by Hisham Abdallah
RAMALLAH, West Bank, Aug 14 (AFP) - Some 8,000 Palestinians held in crowded Israeli jails plan to launch a mass hunger strike Sunday to demand improved detention conditions despite a warning from Israeli authorities that the action will be futile, Palestinian officials said.
An official with a prisoner defense group based in Bethlehem, Abu Mohammed, said Saturday that virtually all 8,000 Palestinians serving prison terms, awaiting trial or in "administrative detention" -- not yet charged -- will join the action.
But Israeli Internal Security Minister Tzahi Hanegbi was quoted by public radio as saying: "We will concede nothing. From my point of view they can continue their movement to the death."
He added: "All the terrorists' demands are aimed in fact at making it easier to organize attacks in the prisons."
For his part, Israeli prison commissioner Yaakov Ganot told reporters that if the movement went ahead, the prisoners "will lose all their privileges, family visits will be canceled and the prisoners will be deprived of television and radio."
The inmates, including around 600 serving life sentences, say they will take only liquids and have threatened to "martyr themselves" if their demands are not met.
Shows of solidarity, notably by the detainees' families, are expected at Red Cross headquarters in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, in addition to marches and special prayers.
Asked about the Israeli warnings, Mohammed said he hoped the hunger strike would not culminate in any deaths, adding: "These are statements aimed at breaking the detainees' morale, but we think they will win satisfaction at least on part of their demands."
The population of "security prisoners" in Israeli jails and military holding centers has increased about tenfold since the second intifada broke out in September 2000 in the occupied territories.
Amnesty International said in its annual report in May that "at least 1,500 (Palestinians) were held in administrative detention without charge or trial."
It added that "allegations of torture and ill-treatment of Palestinian detainees were widespread," and slammed the Israeli army for carrying out "forcible transfers" of at least 18 Palestinians from their native West Bank to the Gaza Strip following administrative detention without charge or trial.
The detainees are demanding an end to the "policy of aggressions and beatings" and strip searches, as well as better medical care, hygienic conditions and food.
They also want the prisons to stop using the suspension of visitation rights as a punishment. Mohammed said "all prisoners (should) be allowed to see their families, while currently only 60 percent have the right to these visits."
Israeli prison authorities on Wednesday transferred 200 Palestinians considered to be the hard core of the protest from the high-security prison of Nafha to other facilities.
Two riot squads have been mobilized in case of clashes during the strike, public radio said, adding that the authorities have also set out continency plans for evacuating sick or injured prisoners to hospitals. The prisoners may also be force-fed liquids to avert their dehydration, the radio said.
In an apparent concession to the inmates, however, the authorities have given 600 of their relatives permits to enter Israel to visit them.
Mohammed said the prisoners were also demanding the removal of glass barriers from visitation rooms, the installation of public telephones and an end to solitary confinement in tiny cells.
The Palestinian deputy minister for prisoners' affairs, Radi Jarai, denounced what he called a "policy of vengeance on the part of the Israeli authorities while the detainees' demands are not political but merely humanitarian."