About 3,000 people took to the streets of Gaza City in a show of solidarity for fellow Palestinians held behind bars in Israel as part of events to mark prisoners day.
The protestors first rallied outside the local headquarters of the International Committee for the Red Cross before making their way to the Gaza branch of the Palestinian parliament, chanting ‘Free Our Prisoners’ and carrying banner proclaiming ‘The Prisoners are the Heart of the Palestinians.’
Some of those taking part in the rally carried portraits of Ahmed Saadat, the leader of the leftist Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine who is being held in a jail near Jerusalem after being controversially captured from a prison in the Palestinian town of Jericho last month.
Others carried posters of Marwan Barghuti, the head of the Fatah faction in the West Bank who is regarded as the inspiration behind the Palestinian uprising, and is now serving five life sentences in an Israeli prison.
In a letter addressed to the ICRC, information minister Yussef Rizqa urged the organisation to put pressure on Israel to release Palestinian prisoners as well as improve their conditions.
‘Israel is always hindering the visits for the families of prisoners,’ said Rizqa who also accused the prison authorities of obstructing the work of inmates' lawyers.
A total of 9,400 Palestinians are currently held in Israeli prisons, according to the Palestinian central bureau of statistics. The figure includes 369 Palestinians who were jailed before the 1993 Oslo autonomy accords.
MPs were also holding a session parliament Monday devoted to the plight of the prisoners while rallies were also expected to take place in the West Bank.