Since 12 March — three days before the protest on 15 March calling for national unity and elections to the Palestine National Council — a group of young men has been on hunger strike in Ramallah’s central Manara Square (which is really a circle).
On March 15, Hamas leader Ismail Haniyah in Gaza endorsed the call for reconciliation and called for a meeting. The next day, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas (Abu Mazen) in Ramallah said he was willing to go to Gaza if it would bring reconciliation. So, the hunger strikers broke their fast, which initially lasted four days.
They waited patiently, but nothing happened.
So, they resumed their fast a few days later — and about four have been fasting for about two weeks continuously now.
On Saturday, one of them required medical attention.
This is the account published by Ma’an News Agency:
“Alaa Qdimat, 21, fainted late Saturday and was taken to the Red Crescent hospital, activists said.
Protesters said Palestinian Authority police went to the hospital and took Qdimat to an investigation room to question him, despite his deteriorating health.
Qdimat said police interrogated him for over an hour, questioning him about the purpose of the hunger strike and threatening to arrest him as a ‘security risk’.
He said police also asked him who was behind the protests, and who was paying the strikers.
‘The 21 days that we have been here prove that no-one is behind us and no-one is paying us’, Qdimat said. ‘We are still committed to go all the way’, he added.
After his interrogation, Qdimat was released from the hospital and he returned to the protest tent in Ramallah’s Al-Manara square “.
This account is posted here