Palestinian captives gain another victory

 Four Palestinian prisoners Friday suspended their open hunger strikes in Israel’s HaDarim prison, launched on July 18 in protest of a decision by the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) to reduce family visits for Palestinian male prisoners from two to only one day a month, according to the Palestinian Prisoner’s Society (PPS).

PPS said in a statement that prisoners Ziyad al-Bazzar, Ahmad al-Barghouthi, Mahmoud Sarahneh, and Amin Kamil suspended their hunger strikes after receiving promises by Israeli Prison Service (IPS) officials that efforts would be made to reinstate regular family visits for the prisoners.

The prisoners told a PPS lawyer that IPS officials deliberately transferred them between several Israeli prisons during their hunger strikes, a common tactic used by IPS officials in an attempt to force prisoners into ending their strikes.

The prisoners added that each of them had lost some 13 kilograms since the start of their hunger strikes.