Hunger strike by Palestinian prisoners cuts no ice

Raed Abu Hammad, 27, was allegedly kicked to death by Israeli prison wardens on Apr. 16. This was while Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails have been on hunger strike since Apr. 7 to press for better treatment. Palestinian minister for prisoner affairs in the United States-backed government in the West Bank, Issa Qaraqi, said at a press conference on Thursday that an Israeli autopsy showed that Hammad had been kicked hard in the lower back. Qaraqi based his statement on a report he had received from a Palestinian doctor who was present at the autopsy. However, spokesman for the Israel Prisons Service, Yaron Zamir, maintains that results from the autopsy were still awaited. ''The claims made in relation to the prisoner dying after having been beaten are unfounded, untrue and misleading,'' Zamir said in a statement. Qaraqi, who spoke with IPS over telephone, said that his ministry would be making a formal complaint in the Israeli courts asking for an immediate, in-depth investigation into the cause of Hammad's death. Apr. 17, the day after Abu Hammad was fatally kicked, is observed in the Palestinian Occupied Territories as 'The Day of Palestinian Prisoners'.