Hundreds of Palestinian prisoners start hunger strike to demand basic rights as Israeli jails’ conditions hit ‘new low’.

Palestinians hold pictures of relatives held in Israeli jails during a rally marking Palestinian Prisoners Day in the Israeli-occupied West Bank city of Nablus on April 16 [Reuters]

by Zena Tahhan, Al Jazeera

Some 1,500 Palestinian political prisoners held by Israel launched a mass hunger strike on Monday to press for basic rights and shed light on the difficult humanitarian conditions inside Israeli prisons, according to the Palestinian Prisoners Center for Studies.

The open-ended hunger strike, one of the largest in recent years, coincides with Palestinian Prisoners Day, annually commemorated on April 17. Led by jailed Fatah leader Marwan Barghouti, the strike will see Palestinian prisoners from across the political spectrum participate from within six prisons inside Israel.

“They have central demands and will continue to fast until they achieve them. The prisoners see hunger striking as the only door they can knock on to attain their rights,” Amina al-Taweel, the centre’s spokesperson, told Al Jazeera.

“Even though it is one of the most dangerous and difficult decisions, they are only making this choice because conditions [inside the prisons] have reached a new low,” said al-Taweel.

Rallies are expected to take place across major Palestinian cities in the occupied territories including Ramallah, Hebron and Nablus, in solidarity with the plight of prisoners.

Rami Hamdallah, prime minister of the Palestinian Authority, released a statement directed at the prisoners and the Palestinian people, ahead of the strike.

“On this day, we are reminded of the pain of imprisonment, cruelty of the occupation and the injustice of the prison cells, as we are reminded of our pride in your steadfastness and sacrifice,” said Hamdallah in a recorded video message shared on his Twitter page.

“In the midst of this battle I call on all the Palestinian people and national institutions to show more solidarity so we can deliver the message of the prisoners to the whole world. Let us all push for the largest international, popular and official movement to stand by the prisoners in this critical time,” he continued.

There are currently 6,500 Palestinian political prisoners held by Israel, including more than 500 administrative detainees, according to Jerusalem-based prisoner rights group Addameer.

Prisoners’ demands include installation of a public telephone in all prisons to allow communication with relatives, resuming bi-monthly family visits, allowing second-degree relatives to visit, increasing duration of the visits and allowing prisoners to take photographs with their families.

Many prisoners suffer from medical negligence in jails. Prisoners must pay for their own medical treatment, and are not provided with the adequate health care. Sick prisoners have also reported being denied water.

Since 1967, more than 50 Palestinian prisoners have died due to medical negligence inside Israeli jails, according to the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics. “Some people wait four years to get surgery,” said al-Taweel. “They’re calling for an end to this deliberate medical negligence.”

Additionally, prisoners are demanding better treatment when being transferred between prisons or between courts and prisons. Detainees are transported in a vehicle with blacked-out windows, known as the Bosta.

The vehicle is divided into tight metal cells, whereby the prisoner is chained from their arms and legs to a chair in a confined space, for long periods of time in the dark.

Other demands include installing air conditions in prisons, restoring kitchens, allowing detainees to keep books, newspapers and clothes, as well as ending the policies of administrative detention and solitary confinement.

Administrative detainees are arrested on “secret evidence”, unaware of the accusations against them and are not allowed to defend themselves in court. Their detention periods can be indefinitely renewed.

“The Israeli government will be responsible for any and all of the consequences of this hunger strike – if a prisoner dies, or becomes extremely ill – they are the ones that will have to handle the outcome. Palestinian prisoners have been demanding these basic rights for years,” said al-Taweel.

Al-Taweel said there are high expectations that the Israeli Prison Service will carry out a campaign of prisoner transferals, which she said would be an attempt to “try and break the will and determination of the prisoners”.

Al Jazeera reached out to the Israel Prison Service for comment but did not receive a response.

Under international humanitarian law, prisoners from occupied territories must be held in the occupied territory, not in the territory of the occupying power. Though most Palestinian political prisoners hail from the Israeli-occupied Palestinian territories, they are placed in prisons inside Israel, in direct contravention of international law.

