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Palestinians Take to Streets

STAFF | Australian | January 24, 2004

"The Palestinian Prisoners Club estimates that 7500 Palestinians are currently detained by Israel either on its territory or in prisons it controls in the occupied West Bank."

About 1000 people took to the streets of this northern West Bank town today in support of Palestinians detained in Israeli jails.

Demonstrators marched through Jenin waving Palestinian flags and brandishing pictures of their jailed relatives in a protest called by Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat's Fatah movement.

"No peace without the liberation of all our prisoners", the protesters chanted. "The struggle will go on until all our prisoners are freed."

The Palestinian Prisoners Club estimates that 7500 Palestinians are currently detained by Israel either on its territory or in prisons it controls in the occupied West Bank.

Yesterday, some 150 relatives of Palestinian prisoners assembled outside the Palestinian Authority's Ramallah headquarters to demand it speed up efforts to free them.

About 250 detainees also observed a 24-hour hunger strike to protest the installation of US-style glass partitions in prisons which prevent them from having direct contact with visitors.

"This is a warning strike that could spread to other jails if the glass partitions are not removed," said Prisoners Club head Issa Qaraqa.

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