Ammar's daughter carries a photo for her father

By Atef Daghlas, IOL Correspondent

NABLUS, August 30 (IslamOnline.net) – A Palestinian mother of a prisoner at an Israeli jail has starved to death after staging a hunger strike in solidarity with her son whose protest at the deplorable prison conditions along with thousands of inmates has entered its 15th day running Monday, August 30.

Bereaved Isha Al-Zaban refused to break her hunger strike, though she suffers from heart problems.

Her son Ammar has served four years in prison and was sentenced by an Israeli court to life imprisonment for belonging to the resistance group Hamas.

Isha breathed her last at the sit-in camp set up by hundreds of Palestinians in the West Bank city of Nablus.

"I tried in vain to get her break the strike as she was becoming increasingly frail," her daughter Mervat told IslamOnline.net.

"Adding insult to injury, she had undergone an unsuccessful angioplasty to clear four blocked arteries."

Mervat said her brother Ammar has not yet known about her death because he is in a solitary confinement.

Nagham Khayat, member of the Palestinian Prisoners' Committee, regretted Isha's death.

"My heart breaks for her and we very much appreciate her moving stand toward her son," he told IOL.

Mourning her, Sheikh Hamed Al-Betawi, the head of the Palestinian Scholars' League and the former imam of Al-Aqsa mosque, said Isha's death will not break the staunch will of the Palestinian prisoners.

Some 1700 Palestinian prisoners began their hunger strike Sunday, August 15. On Wednesday, August 18, the number reached 4,000 of the some 7,200 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.

Israel has repeatedly refused to negotiate with the Palestinian prisoners on fulfilling their demands.

The UN urged Friday, August 27, Israel to comply with its obligations under the Fourth Geneva Convention and other related agreements which provide the protection for prisoners and civilians during the wartime.