Palestinian hunger striker’s life “in God’s hands”
APA images
Charlotte Silver-24 February 2016
Meanwhile, Israel is still refusing to allow al-Qiq’s wife Fayha Shalash and their two young children to be with him during what is feared may be his final hours.
On Tuesday, Shalash spoke by telephone from the occupied West Bank to a solidarity rally for her husband in the Mauritanian capital Nouakchott.
“Muhammad al-Qiq did not go on strike to harm himself or to hurt his two children who wait for him minute by minute, but rather to tell the Israelis: our decision is to live free or to die with dignity,” Shalash said.
“This is the message of every Palestinian to the world,” Shalash added.
No negotiations
Since Sunday, all negotiations between al-Qiq and Israel have ceased.
Jawad Bolous, the head of the Palestinian Prisoners Club, said Israel’s failure to respond to al-Qiq’s final compromise forced them to “cease following up on the case.”
Al-Qiq’s family said he is now “in God’s hands.”
Issa Qaraqe, the Palestinian Authority head of prisoner affairs, said that Israel’s silence was proof of its “deliberate intention” to let al-Qiq die.
Qaraqe suggested that Israel may be trying to make an example of al-Qiq for other Palestinian prisoners.
“The Israelis apparently decided to put an end to this wave of strikes,” he told Al Jazeera. “A prisoner may pay his life for it, but for [the Israelis] it would be a message delivered.”
