Palestinian women hold pictures of their jailed families, as they celebrate during a protest in solidarity with prisoners in Israeli jails, in the West Bank City of Nablus, on May 27, 2017. Palestinian Fatah Party Recruitment Commissioner Jamal Muheisen declared that over 1,500 Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails have suspended their hunger strike after a deal with the Israeli Prisons Authority. (Xinhua/Ayman Nobani)
RAMALLAH, May 27 (Xinhua) -- Palestinian Fatah Party Recruitment Commissioner Jamal Muheisen declared that over 1,500 Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails have ended the 40-day hunger strike after a deal with the Israeli Prisons Authority.
Muheisen said in a press conference that "the national committee of the strike stresses that the great and legendary victory of the detainees has refuted all Israeli bets and it's oppressive measure as it has forced the Israeli government to hold negotiations with leader of the strike, Marwan Barghouti, after it had rejected that for 40 days of their strike."
"They (Israel authorities) realized that detainees are determined to continue their strike until victory or martyrdom and that violence and oppression tools have not weakened them, but, to the contrary, they have increased their will power."
The head of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) Detainees Commission Eassa Qaraqe told Xinhua that the deal was reached after nearly 20 hours of negotiations involving Fatah party's leading figure, Marwan Barghouti, the International Red Cross and the Palestinian Authority.
But he said there are no details of the deal itself.
The demands of the detainees include visitation rights, use of a public phone and ending solitary confinement and administrative detention, which is imprisonment without charges or trial.
The strike ended just in time for the beginning of the month of Ramadan, where Muslims fast from sunrise to sunset for one month.
Marwan Barghouti, who led the collective hunger strike that began on April 17, is an elected member of Parliament and a member of President Mahmoud Abbas's Fatah party's Central Committee. He has been imprisoned since 2004 for a term of five life sentences.
