Palestinian Detainees Vow to Keep up Hunger Strike: Death over Compromise

Local Editor

The leadership of the Palestinian administrative detainees announced on Monday morning that the detainees are unwilling to compromise in their struggle and that they will continue their hunger strike even if it costs them their lives.

Through their attorney, the detainees sent the Palestinian Prisoners' Club a letter that the medical teams who are treating the 70 hospitalized detainees were collaborating with the Prisons Service, and that some of the detainees had been chained to their hospital beds.

"The nurses, who are supposed to be angels of mercy, come into our rooms with food to break our spirits, but we will not give up until we accomplish our goal, and we are willing to die for it," the detainees wrote. "Each one of us has already written his will, and we have sworn that there is no way back."

They further added that some of the hospitalized hunger-strikers are chained to their beds. On this, the detainees wrote, "We hear comments such as ‘Crucify them,' and then their right arms and left legs are chained to the bed 24 hours a day."
They added that most of them are suffering from side effects, that 13 detainees suffer from bleeding and that some are suffering from low blood sugar. "We ask the world how long they will ignore us. Maybe if we die, the world will wake up."
"Israel" has 189 people in administrative detention. Between 100 and 125 detainees are participating in the hunger strike, which was declared on April 24.
 
The medical condition of about 70 of these has deteriorated, and they are hospitalized under heavy guard. From time to time, security prisoners begin solidarity hunger strikes with the administrative detainees in one of the prisons, for a limited time.

Haaretz reported that "Israeli" Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's tough stance on the crisis is based on the recommendations of Shin Bet officials.
"The impression is that the government is willing to deal with detainees dying in prison to see what the response on the Palestinian street will be," said attorney Jawad Boulos, the legal adviser of the Palestinian Prisoners' Club.

Source: News Agencies, Edited by website team