Pictures of detainees on the gates of Al-Awda mosque in Rafah

OCCUPIED TERRITORIES, August 20 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) – As more Palestinian detainees in Israeli jails continued to join their fellow hunger strikers, Palestinian mosques all over the occupied territories joined the "empty stomach" battle in their own way.

Prayers have been performed in several mosques in Palestinian towns and camps in support of those on an open-ended hunger strike for the fifth day in a row Friday, August 20, inside Israeli prisons.

In Balata refuge camp, supplications were heard in Ebadel-Rahman mosque following most of the prayers to support prisoners. Entrances to mosques were covered with slogans and posters calling for participation in the solidarity events with Palestinian prisoners.

The mosque's committee of Shari'a sciences started issuing publications that include phrases to be repeated during supplications in addition to statements inciting Palestinians to visit and financially and spiritually support the families of prisoners, Quds Press news agency reported Thursday.

Despite the curfew imposed on the Nablus downtown, speakers of mosques do not cease to call for the support needed for the prisoners and for participation in marches organized in solidarity with them.

At Home, Abroad

Meanwhile, events organized by the Palestinians at home and abroad continue to be held in solidarity with their prisoners in Israeli jails.

More than 3,000 Palestinians organized a march to be launched from the Al-Ittissam camp set up in the Red Crescent Society in Jenin, West Bank.

A number of other solidarity marches were organized in a number of towns in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

In Ein El-Helwa, southern Lebanon , hundreds of Palestinian refugees organized a sit-in to support the Palestinian prisoners in protest at the harsh and inhuman conditions of their detention.

General supervisor of Fatah militia in Lebanon Mounir Al-Maqdeh called for forcibly liberating Palestinian prisoners through "operations that aim to detain Israeli officers and soldiers inside Palestine and abroad."

During a sit-in organized by the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, Al-Maqdeh said, "Detention of Israeli soldiers and settlers is our only option to release Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails."

"We have to resort to all possible means to liberate the prisoners, as the silent international community should be held accountable for the detention of thousands of Palestinians in the Israeli prisons," he added.

"The mission of the international community has been recently confined to condemning the martyrdom operations committed by our people under the yoke of occupation, while ignoring persecution practiced against Palestinian prisoners."

Demonstrators raised the pictures of the secretary general of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine Ahmed Saadat and the secretary of Fatah Movement Marwan Barghuti, who are both detained in Israeli jails, as well as some other Palestinian prisoners.

Reuters news agency quoted the Palestinian Prisoner Club as declaring that more than 2,000 Palestinian prisoners have joined Wednesday August 18, the hunger strike and that the number of prisoners on strike has reached 4,000, out of 7.200 in different Israeli jails.

7200 Prisoners

Vowing never to forget those behind Israeli bars

A statistics report issued by the Ministry of Prisoners' Affairs in August 2004 showed that the number of Palestinian prisoners in the Israeli jails currently amounts to 7,200, including 465 children and 103 women.

The report points out that 167 prisoners have died so far due to torture and medical negligence. The reason of death, according to the report, was medical negligence in 31 cases, torture in 68 cases and a similar number due to murder in cold blood in detention centers and civilian jails.

On the means of torture inside Israeli jails, the report points out to several internationally prohibited methods that are still being practiced against the prisoners.

The report says that 95% of the prisoners were cruelly beaten, 83% were placed in refrigerators, 88% were left standing on their feet for long time and 91% were deprived of sleeping.

The report adds that about 1,300 Palestinian prisoners are not registered in the Ministry's records, as the number registered is only 5,866 out of 7,200.