http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/184938#.VBBPifldW-4Palestinian Arab terrorists announced they are starting a hunger strike in response to the suicide of an Arab terrorist jailed in Israel.Palestinian Arab terrorists who are serving time in Israeli jails announced on Tuesday night that they will start a hunger strike on Wednesday.
The mass hunger strike is a response to the death of an Arab terrorist jailed in Israel, who committed suicide by hanging himself at the Eshel prison in Be’er Sheva.
The terrorist, 35-year-old Raed Abdel Salam al-Jaabari, was arrested near the Kfar Etzion Junction in Judea after a car accident in which he attempted to run over several Jewish residents.
Al-Jaabari was arrested during Operation Brother’s Keeper, which the IDF launched following the kidnap and murder of teenagers Eyal Yifrah, Naftali Frenkel and Gilad Sha’ar.
Palestinian Authority (PA) officials claimed Israel committed a "war crime" after Al-Jaabari’s suicide.
PA Prisoners' Affairs Union chairman Qadura Fares "cast doubt on the occupation's claims that the prisoner committed suicide and asked international organizations to investigate his death," according to a statement from his office.
"Israel is responsible for his death," PA Minister of Prisoner Affairs Issa Qaraqa claimed to AFP. "The Israelis say he tried to hang himself but it is not true. It is a lie. This is a war crime."
The hunger strike being launched in response to Al-Jaabari’s death would not be the first time that terrorist prisoners have gone on hunger strikes. Most of these hunger strikes are an attempt to pressure Israel to release the terrorists or improve their conditions in prison.
Some 1,550 Palestinian Arabs imprisoned in Israel ended a hunger strike in May 2012, in exchange for a package of measures which would allow visits from relatives in Gaza and the transfer of detainees out of solitary confinement.
In April, hundreds of terrorist prisoners declared a hunger strike in "solidarity" with a Hamas prisoner's solitary confinement. After a media brouhaha, the terrorists ended the hunger strike just hours after it began.
Israel has several times in the past caved to the pressure and released some hunger strikers.