Jerusalem: Hundreds of Palestinian prisoners on Saturday ended a 40-day hunger strike over conditions in Israeli jails, the Israel Prison Service and a Palestinian official said.
More than 800 inmates, who had stuck with the hunger strike until Saturday, ended it after talks held with the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) and the Palestinian Authority to change some of the prisoners' conditions, a Prison Service Statement said.
Neither the Prison Service nor the Palestinian Authority divulged the full details of the agreement. However, the Prison Service did say that a second monthly family visit would be reinstated after it had been cut in the past.
Qadoura Fares, head of the Palestinian Prisoners' Club, which works on behalf of inmates, said some points of the agreement would be discussed further.
"Issues that had been agreed upon were improving visits and prison conditions," Fares told Reuters.
Barghouti, a leader in Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas's Fatah movement, was convicted of murder over the killing of Israelis during the second Palestinian intifada, or uprising, and sentenced in 2004 to five life terms. Surveys show many Palestinians want him to be their next president.
Israeli Public Security Minister Gilad Erdan has said Barghouti started the strike in order to garner political support.
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