Palestinian prisoners at Meggido Prison in northern Israel said they have faced retaliatory measures, including having their radios, televisions and other electronic devices confiscated, Ynet reported.
The head of the Palestinian Detainees' Committee, Issa Qaraqe, said that the Israeli Prison Authority has "justified" denying all visits, including the lawyers, by declaring what it called "state of emergency". The nation's officials have also refuted Barghouti's claims that prisoners held in the country are regularly subjected to medical neglect and torture, as well as inhumane treatment.
Following the start of the largest-ever mass hunger strike staged by Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails Monday on the annual Palestinian Prisoner's Day, Israel has been cracking the whip on the more than 1,000 detainees taking part.
"Israel's ruthless policy of holding Palestinian prisoners arrested in the Occupied Palestinian Territories in prisons ... is a flagrant violation of the Fourth Geneva Convention", said Magdalena Mughrabi, Deputy Regional Director for the Middle East and North Africa at Amnesty International. The move was reportedly punishment for the strike and for an essay that he wrote explaining it, which was published Sunday as an Op-Ed in The New York Times.
The Palestinian Prisoners' Club nongovernmental organization put the number at 1,500.
Some 6,500 Palestinians are now in jail in Israel.
Protests were also held in Palestinian cities in connection with Prisoners Day, including one in Bethlehem that led to clashes with Israeli forces. Several hundred are being detained without charges. In the note after his piece, Barghouti was described as "a Palestinian leader and parliamentarian". Israel charged him with directing suicide bombings and he was sentenced to five life terms. Barghouti, who disputed the court's jurisdiction and didn't mount a defense, has been in prison since 2002.
Mallya is arrested in London
Yesterday, Mallya, while downplaying the din surrounding his sensational arrest in London , took a swipe at the Indian media. A source close to Mallya said he attended a police station voluntarily and the arrest was a technical procedure.
And the lies about his personal history and those of his fellow terrorist prisoners were deceptively displayed in The NY Times yesterday, as I wrote, NY Times gives Palestinian terrorist Marwan Barghouti platform to announce hunger strike.
Some Israeli analysts have sought to highlight the rivalry between Barghouti and Abbas within their Fatah Party, suggesting that his call for a hunger strike was also related to internal politics.
"The paper recanted after we pointed it out to them", Netanyahu said, adding that calling Barghouti a political leader was akin to calling Syrian President Bashar Assad a doctor.
Intelligence and Transportation Minister Yisrael Katz said Tuesday that Barghouti, is now leading the hunger strike, should have been given the death penalty instead of life imprisonment.
"These are terrorists and incarcerated murderers who are getting exactly what the global law requires", he told Israel's Army Radio. "It is to be emphasized that the [prison service] does not negotiate with prisoners".
"Even though it is one of the most unsafe and hard decisions, they are only making this choice because conditions [inside the prisons] have reached a new low", said al-Taweel.
He wants to prevent hungerstrikers from being transferred to civilian hospitals, which have so far refused to force-feed prisoners.
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