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At least 60 Palestinian prisoners begin hunger strike


The Palestinian Prisoners Society said Monday that 60 Palestinian prisoners affiliated to the left wing Palestinian faction the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) started an open hunger strike in Israel’s Megiddo prison.

In a statement the group quoted a lawyer who visited Megiddo and Jilbou prisons on Sunday as saying that 60 PFLP- affiliated prisoners started a hunger strike in Megiddo Sunday. She added that five PFLP-affiliated prisoners would also start hunger strike in Jilbou prison Monday.

The decision to start the hunger strikes, added the lawyer, was in protest against Israeli decision to send PFLP- affiliated prisoner Bilal Kayid to administrative detention without trial or indictment for six months after he completed a 14-year sentence.

Kayid began his own hunger strike on June 13 in protest of his sentence of six months in administrative detention.

Kayid, from the village of Asira al-Shamaliya near Nablus in the northern occupied West Bank has been in Israeli custody since 2001 for alleged involvement in the Abu Ali Mustafa Brigades -- the armed wing of the PFLP.

Rights groups have claimed that Israel's administrative detention policy has been used as an attempt to disrupt Palestinian political processes, notably targeting Palestinian politicians, activists, and journalists. more

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