Palestinian MPs, resistance factions' leaders and directors of community organizations in Gaza and West Bank launched a one-day hunger strike on Monday, in solidarity with hunger striking prisoners in Israeli jails.
A number of prisoners have been on a hunger strike since months in protest at their administrative or arbitrary detention, such as Ayman Sharawna and Samer al-Issawi who have been on hunger strike since more than five months.
The strike was organized by a number of human rights organizations concerned with the prisoners' issues, including the Palestinian Center for the Defense of Prisoners, the Association of Prisoners and Ex-prisoners, the Ahrar Center for Studies and the Electronic Campaign for the Support of Hunger Striking Prisoners.
The institutions concerned with the prisoners' affairs said that the head of the Legislative Council, Dr. Aziz Dweik, his first deputy, Dr. Ahmad Bahar, and the MPs from the Gaza Strip, some MPs from the occupied West Bank and the leaders of the Palestinian factions are taking part in the hunger strike.
Dr. Ahmad Bahar saluted the prisoners, in a speech during the hunger strike in front of the Red Cross headquarters in Gaza.
He also appealed to the Egyptian leadership which had sponsored the exchange deal to support the prisoners and pressure the occupation to stop its crimes against the captives and the liberated prisoners, stressing that "the resistance will soon force the occupation to release the prisoners."
For his part, the leader in the Islamic Jihad movement Nafez Azzam said: "The prisoners' issue is the issue of the whole people. It is our duty to support them as well as their families."
Tawfiq Abu Naim demanded, in a speech on behalf of the Prisoners Committee for National and Islamic Forces, the leaders of the ex-detainees to support the prisoners and urged the institutions and unions to join the hunger strike and support the prisoners.
