Around 100 people gathered in the Ramallah-district village of Nabi Saleh in the West Bank after Friday’s midday prayers. They were there to stage solidarity with the Palestinian political prisoners, hunger striking in Israel’s jails. On 17 April, observed as Prisoner’s Day, about 1500 political prisoners of different factions launched a hunger strike to protest the conditions of their incarceration and demand their amelioration. Since then, Israel has retaliated against the strike’s leaders, most notable of all is Marwan Barghouti, punishing them with solitary confinement. Many prisoners have been relocated to other jails, while others savagely beaten.
Today’s march was met with excessive force by the Israeli army, as protesters were fired upon with tear gas canisters, rubber-coated and even live bullets. Six young men were injured, five from live bullets, and one from a tear gas canister. Although eventually transported to hospital for treatment, the army refused to let the ambulance through for about half an hour.

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