Palestinian prisoners launch hunger strike

By MARK LAVIE, The Associated Press

Transcribed from the clipping

JERUSALEM — Palestinian prisoners launched a hunger strike Sunday, in what was shaping up to be the biggest showdown between thousands of inmates and the Israeli authorities since the outbreak of Mideast fighting in 2000. The prisoners want more family visits and phone access, but an Israeli Cabinet minister said he'd rather let them starve.

Prison officials imposed more sanctions. In violence in Gaza, meanwhile, Israeli helicopters fired four missiles north of Gaza City near the border with Israel early today (Sunday night EDT), witnesses said. Israeli military sources, speaking on condition of anonymity, said soldiers spotted militants setting up a rocket launcher, and the helicopters targeted them, hitting one.

Ambulances arrived at the scene but hesitated to enter because of Israeli gunfire, witnesses said. Meanwhile, the most prominent Palestinian prisoner is working on a smooth transition in the Gaza Strip after Israel's planned withdrawal next year.

Marwan Barghouti, a leader of Yasser Arafat's Fatah movement, has presented an 18-point plan for Gaza to Hamas and Islamic Jihad, and the leaders of the two militant groups responded “positively, in principle,” according to a source close to Barghouti. A copy of the plan was obtained by The Associated Press.

Barghouti proposed that after the Israeli withdrawal, militant groups be given a role in running Gaza, but insisted that they halt attacks on Israel from that territory — though not from the West Bank. Militants would stop parading armed in public, and within three months of the withdrawal would have to sell their weapons to the security forces.

Gunmen could join the security forces, but would have to cut their ties with the militant groups. Since Israel announced its pullout plan earlier this year, concerns have been raised about a power vacuum and a possible takeover by Islamic militants.

Under Barghouti's plan, Arafat's Palestinian Authority would be the sovereign in Gaza, but a “monitoring committee” with representatives from all groups would have considerable say.

Context added by this archive

Photographs credited The Associated Press.

Cite this item

"Palestinian prisoners launch hunger strike," The Ithaca Journal, 16 August 2004. Covering Palestine archive, CP-2004-018. https://coveringpalestine.org/archive/cp-2004-018