Terrorist Prisoners Postpone Planned Hunger Strike

Terrorists in Israeli prisons have postponed a planned hunger strike which was set to begin Sunday, citing “progress” in negotiations with Prisons Service officials. According to sources on both sides, talks have been going on in recent days on the issues the terrorists are demanding resolutions to, including an offer by the prisons to install public phones in cell blocks. Terrorists are also demanding a restoration of family visits, which were cut off several months ago. That, and other issues, will be discussed only after Tuesday’s elections, prison officials said.

At issue are demands by the terrorists to ease conditions in their situation – with an emphasis on ending a new practice by the Prisons Service that blocks cellphone signals in prison cells. It should be noted that it is illegal for terrorists to have such phones in the first place.

Public Security Minister Gilad Erdan said on Motzoei Shabbos that while the blockage has been proposed, it has not yet been imposed, although representatives of the terrorists say that it is in effect.

Leading the hunger strike are some of Israel’s most notorious terrorists, including Arman Mahamad, who is serving 35 life sentences for his involvement in the terror attack at Yerushalayim’s Cafe Moment in March 2002, in which 11 Israelis were killed and 54 wounded; Hassan Salamah, who is serving 84 life sentences for murdering 45 Israelis in twin bombing attacks on the Number 18 bus in Yerushalayim in February 1997; and Mamar Abu-Sheikh, serving 29 life sentences for involvement in the bombing of the Park Hotel in Netanya on Seder night in 2002, in which 30 Israelis were murdered.