Occupation sends negotiators to captive Issawi's room

RAMALLAH, AL-KHALIL, (PIC)-- Palestinian human rights sources said that the Israeli authorities have continued attempts to persuade the Jerusalemite hunger striking prisoner Samer Issawi to stop his hunger strike and accept a proposal to deport him from Jerusalem in exchange for his release.

Jawad Boulos, director of the Legal Unit in the Palestinian Prisoners' Society (PPS), said in a statement on Tuesday that the occupation authorities are trying to convince Issawi to accept proposals transmitted by officers and negotiation experts, who keep flocking to his room in Kaplan hospital.

The lawyer reported that the doctors have warned of the seriousness of Samer's health condition "especially after his heart muscle has become too weak."

For his part, the Jerusalemite deported MP Mohammed Abu Teir sent a letter to the prisoner Issawi, on the anniversary of the Prisoner's Day, in which he hailed his steadfastness facing the violations of "the oppressive jailer".

Sheikh Abu Teir told PIC that the Palestinian prisoners in Israeli occupation jails can be freed only by the language of force and the exchange deals.

He called on all Palestinian factions and institutions to put the issue of the prisoners on the top of their priorities and to move for liberating them.

Mohammed Abu Tair is an MP for the Change and Reform Bloc who has been deported from Jerusalem. He had also been detained by the occupation forces several times and served in the Israeli jails more than 30 years.