The Palestinian Prisoners Club announced on Wednesday morning that the Palestinian security prisoners have suspended their hunger strike, which was supposed to begin on Friday.
The club said in a statement that the "prisoners, in a unified and harmonious manner, decided to suspend the collective hunger strike, after their demands were met."
According to the statement, the Israeli authorities agreed to cancel the "collective punishments" imposed on the prisoners after the escape of six inmates from Gilboa Prison last week.
Israel also reportedly agreed "to stop targeting prisoners affiliated with Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ), the statement added, without providing further details.
Five of the prisoners who escaped were members of PIJ.
Qadri Abu Bakr, head of the Palestinian Prisoners Affairs Commission, had said before that the first phase of the hunger strike would include 1,380 prisoners.
“The prisoners and detainees have decided to go on a hunger strike to improve their conditions,” Abu Bakr said in an interview with the Palestinian news agency Ma’an.
He said that imprisoned leaders of various Palestinian factions – including Marwan Barghouti and Karim Younis, who are each serving life sentences for their role in anti-Israel terrorist activities – would join the first stage of the hunger strike.
“The prisoners’ demands in the upcoming strike aim to restore the situation to what it was before the recent punitive measures,” he explained, referring to the prison authority’s measures in the aftermath of the escape. The measures included, among other things, relocating Palestinian Islamic Jihad inmates to other prisons.
The prisoners added new demands, such as removing the glass separating them from visitors, and allowing families from the Gaza Strip to visit their jailed sons in Israel, the Palestinian official said.