Palestinians rallied across the Occupied West Bank on Tuesday to mark Prisoners’ Day in solidarity with the thousands held in Israeli jails. The rallies coincided with a massive act of civil resistance inside the prisons, with at least 1,200 Palestinian prisoners launching an open-ended hunger strike. In the Gaza Strip, Hana Shalabi, a former Palestinian prisoner who recently staged a five-week hunger strike to protest her detention without charge, offered support for the action.

Hana Shalabi: “I regard their steadiness, and I support them, and all the Palestinians support them, to end their suffering in the enemy’s prisons. I support their strike to reach their demand and to get back their dignity. And I tell them I hope they will be released soon.”

The day also coincided with the release of Khader Adnan, a Palestinian prisoner who staged a 66-day hunger strike that ended in February. Israeli human rights attorney Lea Tsemel said the hunger strikes were an expected response to worsening conditions for Palestinian prisoners.

Lea Tsemel: “I see only deterioration, in the punishments, in the attitude, in the interrogation. The law has changed in order to impose more and more pressure on the Palestinian prisoners. You know, a hunger strike is always the last resort of a person who is under pressure. It’s aimed against oneself. It’s torturing oneself. It’s threatening perhaps in death to oneself. And yet, it is the last possibility for the Palestinians to get together and shout out the voice of the prisoners.”