Samer al-Issawi, one of the four Palestinians who have been on hunger strike, has been refusing food, intermittently, for more than 200 days. His family says his health has deteriorated sharply.
The prisoners' campaign for better conditions and against detention without trial has touched off violent protests over the past several weeks outside an Israeli military prison and in West Bank towns.
More than 100 Palestinians protesting outside a West Bank prison in support of hunger-striking inmates clashed with Israeli soldiers.
Tuesday's rally outside Ofer Prison took place as some 800 Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails held a one-day hunger strike in solidarity with several long-term hunger strikers, including Samer Issawi, who has been on a hunger strike for more than 200 days and is said to be near death, the Maan Palestinian news service reported.
Issawi was released in the 2011 prisoner swap to free captive soldier Gilad Shalit but was later rearrested
Maan reported that Israeli forces fired tear gas at protesters and Palestinian youths responded by throwing stones at the soldiers.
The protest comes a day after Palestinian rallies across the West Bank in support of the hunger strikers also resulted in clashes with Israeli soldiers. A rally of some 1,000 Palestinians also was held outside Ofer Prison on Feb. 15.
In a related incident Monday, some 3,000 Jewish-owned grapevines located near Shiloh in the West Bank were cut by what is believed to be Palestinian vandals. The damage was estimated at more than $50,000.
In the Gaza Strip, the Islamic Jihad group said a truce with Israel that ended eight days of fighting in November could unravel if any hunger striker died.
The Palestinian Prisoners Club, which looks after the welfare of inmates and their families, said 800 prisoners were taking part in the day-long fast.
The Quartet of Middle East negotiators - the United States, Russia, the United Nations and European Union - have expressed concern at the hunger strike.
In a statement on Monday, France's Foreign Ministry urged Israel "to be sensitive to the risk of a tragic outcome and to take appropriate measures as a matter of urgency".
The statement said "administrative detention must remain an exceptional measure of limited duration and be carried out with due regard for fundamental safeguards".
Israel holds some Palestinians in "administrative detention" based on evidence presented in a closed military court. It says the practice pre-empts militant attacks against it while keeping its counter-intelligence sources and tactics secret.
There were some 178 administrative detainees in Israeli jails in January, down from a high of just over 300 around the time of another Palestinian hunger strike campaign last spring, according to Palestinian rights group Addameer.
"The battle waged by me and by my heroic colleagues ... is everyone's battle, the battle of the Palestinian people against the occupation and its prisons," Issawi said in a message conveyed to the Palestinian Ministry of Prisoners last week.
Source: http://www.nepalnews.net/index.php/sid/212682419/scat/bf053b50c46383e0
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