Families of Palestinian prisoners must apply for permits to visit them and are regularly denied entry into Israel on security pretexts.

“One of the most significant concerns is a violation of the Fourth Geneva Convention,” Omar Shakir, Israel and Palestine Director at Human Rights Watch (HRW), told Al Jazeera.

“Palestinian prisoners are placed inside Israel as opposed to the West Bank and Gaza strip. This is a crippling restriction on access to family and loved ones,” explained Shakir.

A recent report from UK-based rights group Amnesty International also condemned Israel’s policy of holding Palestinian prisoners inside Israel, describing it as “unlawful and cruel”.

“Instead of unlawfully transferring prisoners outside the occupied territories, Israel must ensure all Palestinians arrested there are held in prisons and detention centres in the Occupied Palestinian Territories. Until then, the Israeli authorities must stop imposing excessive restrictions on visitation rights as a means of punishing prisoners and their families, and ensure that conditions fully meet international standards,” the report read, quoting Magdalena Mughrabi, deputy regional director at Amnesty International.

Hunger striking as a method for pressuring Israel has become increasingly prevalent among Palestinian prisoners in recent years. In 2012, approximately 1,500 Palestinian prisoners launched a similar hunger strike for close to a month before managing to obtain their rights.

And, in 2014, 800 prisoners staged a strike against administrative detention for 63 days before a reaching a deal with the Israeli prison authorities and deciding to end their strike.

According to Shakir, a mass hunger strike is an attempt by Palestinian prisoners to shed light on such practices that raise serious questions about Israel’s policies under international law.

“It can help return the issue of Palestinian prisoners on top of the international community’s agenda. It’s about the plight of Palestinians behind bars,” said Shakir.

Additional reporting by Farah Najjar.

US Central Command says air strike was supposed to hit an ISIL fighting position in Syria’s northern Raqqa province.

SDF consists of more than a dozen armed factions, mostly fighters from the YPG and FSA [Rodi Said/Reuters]

by Al Jazeera

At least 18 members of the American-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) were killed in a US-led coalition air strike that mistakenly targeted them in Syria’s Raqqa province.

In a statement released on Thursday, US Central Command (CENTCOM) said 18 SDF fighters died in the air raid south of the city of Tabqa on April 11. The attack was believed to be hitting members of Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL, also known as ISIS).

SDF was founded in Syria’s mainly Kurdish northeastern region in October 2015, and is made up of at least 15 armed factions, mostly fighters from the Kurdish People’s Protection Units and the Free Syrian Army.

“The strike was requested by the partnered forces, who had identified the target location as an ISIS fighting position. The target location was actually a forward Syrian Democratic Forces fighting position,” CENTCOM said.

“The coalition’s deepest condolences go out to the members of the SDF and their families. The coalition is in close contact with our SDF partners who have expressed a strong desire to remain focused on the fight against ISIS despite this tragic incident.”

The coalition added it is assessing the cause of the friendly fire attack.

The UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said on Thursday at least 25 other SDF fighters were killed in clashes against ISIL in the suburbs of Tabqa.

The incident occurred as US-backed Syrian forces prepare to retake Raqqa, ISIL’s stronghold in Syria, as they move in from the city’s north.

SDF captured the strategic Tabqa airbase from ISIL last month.The airbase is 45km west of Raqqa,

Raqqa province was taken by ISIL in January 2014 from the former al-Qaeda affiliate in Syria, and ISIL seized Tabqa’s airbase from the Syrian government in August 2014.

ISIL claims responsibility for deadly suicide bomb blast near government offices in the centre of the Afghan capital.

ISIL claimed responsibility for the suicide bomb attack [Mohammad Ismail/Reuters]

by Al Jazeera

At least five people have been killed and 10 wounded in a suicide bomb blast near government offices in the heart of Afghanistan’s capital, Kabul, according to police.

The incident on Wednesday happened when a suicide bomber on foot detonated his explosives about 100m from the gate of the presidential palace and close to where the Afghan finance ministry is located.

Al Jazeera’s Qais Azimy, reporting from Kabul, said both the location and the timing of the attack were very important.

