Two Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails are refusing food, despite the signing this week of a deal to end a mass prisoner hunger strike, Israeli and Palestinian officials said on Thursday. An official from the Palestinian Prisoners’ Club, which tracks the well-being of the 4,700 Palestinians in Israeli jails, told AFP that “prisoners Mahmud Sarsak and Akram Rikhawi are still on hunger strike.” The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said both prisoners had never stopped their protest, even after prisoner leaders on Monday accepted a package of Israeli measures easing conditions in exchange for the end of a mass hunger strike that had grown to include about 1,550 detainees. Israel Prisons Services spokeswoman Sivan Weizman confirmed Sarsak and Rikhawi were refusing food, but said they had briefly stopped their hunger strikes on Monday, before resuming them on Tuesday.
