Despite the agreement that ended the mass hunger strike, violations against Palestinian prisoners supposed to be ended by the agreement continue. Dirar Abu Sisi, Palestinian prisoner kidnapped from the Ukraine, remains in solitary confinement. As of Saturday, May 19, the Palestine Information Centre reported that Ibrahim Hamed also remains in isolation.
Prisoners in Gilboa prison are reporting that conditions are unchanged since the end of the strike, and that prison officials continue to threaten to take their mattresses. According to Addameer, there are four ongoing hunger strikers in Israeli jails: Mahmoud Sarsak, Mohammad Taj, Akram Rikhawi and Mohammad Abdul-Aziz.
Sarsak, a Palestinian footballer from the Gaza Strip who plays on the national team, was seized when he attempted to enter the West Bank for a game. He is the only prisoner held under a form of administrative detention for Gazan Palestinians, the “unlawful combatant law.”
Addameer writes:
Mahmoud Sarsak is still on hunger strike. The Israeli Prison Service had denied it, but it has just been confirmed by his brother that he never broke his hunger strike. Today is therefore his 60th day. Israeli authorities had made a deal with him to end his hunger strike and he would be released on 1 July. However, they have since said he will not be released until 22 August, the end date of his current Unlawful Combatant Law order. He continues his hunger strike in protest.
Mohammad Taj re-launched his hunger strike on 15 May (he had spent 58 days on hunger strike) because the Israeli Prison Service failed to treat him as a prisoner of war. He was immediately taken to solitary confinement in Al-Jalameh and was beaten yesterday in an attempt to pressure him to end his hunger strike….