“It happened in District N.2 – almost at the heart of Kabul and one of its safest parts,” Azimy said.

“It also happened at the end of the working day, when most of the government employees working in the presidential palace and the finance ministry were rushing to go to their homes.”

The Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) armed group claimed responsibility for the attack in an online post.

Azimy said ISIL’s emergence in Afghanistan and its ability to launch such attacks raised further concerns in a country already struggling to deal with an offensive by the Taliban armed group.

“The people of Kabul and Afghanistan are now more worried because the Afghan security forces are really having a hard time to fight the Taliban, and no one is looking forward for a new group to emerge in this country,” Azimy said.

ISIL’s offshoot in Afghanistan in Pakistan, known as the so-called Khorasan Province, was created in 2015.

The Afghan Taliban, who are trying to overthrow the US-backed government in Kabul, is opposed to it and the two have clashed as they seek to expand territory and influence.

US officials say intelligence suggests ISIL is based overwhelmingly in Nangarhar and neighbouring Kunar province.

Estimates of its strength in Afghanistan vary. US officials have said they believe its has only 700 fighters but Afghan officials estimate it has about 1,500.

Former leader insists he will not run in the May 19 poll, saying his registration aims to support a political ally.

Ahmadinejad left office in August 2013 after two turbulent four-year terms [Kham/Reuters]

by Al Jazeera

In a surprise move, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Iran’s former president, has registered as a candidate for next month’s presidential election.

Ahmadinejad had previously said he would not stand after being advised not to by supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, saying he would instead support his former deputy, Hamid Baghaei, who also registered on Wednesday.

He said he remained committed to his “moral promise” to Khamenei of not running for the May 19 election.

Khamenei’s “advice was not a ban”, he said at the interior ministry where registration was taking place.

“I repeat that I am committed to my moral promise [of not running] and my presence and registration is only to support Mr Baghaei.”

Two turbulent terms

Ahmadinejad left office in August 2013 after two turbulent four-year terms, leaving the country divided domestically, isolated internationally and struggling economically.

In 2009, Ahmadinejad’s re-election was followed by one the largest protests to hit the country since the Islamic Revolution three decades before.

Two candidates backed by reformists Mir Hossein Mousavi and Mehdi Karroubi – who have been under house arrest since February 2011 – contested the results.

Both of Ahmadinejad’s terms were also marked by anti-Western and anti-Israeli rhetoric, including questioning the Holocaust.

Ahmadinejad’s populist approach and humble roots mean that he remains a popular figure among poorer sections of society.

Syrian army denounces ‘aggression’ after US launches nearly 60 missile strikes following suspected gas attack in Idlib.

The US blasted a Syrian air base with a barrage of cruise missiles in fiery retaliation for this week’s chemical attack [AP]

by Al Jazeera

The United States on Friday fired dozens of cruise missiles at a government-controlled airbase in Syria, in retaliation for a suspected chemical weapons attack on a rebel-held town that killed scores of civilians.

The Pentagon said 59 Tomahawk missiles hit Shayrat airfield in Homs province, from where US officials believe the Syrian jets that dropped the chemicals in Khan Sheikhoun this week had taken off.

At least six people were killed in the strikes in the early hours of Friday, according to the Syrian army, which denounced the US “aggression” as a violation of international law.

In a statement carried by the state-run SANA news agency and read on television, the military said the US strikes were done on a “pretext” of the Khan Sheikhoun attack, without the full facts being disclosed.

It also said the missile strikes, which inflicted heavy damage on the base, made the US a partner of “terrorist groups”.

The strikes, launched from two warships in the Mediterranean Sea, targeted the base’s airstrips, hangars, control tower and ammunition areas, officials said.

It was the first direct military action the US has taken against Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s forces in the six-year war.

“There can be no dispute that Syria used banned chemical weapons, violated its obligations under the chemical weapons convention and ignored the urging of the UN Security Council,” US President Donald Trump said.

Syria’s opposition National Coalition hailed the US strike, saying it puts an end to an age of “impunity” and should be just the beginning.

Russia, a key military ally of the Assad government, strongly condemned the strikes, saying Washington’s action would “inflict major damage on US-Russia ties”, according to Russian news agencies.

