Dozens of Palestinian prisoners end 63-day hunger strike after deal with Israel

JERUSALEM – A group of about 80 Palestinian prisoners on Wednesday ended their 63-day-long hunger strike after reaching a deal with Israeli prison authorities, a Palestinian official said.

The development comes against the backdrop of a broad Israeli ground operation in the West Bank in search of three Israeli teens who went missing in the Palestinian territory nearly two weeks ago. There have also been near-daily rocket attacks from Gaza, prompting Israeli airstrikes in retaliation.

Earlier Wednesday, a rocket fired by Palestinian militants toward Israel exploded in the northern Gaza Strip, killing a 3-year-old Palestinian girl and wounding three other people, a medical official said.

Palestinian health official Ashraf al-Kidra said it was not clear whether the rocket was misfired, or whether an Israeli rocket-defence system intercepted it and caused it to explode over the Palestinian territory.

Since 2012, Palestinian prisoners have staged a series of hunger strikes, sometimes as individuals and sometimes in larger groups to protest “administrative detention,” a policy that can keep some prisoners in custody for months without charges.

Israel has defended the practice as a necessary tool to stop militant activity, including attacks.

The latest hunger strike, involving about 80 prisoners, was launched April 24. It ended Wednesday after the deal was struck with Israel Prisons Authority, said Minister of Prisoner Affairs Shawqi Al-Aissa. He would not elaborate on the agreement.

About 5,000 Palestinians are imprisoned in Israel for offences ranging from rock throwing to deadly militant attacks. Of those, some 190 are administrative detainees.

The three Israeli teens — Eyal Yifrah, 19, Gilad Shaar, 16, and Naftali Fraenkel, a 16-year-old with dual Israeli-American citizenship — disappeared on June 12 in the West Bank.

Since then, the territory has seen a spike in violence. Israel has accused the militant Palestinian Hamas group, which controls Gaza, of being behind the abduction. Hamas has praised the kidnapping, but has not taken responsibility for it.

The Israeli military said troops arrested 17 Palestinians in the West Bank overnight. It also said that since the operation to locate the teens and crackdown on Hamas began, about 370 Palestinian suspects have been arrested, including about 280 Hamas members.

In a related development, Israel’s parliament earlier this week postponed a vote on a bill that would allow force feeding prisoners. Last week, Leonid Eidelman, the president of the Israeli Medical Association, told The Associated Press that Israeli doctors would “absolutely refuse” on ethical grounds to force-feed hunger-striking Palestinian prisoners.

Under the bill, a judge could sanction force-feeding if an inmate’s life is perceived to be in danger. The government argues that a death in custody could trigger violent unrest in prisons or the Palestinian territories and harm Israel’s security.

Israeli hospitals have so far been successful in keeping Palestinian hunger strikers alive without having to resort to force-feeding. This includes offering hunger strikers supplements of glucose, vitamins or electrolytes.

The Israeli military said Gaza militants fired a total of five rockets at Israel late Tuesday. It said two were shot down by the “Iron Dome” rocket-defence system, while one fell in an open area and two landed inside Gaza.

The Israeli military responded early Wednesday with a series of airstrikes across Gaza, saying it targeted five concealed rocket launchers, a weapons-manufacturing facility and a “terror activity” site.

Lt. Col. Peter Lerner, a military spokesman, said Israel is “determined to act against those that strive to target Israel.”