Rallies have been taking place almost daily in the Palestinian territories since the start of the hunger strike

Additional Reporting By Atef Daghlas, IOL Correspondent

GAZA CITY, September 3 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) – Palestinian detainees in Israeli jails have decided to call off an 18-day hunger strike after most of their demands for better conditions were met, according to a Palestinian cabinet minister.

"We announce to you all that all prisoners in all prisons have ended today their open hunger strike," said Hisham Abdel-Razek, the Palestinian Minister of Prisoner Affairs.

Abdel-Razek told reporters Thursday, September 2, in Gaza City the hunger strikers had agreed to resume eating meals after the prison authorities had agreed to satisfy some of their demands.

"The struggle will resume if the prisoners' rights are not fulfilled," he was quoted by Agence France-Presse (AFP) as saying.

But Abdel-Razek said that, one prominent prisoner, Marwan Al-Barghouthi, a 45-year-old member of Parliament, sentenced to consecutive life sentences, was continuing with the strike.

His lawyers have said Barghuti has lost 11 kilograms (25 pounds) and is suffering from severe dehydration after not eating for the past 19 days.

Barghouthi, the man regarded as the inspiration behind the Palestinian Intifada against Israeli occupation was handed five life terms for murder charges.

He dismissed the case as politically motivated and unfair.

At the height of the liquids-only fast that began on August 15, nearly 3,000 Palestinians in several prisons refused to eat to press demands to stop strip searches, allow more frequent family visits, improve sanitation and install public telephones.

On August 18, the number reached 4,000 of the some 8,000 Palestinian detainees in Israeli jails, all demanding mandatory visitation rights as well as an end to humiliating strip searches and the removal of glass barriers in visitation rooms.

Relishing Victory

As the decision to end the strike was read out at a solidarity rally in Gaza City , hundreds of activists of Arafat's Fatah movement fired rifles into the air, shouting they had achieved victory.

But Israeli prison service spokesman Ian Domnitz flatly denied that any concessions had been made.

"We have not promised to fulfill any demands whatsoever. This has been our policy since the first day of the strike."

Domnitz had earlier said prisoners were ending their protest as they realized it was futile.

However, Issa Qaraqea, president of the Bethlehem-based Palestinian prisoners' club, told IslamOnline.net a few hours earlier that the strike will be called off as prison authorities agreed to most demands of the detainees during talks after the protest.

"This is a great victory clinched by the detainees, after serious practical steps were taken by the Prisoner Affairs Ministry and by the detainees themselves," Qaraqea added.

Large-scale rallies have been taking place almost daily in the Palestinian territories since the start of the hunger strike, while a number of commercial strikes have been staged in a show of support.

The Palestinian leadership also declared a national day of solidarity for the detainees, themselves refusing to eat.

Qaraqea warned that the protest would resume Sunday if the agreement was not honored.

Israel Under Fire

Israel has come under fire from world human rights for holding detainees without trial and forcing them into painful torturous poses.

Palestinian President Yasser Arafat had decried what he termed "crimes being committed daily by Israeli warders against Palestinian prisoners".

Talal Frawna, who was released from an Israeli prison on August 23, after 27-month imprisonment said that the jail authorities use electric shocks against the detainees who refuse to be stripped.

"The jail authorities used electric shocks against the prisoners when they refused such a humiliating measure."

"I saw seven detainees being beaten by the Israeli doctors and nurses after they were sent to the clinic as they were having health problems," he added.

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