Two Jerusalemite prisoners join the open hunger strike
On Thursday, the Jerusalemite prisoners, 39-year old Ayman Eid Salhab and 26 year-old Mohammad Mousa Mahmoud Odeh, joined the open hunger strike in solidarity with the administrative prisoners. The Negev prison administration withdrew the two prisoners from “section 25” and transferred them to an unknown place; note that both prisoners have been sentenced. The head of Jerusalemites detainees and prisoners families committee, Amjad Abu Asab, explained that Salhab who is one of the ill prisoners is serving a prison sentence of 10 years and two month and has been detained for 7 years while Mohammad Odeh is serving a 27-month prison sentence and has served 15 so far. A state of high tension and anger occurred among the prisoners after some of the administrative prisoner were assaulted and beaten and the situation is escalating. The Minister of Prisoners Affairs, Issa Qaraqe’, warned against the Martyrdom of any of the prisoners participating in the hunger strike which has been going on for 19 days and are under harsh conditions. He said: “the health conditions of the 150 prisoners who are on hunger strike against the policy of administrative detention deteriorated and symptoms of fatigue, tiredness and the inability to move are obvious. They also suffer from continuous dizziness and severe pain in their joints since they have only been drinking water after the prison administration confiscated the salt and sugar. They also suffer from bitter cold after confiscating their blankets and clothes.” Qaraqe’ pointed out that most of the prisoners participating in the hunger strike are old prisoners who suffer from bad health conditions which rapidly deteriorated after the starting of the hunger strike. They also suffer from repression, humiliation, isolation and continuous incursions to their cells by the prison’s administration in order to break their strike.
