Security prisoners say 18-day hunger strike over

Thousands of Palestinian security prisoners ended their hunger strike Thursday, after 18 days, Palestinians and prison authorities said.

The Prisons Service said the prisoners had begun eating, under medical supervision.

Palestinians said Israel had agreed to meet key demands for improving their conditions, but Israeli authorities denied giving in to any Palestinian demands.

Meanwhile, a militant group associated with Palestinian Authority Chairman Yasser Arafat's Fatah movement has issued a death sentence against Palestinian Foreign Minister Nabil Sha'ath for his readiness to meet with Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom during the hunger strike.

The Jenin Martyrs Brigades, which operates in the Gaza Strip, has distributed a pamphlet warning Sha'ath not to enter Gaza, on penalty of death, Israel Radio reported Thursday.

About 4,000 prisoners launched the strike on August 15. The prisoners had presented a list of demands to improve their conditions. Prisoners also said the strike was in protest over Israel's occupation of the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

Issa Karake, head of the Palestinian prisoners' association, said roughly 3,500 prisoners had halted the strike on Thursday, and that the remaining holdouts were expected to resume eating by the end of the day.

"It's over today," said Karake. Hisham Abdel Razek, the Palestinian minister for prison affairs, scheduled a news conference later in the day.

Karake said Israeli authorities had given in to many important demands, including an end to strip searches, allowing prisoners to talk to their families on the phone, and removing glass partitions between prisoners and visiting relatives.

Ofer Lefler, spokesman for the Prisons Service, insisted, however, that Israel had not caved in to any demands. "Nothing is being discussed," he said.

The prisoners who remained on strike were in two facilities in the southern Israeli city of Be'er Sheva, Lefler said.

In all, Israel is holding about 7,500 Palestinian prisoners on security-related offenses.