At least 86 people, including 27 children, were killed after a suspected poison gas attack on Khan Sheikhoun on Tuesday, according to the UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

The attack drew widespread international condemnation and public revulsion, prompting the United Nations to pledge it would investigate it as a possible war crime.

The Syrian govenment denied carrying out the raid.

Russia has blamed the opposition, saying a government shell hit a building where rebels were producing chemical weapons. The rebels deny this.

UN weighs possible war-crime probe as medical workers in rebel-held Idlib province struggle to cope with casualties.

This photo provided by the Syrian anti-government activist group Edlib Media Center, which has been authenticated based on its contents and other AP reporting, shows a Syrian doctor treating a child following a suspected chemical attack, at a makeshift hospital, in the town of Khan Sheikhoun, northern Idlib province, Syria. The suspected chemical attack killed dozens of people on Tuesday, Syrian opposition activists said, describing the attack as among the worst in the country’s six-year civil war. (Edlib Media Center, via AP)

by Diana Al Rifai, Al Jazeera

Hospitals across Syria’s rebel-held Idlib province are overwhelmed with casualties from a suspected chemical attack that has killed scores of people and wounded hundreds more, a local health official has told Al Jazeera.

The attack in the early hours of Tuesday morning in Khan Sheikhoun drew widespread international condemnation, with the UN saying it would investigate the bombing raid as a possible war crime.

Air raids targeted Khan Sheikhoun again on Wednesday morning, Hamid, a local official of the Syrian Civil Defence, a rescue group that operates in rebel-held areas, told Al Jazeera.

Munzir Khalil, head of Idlib’s health directorate, said on Wednesday that medical workers were struggling to cope as the number of victims was expected to increase.

“We can confirm the names of 74 people killed,” he said, “but the hospitals expect the number to rise to 107 because many have gone missing and we suspect they have been killed in the attack.”

Khalil said at least 557 people were wounded in the attack and transferred to medical centres and field hospitals across Idlib, in Syria’s northwest.

“I can say almost all of Idlib’s medical facilities include victims of yesterday’s attack. Not to forget, air strikes destroyed a central hospital in Maaret al-Numaan on Monday, a facility that once took care of up to 30,000 patients a month.

“That hospital is now out of service and we are in a state of shock.”

Khalil said al-Rahma hospital in Khan Sheikhoun was also targeted by an air raid shortly after the suspected chemical attack.

The United Nations Security Council is expected to hold an emergency meeting later on Wednesday.

The UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR), the monitoring organisation, on Wednesday put the death toll at 99 people, including 37 children.

The Syrian American Medical Society (SAMS), which runs several field hospitals in Idlib, had earlier said that at least 72 people, including 11 children, were killed in the attack.

SAMS doctors on the ground said the attack caused people to vomit and foam from the mouth. Others lost consciousness and suffered muscles spasms.

The group said the symptoms, which also included constricted pupils and slow heart rates, were indicative of an organo-phosphorus compounds agent – a category of toxic gases which includes sarin.

The World Health Organisation (WHO) also said some survivors had symptoms consistent with exposure to a category of chemicals that includes nerve agents.

“The images and reports coming from Idlib today leave me shocked, saddened and outraged. These types of weapons are banned by international law because they represent an intolerable barbarism,” Peter Salama, executive director of the UN agency’s Health Emergencies Program has said.

The Syrian National Coalition, an opposition group, said a gas similar to sarin was used in the attack, which it said was carried out by government fighter jets.

Syria’s military rejected the accusation, saying in a statement on Tuesday that the army “denies using any toxic or chemical agents in Khan Sheikhoun today, and it did not and never will use it anywhere”.

Russia, an ally of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, said on Wednesday that Syrian aircraft did carry out a raid, but the chemicals were part of a “terrorist” stockpile of “toxic substances” that had been struck on the ground.

The Hague-based Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) on Tuesday said that it was in the process of gathering and analysing information from all available sources.

If it is confirmed, it would be the deadliest chemical attack in Syria since sarin gas killed hundreds of civilians in Ghouta, just outside of the capital Damascus, in August 2013.