Palestinian hunger strike highlights conditions in Israeli jails

Around 6,500 Palestinians are still behind bars in prisons across Israel and the occupied West Bank, and imprisonment is almost a rite of passage for many Palestinians.

Palestinians celebrate after Palestinian prisoners ended a hunger strike over their conditions in Israeli jails, in the West Bank city of Ramallah May 27, 2017.
TRT World and Agencies

Palestinians celebrate after Palestinian prisoners ended a hunger strike over their conditions in Israeli jails, in the West Bank city of Ramallah May 27, 2017.

A mass hunger strike - that ended in late May - helped expose the conditions facing Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails.

Around 1,500 Palestinian prisoners took part in the hunger strike - which lasted for 40 days.

"I joined because the living conditions were really bad, we want it to be better," said 20-year-old Saad Duweikat, who has only just ended a 38-day hunger strike after being released from three-and-a-half-years imprisonment in an Israeli jail.

"You think to yourself that it could be your cousin or your brother or your friend who gets imprisoned after you. So you want the conditions to be better for them. So that a person can live in prison with some dignity. Even if it's something small, but you should have your dignity."

TRT World's Abubakr al Shamahi has more from the Israeli-occupied West Bank.

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