PALESTINIAN prisoners declared a hunger strike in an Israeli prison camp in the West Bank on Sunday, a day after clashes with prison guards left ten people injured.
‘The strike is ongoing until the prisoners’ demands are granted by the prison administration. Otherwise, escalating actions will be taken,’ said Mahmoud As-Sa’di, a prisoner and a spokesman for the detainees in the Ofer prison camp, near to Ramallah.
Eight prisoners and two Israeli guards were injured when guards used water cannons, tear gas, and rubber-coated bullets to suppress a detainees’ demonstration.
The prisoners said they were protesting against an invasive search of prisoner property.
Speaking on the phone from inside the prison, As-Sa’di told the press that the prison administration is still ‘provoking’ prisoners by confiscating all their belongings except their clothes.
‘After the attack on the prisoners on Saturday, the prisoners decided to conduct an open strike until achieving their legitimate demands, including a halt the daily searches and attacks, where guards tie them up and use police dogs during searches,’ he said.
The prisoners are also demanding health care, the freedom to visit prisoners in other tents, better food and improved tents.
During the attack that sparked Saturday’s clashes, As-Sa’di said Israeli troops raided section B of the prison using dogs, handcuffing all the prisoners in that section and stripping some of them naked.
During the raid he said prison guards searched the tents, confiscating furniture, television sets and other possessions.
‘We stayed cuffed until three in the morning on Sunday,’ he said.
Separately, the Palestinian Minister of Prisoners Affairs, Ashraf Al-Ajrami, demanded immediate access to the prison in order to meet with the prisoners involved in the clashes.
Meanwhile, four Palestinians were injured late on Sunday night after an Israeli Apache helicopter fired missiles on eastern Gaza City.
One of the injured is reportedly a child.
Dr Muawiya Hassanain, the Ministry of Health’s director of Ambulance and Emergency Services, confirmed the injuries.
He added that the four Palestinians were moderately injured in the assault.
A spokesperson for the Israeli military confirmed the attack, according to Al-Jazeera.
Earlier, thirteen homemade projectiles and several mortar shells were fired by Palestinian armed factions.
This was two days after a six-month old truce between Israel and Palestinian factions expired.
After an initial salvo of projectiles, an Israeli aerial drone fired two missiles at a projectile launch site near Qlebo Dome in the northern Gaza Strip.
In Israel, a Thai man was injured and several greenhouses and a home were slightly damaged by Palestinian projectiles in the border town of Sderot, while no injuries have been reported in Gaza.
On Saturday Israeli fire killed one Gazan fighter and injured five including two children playing in an open field in the north of the Strip.
The same day reports of between ten and fifteen projectile launches resulted in no Israeli injuries.
Director of Ambulance and Emergency Services in the Palestinian Health Ministry Muawiya Hassanain told Gazans to exercise extreme caution and prevent children from playing in open fields.
He also recommended keeping streets clear so ambulances can move quickly in case of emergency.
Israeli Radio announced an imminent escalation of attacks against Gaza targets, which will most likely include targeted assassinations.
Israel bears full responsibility for the collapse of the six-month old truce in the Gaza Strip, the Palestinian representative to the Arab League, Mohammad Subeih alleged on Sunday.
Speaking to reporters in Cairo, Subeih said that efforts to resume talks regarding the Egyptian-brokered truce were aborted by Israel.
The six-month-old truce formally expired on Friday after being eroded by months of cross border violence that began with a deadly Israeli incursion on November 4th.
Subeih said Israel contributed to the collapse of the truce in Gaza by continuing military action in the West Bank, which was not included in the ceasefire.
He said 22 Palestinans were killed and over a hundred injured in the West Bank over the course of six months of truce.
‘The Israeli violations included confiscating lands, isolating Jerusalem, attacking its holy sites and the construction of the Wall all show that Israel is not serious in achieving peace,’ he said.
‘What is needed right now is to return to the national dialogue. If the Palestinians are not unified then the Palestinian situation will be bad.
‘So we urge all to return to dialogue upon the call of president Abbas and in response to the efforts made by Egypt, putting the Palestinian interest above the interest of any faction, taking advantage of the time before Israel carries out any offensive whether in the West Bank or the Gaza Strip,’ he added.
Subeih said Israel’s violations of the truce were similar to its violations of UN Security Council resolutions and the US-backed Road Map peace plan.
l An aid ship that defied an Israeli naval blockade to sail to Gaza on Friday left Gaza on Sunday night carrying five Palestinians who had been stranded in Gaza.
Two envoys from a Qatari charity also came on the ship, along with international and Israeli activists, and an Israeli journalist.
A Palestinian anti-siege activist, Amjad Ash-Shaw, said in a telephone interview on Sunday that three of those who arrived on the ship chose to stay in Gaza. He also praised the Qataris as the ‘first Arab delegation that could arrive in Gaza aboard a ship.’
The arrival of the ship on Saturday marked the fifth successful challenge to the naval blockade since August.
Israeli warships turned back a Libyan aid ship in November, and the Israeli government rejected a request by the Qatari government to send another.
Ash-Shaw also praised the work of the Free Gaza movement, which has organised the five successful voyages.
‘We are calling on all Qatari people to join forces to break this terrible siege on Gaza.
‘We also call for a general mass mobilisation to break the siege.
‘And we very much want to bring a ship of supplies in and will be working hard to arrange this voyage soon,’ said Qatari envoy Talal Al-Qutaibi in a statement.
Earlier on Sunday, the Qatari representatives and Lebanese envoys who also joined the voyage met with Ismail Haniya, the prime minister in the Gaza-based de facto Palestinan government.
In a statement, Haniya thanked the group for their efforts in breaking the Israeli blockade.
The ship, the SS Dignity, is expected to reach Cyprus today
