Palestinian Authority government Prime Minister Rami Hamdallah said today (Monday), that the PA is in contact with all relevant international bodies, including consuls and ambassadors, asking them to put pressure on Israel to release prisoners serving terms for terrorist activity in Israel, and chief among them those prisoners who are on hunger strikes.

Hamdallah made these comments in a meeting in his office with the families of hunger striking prisoners Bilal Kaid and brothers Mohammed and Mahmoud al-Bulbul, also attended by head of the prisoners and released prisoners agency Issa Qaraqe.

The PA Prime Minister emphasized that the leadership, headed by Mahmoud Abbas, will not extend its hand in peace towards Israel until such time as all Palestinian prisoners are released. He talked of the importance of the national solidarity with the prisoners and the coordination of all efforts by Palestinian agencies to free them.

There are currently approximately 7,000 Palestinian security prisoners in Israeli jails, many of whom are serving sentences for the murder of Jews or planning to murder Jews.

The Palestinian Authority sees all security prisoners as “heroes”, and pays them a monthly stipend that is higher than the average salary of security forces personnel, and that gets higher depending upon the length of the sentence being serves, which is to say that the worse the crime committed by the Palestinian prisoner, the higher the stipend paid him by the Palestinian Authority.