Prisons Service will set up barbecues to combat hunger strike by Palestinian security prisoners

Barbecues have been set up to grill meat near the cells of Palestinian security prisoners in an effort to combat a hunger strike that the prisoners launched yesterday.

Prisons Service guards confiscated cigarettes and candy, along with large quantities of salt, which the prisoners had hidden in their mattresses apparently to provide themselves with minerals during the strike. The guards also removed pens and newspapers.

In addition to setting up barbecues to whet the appetite of security prisoners, the Prisons Service is halting all family visits for the strikers, while radios and televisions have been removed from their cells.

During yesterday's cell searches, guards found several notes from prisoner leaders containing directives regarding the strike.

Nearly 1,500 security prisoners in four prisons have begun to strike, while an additional 2,400 are said to remain undecided regarding their participation.

The prisoners are demanding, among other things, that glass partitions separating them from visitors be removed and that public telephones be installed in the prisons. Public Security Minister Tzachi Hanegbi said Friday he will not give in to the prisoners' demands.

The first day of the strike passed relatively quietly, although a number of shivs and shovels were found in the search of prisoners' quarters. Officials said they believed most of the strikers do not plan on becoming violent, although prison medical services and local hospitals have been put on alert.

"If the strike were to stop due to our meeting the prisoners' demands, I will not view it as a success but rather that terror and attempted prison takeovers can continue in the future," Prisons Service Commissioner Lieutenant General Yaakov Granot said yesterday.

The military wing of the Fatah has threatened to conduct kidnappings in order to identify with the strikers. Protests tents were erected in Palestinian cities with pictures of imprisoned leaders, including Fatah Tanzim leader Marwan Bargouti and Nasser Awis, head of the Nablus Fatah military wing.

A security prisoner calling himself Wattan (homeland), said that prisoners would not stop striking just because their personal items were confiscated. "A person who gives up food to achieve his goals will not fall because he doesn't get a newspaper or see television," he said.

	A hunger-striking Palestinian security prisoner at Tel Mond prison holding a Koran through the bars of his cell yesterday.
	Photo by: Nir Kafri