Abbas urges US envoy to intervene in prisoners strike in Israel

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas urged US President Donald Trump's envoy to the Middle East Jason Greenblatt to intervene to resolve the Palestinian prisoners hunger strike.

Abbas on Thursday told a meeting for his Fatah Party's Central Committee held at his office in Ramallah that he met with Greenblatt and discussed with him the prisoners' question and what would the US be able to do in this respect, Xinhua news agency reported.

Hundreds of Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails have been going on a hunger strike since April 17, demanding an improvement in the condition of detaining them, where officials warned that their life is in crucial danger.

Abbas added that "we explained to envoy Greenblatt in details the question of the striking prisoners, which is crucial and sensitive".

"We hope that through out our contact with Greenblatt, we would be able to get an answer from the Israeli side over the prisoners' demands as soon as possible in order to present it before our revolutionary council on Thursday night," said Abbas.

He went on saying that "the whole world knows that the demands of the prisoners are human and Israel has no justification to deny it, mainly these demands had been presented before".

He accused Israel of "punishing our prisoners and punishing us by rejecting these humanitarian demands. We will be patient and we will carry on until we reach a reasonable agreement that everyone gets satisfied out of it".

--IANS

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