Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas warned yesterday the death of any one of the hundreds of Palestinian prisoners on hunger strike in Israel would be a “disaster” and could trigger a backlash that might slip out of control.
“It is very dangerous,” Mr Abbas told Reuters on a day when the Red Cross urged Israel to transfer to hospital six detainees who it said were close to death after not eating for two months. “If anybody dies today or tomorrow or after a week it would be a disaster and no one could control the situation,” Mr Abbas said in an interview at his office in Ramallah.
Joining some who began fasting earlier, about 1,600 Palestinian prisoners launched a mass hunger strike on April 17th to protest against conditions in Israeli jails.
The International Committee of the Red Cross in Geneva called on Israel to transfer six prisoners who have forsworn food for about two months to hospital. All six are in prison under Israel’s long-standing policy of detaining people without charge whom it suspects of security offences. – (Reuters)