RAMALLAH // More than 60 Palestinian prisoners said they will go on a hunger strike on Tuesday to pressure negotiators to strike a deal with Israel as talks resume in Cairo.
The strike will be observed by 63 prisoners who were among a group of 1,027 freed by Israel under the terms of a 2011 swap arrangement, the Ramallah-based Prisoners’ Club said on Monday.
All have since been rearrested.
Since mid-June, when three Israeli teenagers were kidnapped and killed by Palestinian militants, Israel has arrested more than 2,000 people across the occupied West Bank and annexed East Jerusalem, the club said.
The strike is timed to coincide with the resumption of indirect truce talks in Cairo aimed at cementing the terms of a ceasefire deal that ended 50 days of fighting in and around Gaza, and which went into effect on August 26.
The two sides agreed to resume talks within a month of that date to discuss several tough issues, including the possibility of a new swap arrangement.
Such a trade would involve the Islamist Hamas group releasing the remains of two soldiers killed in the Gaza war in exchange for Israel freeing an unspecified number of prisoners.
The hunger strikers’ aim was to “demand that the Palestinian negotiators find a solution to the situation and ensure their release as quickly as possible”, the club said.
Bassem Al Salhi, a member of the Palestinian negotiating team, said Tuesday’s meeting would “allow a timetable to be put in place for [talks that would take place] after Eid Al Adha”, which is expected to fall on the first weekend of October.
“Since the start, the Palestinians have asked that the prisoners question be discussed, but the Israelis have categorically refused to deal with this matter,” he said.
The talks, which are not expected to last more than a day because of the Jewish New Year, were part of a three-prong diplomatic campaign launched by the Palestinians this week.
They are also planning to tackle internal divisions and make a fresh appeal to the United Nations.
Hamas and Fatah on Monday began reconciliation talks in Cairo at the Egyptian intelligence headquarters, Egyptian officials said.
Blame-trading between factions has become more frequent since the end of war this summer, a sign that an agreement on running Gaza – now under Hamas’ control – is not within reach.
Before the war broke out, western-backed Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas, a member of Fatah, had worked out a tentative agreement with Hamas under which he would head a temporary unity government of experts in both the West Bank and Gaza until new elections are held.
However, major issues were left unresolved under that deal, including the fate of 40,000 government employees hired by Hamas in the Gaza Strip as well as control over Gaza’s Hamas-dominated security forces.
Hamas was mired in a severe financial crisis when it struck the deal, but has become emboldened since the end of the summer war because fighting Israel boosted its popularity among Palestinians.
“Fatah believes that Hamas emerged weaker from the war,” said Hussam Badran, a spokesman for top Hamas leader Khaled Mashaal. “On the contrary, Hamas came out stronger.”
Mr Abbas, in turn, refuses to make concessions to Hamas and insists on sweeping powers in Gaza, said an aide, Azzam Al Ahmed.
Failure to establish an Abbas-led government in Gaza will harm the territory’s post-war reconstruction efforts. Egypt is hosting a pledging conference for Gaza on October 12, but donor countries will likely hold back if Hamas – shunned by the West as a terror group – refuses to step aside.
Following the diplomatic activity in Cairo, Mr Abbas on Friday will address the UN General Assembly at which he will seek international backing for ending the Israeli occupation within three years and establishing a Palestinian state based on 1967 lines.
* Agence France-Presse with additional reporting by Associated Press