A number of Palestinian Legislative Council members announced on Monday their hunger strike in solidarity with the prisoners in Israeli detention camps.
The Palestinian MP, Fathi Qur’awi, said that the members of the Legislative Council organized peaceful activities in support of the prisoners in various Palestinian cities, including the announcement of a solidarity strike on food.
Qar’awi said that the deputies’ strike today was in response to the invitation of Hassan Khuraisha, the second deputy speaker of the Legislative Council, appealing to parliamentarians around the world to contribute to raise the issue of Palestinian prisoners in Israeli prisons.
The Palestinian MP pointed to the danger that threatens the lives of the hunger strikers for the third week in a row, especially among them a number of elderly people, calling for the continuation of popular solidarity activities until all the demands of the prisoners are met.
Since 17 April, approximately 1700 Palestinian prisoners have been engaged in an open hunger strike aimed at achieving a number of demands, most notably: ending the policy of isolation and the policy of administrative detention, as well as demanding the installation of a public telephone for Palestinian prisoners to communicate with their families and a range of demands which relate to the visits of their relatives, and a number of demands for their treatment and other demands.

Israel holds 6,500 Palestinian detainees in 22 prisons, including 29 detainees since the 1993 Oslo agreement between the occupation and the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), 13 deputies and 57 Palestinian women, including 13 minor girls.