prisoners can no longer move from their bed or take care of their basic needs