Hundreds of Palestinians held by Israel start indefinite hunger strike

GAZA, Palestine

Hundreds of Palestinians held by Israel started an indefinite hunger strike, according to a rights organization on Thursday.

Nearly 1,000 detainees from all prisons in Israel staged a hunger strike starting at 7 p.m. local time "to protest the aggression of the prison administration," the director of the Palestinian Prisoners Press Office, Ahmed al-Kudra, said in a statement.

Kudra urged Palestinians to mobilize and "take to the streets" to support the detainees.

He asked Palestinians living in the occupied West Bank to hold a demonstration on Friday to protest the "brutal" attack on prisoners.

Tensions broke out after the Negev prison administration in southern Israel raided the third and fourth sections of the prison and transferred detainees to another area, according to a joint statement by human rights organizations.

Israeli authorities are yet to comment on the issue.

There are around 5,000 Palestinian detainees in Israeli jails, according to Palestinian figures, including at least 1,200 held without charge or trial.

Palestinians jailed by Israel have for years used protests to demand better living conditions and an end to indefinite detentions.

*Writing by Zehra Nur Duz