AL chief urges UN for immediate intervention to stop "atrocities" against Palestinian detainees

Arab League Secretary General Ahmed Abul Gheit on Tuesday called on the United Nations to "urgently intervene to stop atrocities against Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails."

In a letter to Antonio Guterres, the UN chief, Abul Gheit expressed "deep concerns regarding the harsh humanitarian conditions which hundreds of Palestinian detainees are suffering inside Israeli prisons," according to the pan-Arab organization statement.

"The Palestinians have been on a hunger strike for almost a week now in a bid to shed light on the inhumane conditions they endure inside Israeli jails," the statement added.

Condemning the harsh practices against the prisoners, Abul Gheit called on the international community to carry its responsibility in this regard and should not only condemn the Israeli atrocities.

The international community should continue to held Israel accountable for its violations of the human rights of the Palestinian detainees and prisoners at the criminal and legal levels, Abul Gheit added in his letter.

Hundreds of the Palestinian detainees, mostly from Fatah, the Palestinian National Liberation Movement, went on open strike since April 17 inside all the Israeli prisons.

In the past two days, 1,500 have joined the hunger strike, demanding to improve their captivity conditions, in one of the largest protests in recent years, according to the Palestinian Liberation Organization's detainee's affairs authority.

According to figures provided in February by Israel's Prison Service, at least 6,820 Palestinians, including hundreds of minors, are incarcerated in Israeli prisons.

Most of them are jailed for participating in the struggle against the Israeli control over the West Bank and Gaza, lands that Israel seized in the 1967 Middle East War and where the Palestinians wish to establish their future state. Endit