Female prisoners 'start partial hunger strike'

A human rights advocate said Wednesday that Palestinian women detained in Israel will join the mass hunger strike by refusing food for two days each week. Ahmad al-Bitawi, a researcher for the International Solidarity Foundation for Human Rights, said Lina Al-Jarbouni was moved to solitary confinement in Ramla prison for refusing to stop her 9-day hunger-strike. Last Tuesday, marking Palestinian Prisoners Day, at least 1,200 prisoners in Israeli jails launched an open-ended hunger strike. They are demanding a change in their living conditions and an end to solitary confinement, night raids and bans on family visits for prisoners from Gaza. Prison authorities offered female detainees to meet the hunger-strikers' demands, but the women refused, insisting the administration make the same offer to all prisoners, al-Bitawi said. The 2-day hunger-strike starting Wednesday in Hasharon prison will be followed by an open strike, al-Bitawi added. There are eight women imprisoned in Israel, Bitawi said. Hebron university students Islam Hassan al-Bashiti, Fatima al-Zahra Mohamad Sidir and Afnan Ismael Ramadan were detained recently on suspicion of associations with the Islamic movement, he noted. Five other women are imprisoned in Israel, he said, naming them as Lina al-Jarbouni, Woroud Qassem, Ala al-Jabah, Salwa Hassan and Inas Saed.