Palestinian children hold a night vigil to show support for the prisoners (AFP)

By Yasser El-Banna, Mohammad Yassin, IOL Correspondents

GAZA CITY, August 23 (IslamOnline.net) – As an open-ended hunger strike by Palestinian prisoners inside Israeli jails entered its eighth running day, Hamas urged Muslims worldwide to fast Monday, August 23, in solidarity with the prisoners.

Meanwhile, the prisoners said in a statement a copy of which was sent to IslamOnline.net that Israeli prison guards have accosted, beaten and electrified them to break their staunch will and force them to break their protest.

Hamas called for a one-day fasting "in solidarity with our heroic brothers behind Israeli bars and to prove that we really feel for them," according to the statement, a copy of which was e-mailed to IOL.

"Hamas wants also to express gratitude to all Muslims and Arabs worldwide, who support the prisoners by observing symbolic strikes, setting up camps strikes, holding conference and organizing mass rallies," said the statement.

"Fighting the ‘Empty Stomach’ battle, the prisoners set themselves up as a paradigm for the Palestinian struggle against the Zionist occupation."

Some 1700 Palestinian prisoners began their hunger strike Sunday, August 15. On Wednesday, August 18, the number reached 4,000 of the some 8,000 Palestinian prisoners jailed by Israel.

The prisoners are protesting their deplorable prison conditions, demanding mandatory visitation rights as well as an end to "humiliating" strip searches and the removal of glass barriers in visitation rooms.

Palestinian President Yasser Arafat, Chief Judge Taysir Rajab Al-Tamimi and Archbishop Atallah Hana, the spokesman for the Orthodox Church in Al-Quds (occupied Jerusalem), joined Monday, August 16, a one day symbolic hunger strike.

Palestinian under-age prisoners will also join the hunger strike, said Khaled Kazmar, a Palestinian lawyer, in statements carried by the Palestinian Center for Information.

Kazmar said Israeli prison guards are treating child prisoners like adults and abuse them to extract confessions.

"They terrify them with dogs, electric shocks, weapons and sleep and food deprivation," he said.

Prisoners Electrified

Palestinian youngsters with their wrists chained in a symbolic gestures flash the victory sign a rally (AFP)

The prisoners said in a statement that some of them were beaten and electrified by Israeli prison guards to force them to end their hunger strike.

They urged the international community to intervene, ridiculing human rights and slogans of democracy and freedom often parroted by developed countries.

"Now we live in a real jungle. What about prisoner rights? What about the free world? What about human rights advocates?" They desperately wondered.

"The administration of the Israeli prisons is, no doubt, the most barbaric in the entire world."

Israeli prison officers set up Monday barbecues to tempt Palestinian prisoners into abandoning their strike and breaking their will.

The occupation officials were hoping that the psychological warfare tactics would derail the protest by thousands of prisoners.

The Israeli government said Saturday, August 14, it did not care if the detainees starved to death, imposing even more restrictive measures on the security detainees.