DHAKA: Hundreds of Palestinians in Israeli prisons have declared a hunger strike, in a new wave of protest that Palestinian officials said was expected to grow.

Some of the hunger strikers accused Israeli prison guards of ‘harassment’ while others refused food in solidarity with prisoner Bilal Kayed, who has been fasting for 52 days over his continued detention without trial, Palestinian officials said, reports Al Jazeera.

The Palestinian Prisoners Club said in a statement that 80 prisoners stopped eating on Friday, joining 325 who have been fasting for the past two days at various prisons in Israel and the occupied West Bank.

More were expected to join the hunger strike from Sunday.

The Palestinian authority detainee affairs commission told the media that inmates are protesting against a prison crackdown this week, in which a number of inmates were placed in solitary confinement, personal belongings were seized and prisoners moved to other facilities.

It said that hunger strikers were being fined $158 each, and forbidden visits for two months.

An Israeli prison official said that a large part of the protest appeared to be in response to a decision by authorities to hold prisoners from the group Hamas in separate cells.

The Israel Prisons Service said that during the week it had moved Hamas prisoners, searched cells and seized mobile phones, acting on “intelligence information about direction of terror from inside prisons”.

BDST: 1214 HRS, AUG 06, 2016
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