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The Palestinian Center for Defending Detainees (PCDD) refuted media reports about agreement between strikers and IPS officials. The "battle of empty stomachs" continues.
Other reports about Mahmoud Issa and Waleed Khaled removed from isolation are untrue. They remain abusively confined in tiny cells.
Only strike leaders may negotiate and speak on behalf of others. IPS and Shabak officials met with unauthorized detainees. At issue was preventing more strikers joining them. False reports followed. Doing so mocks prisoner rights.
Unverifiable claims harm strikers. PCCD and other organizations hold Israel fully responsible for appalling life-threatening treatment.
Prisoners won't accept cosmetic changes for real ones. They listed demands. All must be addressed. International law supports them. Israel spurns them unaccountably. Weaseling around them is rejected.
Reports suggest from 2,500 to 3,000 prisoners refuse food. Their ranks grow daily. Israeli attempts to stop them failed.
Striker representative Tawfiq Abu Naim said Israel's response to prisoner demands is too demeaning to consider. He stressed that only authorized striker committee members may negotiate on behalf of others.
On May 10, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon acknowledged that hunger strikers exist. A weak-kneed statement on his behalf said in part:
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