Support grows for Palestinian's prison strike

[Jefferson23]

Activists start open-ended hunger strike in support of prisoners in Israel fasting against "worsening jail conditions".

Sangwon Yoon Last Modified: 10 Oct 2011 05:14

At least 60 activists in the occupied West Bank, Gaza and Israel have started an open-ended hunger strike in support of Palestinians already fasting in Israeli jails against allegedly worsening conditions.

A solidarity camp by youth was launched in the Israeli city of Haifa on Sunday in a "spontaneous response" to the detainees' strike that was declared two weeks ago, organisers said.

"We mainly have two reasons: to support the prisoners and raise their morale and to raise awareness of the Palestinian political detainees," Muhannad Abu-Gosh, an organiser of the Haifa camp, told Al Jazeera.

Some 50 Palestinian political prisoners began a ongoing hunger strike on September 27. Other prisoners have since joined in. As of Sunday, 234 inmates were fasting, Sivan Weizman, the spokeswoman for the Israeli Prison Service, said in a statement.

Weizman said the strikers, who are now on their 13th day of fast, are "under daily medical supervision and their situation is satisfactory".

in full: http://english.aljazeera.net/news/middleeast/2011/10/2011109125412622383.html