Families of jailed Palestinians join hunger strike

A group of wives and mothers of hunger striking Palestinian prisoners vowed yesterday that they too would not eat until Israel met demands for better treatment and more frequent family visits.

More than 1,500 prisoners, seen by Palestinians as symbols of resistance to Israel, started a liquids-only fast this week to demand more frequent visits, better sanitary conditions, public telephones, and an end to strip searches.

Israeli officials call the hunger strike a ploy by prisoners to secure easier communication with militant groups waging an almost four-year-old uprising.

Israel's security minister said he did not care if they starved to death, while prison officials said they planned to barbecue meat outside the cells to try to break their spirit.

Organisers of the solidarity fast in the West Bank said only a few women had stopped eating so far, but dozens more family members were expected to join in coming days.

"Today I am starting a hunger strike. I am drinking just water and juice," said Riham Masehal, whose son is serving a five-year sentence at a jail in the Negev desert on security-related charges.

"For two years I have not seen him. They reject it on security grounds," she said. "Even my daughter, they rejected her."

The Palestinian Authority has called on people to hold a one-day solidarity fast today.

Israel's prison authority said it had started weighing hunger strikers and was giving medical checks, but had so far seen no health problems. About 7,000 Palestinians, excluding common criminals, are being held in Israeli civilian prisons or military jails, according to the Israeli human rights group B'Tselem.

About half are either being detained without charge or until the end of criminal proceedings against them. The remainder are convicted of security-related offences.

"They are prisoners of a people suffering under occupation," said Palestinian Prime Minister Ahmed Qurie, visiting the solidarity protest tent in Ramallah. "We appeal to the whole world to listen to the cry of the heroes of freedom."

Sitting in the tent, Palestinian women held up framed pictures of sons and husbands.

Yusra Muhammed Mustafa, whose husband is serving a 220-year term for killing Israeli soldiers, said she was on a "symbolic" hunger strike of liquids and fruit, upset that four of her five sons were unable to visit their father.

"For four years the children haven't seen him. Only the youngest one has seen him, my smallest son," she said, adding they were rejected on security grounds.

Umm Muhammed, who was also fasting, said she had not seen her prisoner son for 11 months, and was on an open-ended strike.

"How can I feel hunger when I am here and my son is in prison," she said. "Does he feel no hunger?"