GAZA CITY, August 15 (IslamOnline.net) - Thousands of Palestinians detained by Israel began Sunday, August 15, an open-ended hunger strike for a number of demands including improving their incarcerating conditions.

The Israeli government, on its part, continued its complete "careless" reaction, saying it does not care if the detainees starved to death and imposing even more restrictive measures on the security detainees.

A number of detainees told IslamOnline.net over the phone Sunday the strike was meant for Israeli wardens to stop strip searches, allow more frequent visits from their families, improve sanitary conditions and install public telephones.

The strike went underway in four prisons, with detainees in remaining prisons to join in within the coming three days.

"We declare our national decision to launch an open hunger strike, over Israel's robbing us of all our rights, treading on our dignity and treating us like animals," the Palestinian Prisoners Society said in a statement.

More than 8,000 Palestinians are detained in Israel, some are held with no charges leveled or terms set.

Israeli officials, however, did not budge and showed no interest in addressing demands of the strikers, saying they would not bow to appeals pushed by their hunger.

Furthermore, Israeli prison authorities prevented access of water, newspapers to detainees and confiscated all audio-visual appliances from prison halls and cells in a bid to end the strike.

Ofer Lefler, a Prisons Authority spokesman, told Reuters privileges such as cigarettes, sweets and television were taken away from the detainees after they began the strike, which he described as a "disturbance".

He said if a detainee became too emaciated, "an ethical committee" would decide whether to begin force feeding.

This came one day after Internal Security Minister Tzahi Hanegbi said Israel would not bow to pressure.

"As far as I'm concerned they can strike for a day, a month, until death. We will ward off this strike and it will be as if it never happened," he told reporters.

The Israel Prisons Authority and Palestinian spokesmen said striking prisoners declared they would live only on fluids until their demands are met.

Solidarity runs high with the strikers

But detainees reacted with defiance, with many Palestinian officials and ordinary people keen on showing solidarity with them.

"The detainees seek better living conditions in detention, and their move of protest is unrelated to political or security issues," Hisham Abdel-Raziq told a press conference.

Abdel-Raziq said the statements of Hanegbi "run counter to the international humanitarian law and Israeli laws", noting they are meant to shake confidence of detainees.

"Detainees will head along their action, for the sake of [better] life not for death," he said.

Palestinian Prime Minister Ahmed Qurei said in a statement any progress toward peace with Israel was contingent on resolving "this central and sensitive" issue (of detainees).

Qurei vowed his government would act to support the strikers until the realization of their demands.

In the West Bank city of Tubas, hundreds of Palestinians converged for a solidarity gathering with the detained strikers.

The protesters came from various areas of the region as part of a program supervised by the Supreme Committee of detainees Affairs.

A sit-in was also staged in front of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) office in the northern West Bank city of Tulkarem as part of the protest campaign.

Some 200 people in Bethlehem marched in support of the prisoners. A similar demonstration was held by prisoners' children in the Gaza town of Beit Hanoun.

Coming days are to see more scenes of protests in Palestinian areas against deteriorating conditions of Palestinian detainees at Israeli jails.

In Lebanon, a support group for the last-remaining Lebanese prisoner in Israel, Samir Al-Qantar, began a hunger strike in solidarity and demanded an international investigation into alleged abuses in Israeli jails.

Palestinian experts, some of whom are former detainees at Israeli prisons, said the strike comes at a very "hard time" in which people are preoccupied with complex, local and regional developments.

Ghazi Ahmad, the editor-in-chief of Al-Risala newspaper, called it difficult to guess chances for success of the strike with "an extremist Israeli government in power".

"Nevertheless, hope is still there for a strong Palestinian stand to tip the balance in favor of the detainees," said Ahmad, earlier detained by Israeli occupation forces for five years.

He noted the Palestinian Authority could lobby the United Nations and the European Union for meeting the demands of the detainees.

Iyad Al-Barghuthi, a political analyst in Nablus, warned the strike, if ended with no tangible results, would be a "harsh defeat to the Palestinians".

For relatives of the detainees, concerns are running high with earlier grim memories of similar harsh situations in hindsight.

Hayam Zaarab fears her detained husband could die in prison during the strike, the same as what happened in a 1970 strike.

But she added her children still dream of the moment they would see their father free after two years in jail.

"Occupation forces use brutal ways to oppress detainees and refuse to offer any facilities to them, which could thus endanger their lives in the open strike," said Abdullah Al-Akhras, whose brother is serving 20 years in Nafha prison.

In 1976, Palestinian detainees got great concessions from Israeli government after they had staged a large strike.

The Washington Post reported on June 16 that the accounts of physical abuse of Iraqis by American soldiers at Abu Ghraib prison outside Baghdad are similar to the Israeli army techniques in torturing Palestinian detainees.