This was announced by the Supreme National Emergency Committee, which brings together inmates from all Palestinian factions.

The detainees demanded the support of the population in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip after launching yesterday a campaign of protests in the prisons of Israel by refusing to leave their cells for the usual “security checks-ups”.

As part of the strategy, tomorrow they will return their meals and two weeks later they will begin a hunger strike, in which a thousand of them are expected to participate.

The National Committee decided to start the campaign after the non-compliance by the Israel Prison Service (IPS) with the agreements.

On March 10th, the inmates agreed to suspend their pressure measures after the Israeli decision to end the retaliatory actions taken by the IPS.

The tension in the prisons has escalated since September 2021 after the escape of six Palestinians from the Gilboa maximum security prison, who were caught after a massive hunt; IPS officials applied numerous punitive measures against the rest of the inmates, such as cell transfers, visiting bans, and the reduction of time in the yard, which led to clashes and strikes.

pgh/llp/acl/rob