Efforts to persuade Palestinians being held in Israeli prisons to call off a planned mega-hunger strike failed leaving the way for the action to proceed. On Monday, the first of four groups – 150 senior prisoners chosen to lead the strike – began their fasts. The striking prisoners represent Hamas, Islamic Jihad and the PFLP. Additional groups of prisoners will join the strike on April 11, 13 and 17, with about 1,500 in all planning to forego all food and water. The disagreement that led to the strike was a demand by Palestinian prisoners that Israel remove equipment set up to jam cellphone signals. This, after a rash of incidents of smuggled cellphones led to the installation of the jammers.
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