JERUSALEM, Aug 26 (AFP) - Paletinians being held in Israeli prisons appealed Thursday for intervention from human rights organisations and the United Nations to prevent their hunger strike developing into a "humanitaran disaster."
"We ask human rights organisations all around the world, and especially the UN, represented by its Secretary General Kofi Annan, to take a stand an help us end the miserable circumstances we are living," a spokesman for prisoners at a military-run detention center in the southern Negev desert told AFP by telephone.
"We ask you to assume the legal and ethical responsability by taking a quick and effective action to prevent a humanitarian disaster," added the prisoner, who would only give his name as Rami, reading from a statement in English.
Around half of the 8,000 Palestinians currently being held in Israeli prisons are observing an open-ended hunger strike which is now in its 12th day.
The prisoners are hoping that their protest will lead to an across-the-board improvement in their conditions, including statutory visiting rights and an end to what they see as "humiliating" body and cell searches.
"The unbearable treatment had pushed us to go on this hunger strike after all our tries to obtain a change had failed and the prisons' administartion had refused to respond to our simple needs as human beings," Rami said.
"We ask the Israelis to respect our dignity, improve our conditions and allow family visits, stop the naked searching policy, the solitary confinement policy for a huge number of prisoners, improve the food quality and quantity and improve health care".