Captive Hamed on hunger strike protesting isolation

Captive Ibrahim Hamed, a West Bank Qassam Brigades commander, went on hunger strike from the first day he was transferred to solitary confinement.

The Palestinian prisoner society quoted prisoners in Eshel jail as saying that Hamed, who is serving 54 life sentences, went on strike as soon as the Israeli prison service moved him to Ohli Kedar isolation last Thursday.

The PPS said in a statement on Tuesday that Palestinian prisoners, who were planning to escalate their protest steps on 18 January against IPS medical neglect, decided to start earlier.

It said that the prisoners decided to go on strike as of tomorrow Wednesday in the event Hamed was not out of isolation by Tuesday night.

The society said that the prisoners would go on strike in groups starting with 20 captives in each of Nafha and Ramon and 10 in each of Eshel and Negev in addition to separate numbers in the northern prisons.

It said that the prisoners had prepared a list of demands including ending isolation and paying more attention to the patient prisoners, adding that they would start their escalatory program within a week if no progress was made in meeting those demands.