Palestinian prisoners escalated the situation when they announced Aug. 6 that 148 prisoners from all factions, held in the prisons of Nafha, Ramon and Eshel, were joining the hunger strike until their demands are met.

"This calls for the resistance factions — with all their military wings — to take necessary and crucial stances to support the prisoners in their battle with Israeli prisons,” Shadid said.

While speaking to Al-Monitor, Hamas spokesman Abdul Rahman Shadid held Israeli authorities responsible for the lives of Palestinian prisoners and accused “Israeli intelligence official Ilan Borda of being responsible for what is happening to prisoners, as he is waging a fierce war against them and is leading the inspection and prisoner-transferring campaigns, thus depriving Palestinian prisoners of their human rights."

This most recent hunger strike came in protest of a campaign against the prisoners launched by Metzada, which is affiliated with IPS. Metzada is transferring some prisoners and isolating others, while raiding and inspecting their cells. Metzada also began searching for smuggled mobile phones and succeeded in confiscating dozens of phones and SIM cards.

Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails have been engaged in a fierce conflict with the Israeli Prison Service (IPS) since tension began mounting Aug. 3 when prisoners started refusing their meals, Qadura Fares , head of the Palestinian Prisoners Club, said Aug. 9.

The prisoners’ most important demands include facilitating visits to Gazan prisoners every two weeks by children and first-degree relatives, putting an end to the isolated prisoners’ issue and lifting sanctions on the Hamas prisoners. The sanctions keep prisoners from reading newspapers or watching TV, limit breaks, double cell inspections and require prisoners to be searched before they can enter the prison yard.

The prisoners' demands also include finding a solution for the sick prisoners, allowing open visits for humanitarian cases, reopening the prisoners’ kitchens and bakeries — which administrators closed in early August to pressure the prisoners — and allowing visiting families to bring prisoners items such as clothes, books and food.

Sami Ghawadra of Jenin, who was released Aug. 6 after 11 years in prison, told Al-Monitor, “The general conditions in Israeli prisons are extremely difficult. Prisoners decided to send back their lunch and dinner meals in protest of the escalating actions carried out by the IPS against them — especially Gaza’s prisoners, who are constantly transferred and searched.”

In light of the deteriorating situation inside prisons, the supreme leadership body for Hamas prisoners in Israeli jails decided Aug. 6 to dissolve and hold IPS responsible for its services. The leadership represents Hamas prisoners in matters regarding the daily services IPS provides.

Fouad al-Khafash, director of the Ahrar Center for Prisoners Studies and Human Rights, told Al-Monitor the body is headed by Mohammed Arman, along with 15 prominent Hamas prisoners such as Abdel Nasser Issa, Mouaz Bilal, Mohamed Soubhi, Salim Hajje, Bilal al-Barghouti and Mustafa al-Astal.

"They are all sentenced to life imprisonment and Israel refused to release them in the 2011 swap deal,” Khafash said.

Various prisoner leadership bodies also are affiliated with Palestinian organizations outside prisons. In solidarity with their fellow prisoners from Hamas, Islamic Jihad prisoners also announced they were dissolving their leadership body in all Israeli prisons.

Dissolving the leadership groups forces IPS to deal with each prisoner separately, in the absence of an official party to represent prisoners. The void could result in major chaos in Israeli prisons, and the resulting repercussions could spill over outside of prisons.

Al-Monitor attended a press conference Aug. 6 in Gaza that included representatives of all Palestinian forces in solidarity with the prisoners’ protests.

The situation inside Israeli prisons took a turn for the worse July 20 when the Israeli Knesset issued a decision to force-feed prisoners on hunger strikes. This move stirred the anger of Palestinians who, on Aug. 8, deemed the Israeli decision a war crime against Palestinian prisoners and demanded that the decision be submitted to the International Criminal Court.

Adnan Asfour, a Hamas leader from Nablus who was released Aug. 4 from Israeli prisons after 30 months in administrative detention, told Al-Monitor, “The prisoners are preparing for an escalation to wrest their rights and lift the sanctions imposed on them, especially Hamas prisoners. These have been subject to sanctions for an entire year, as the IPS denies them access to television and the kitchen, and [denies them] the rights for visits and the right to go out of their cells [for some time].”

On Aug. 9, Ahmed Saadat, the secretary-general of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine who is serving a life sentence, said from his cell that the open hunger strike is expanding and several sections in prisons are preparing to join the strike, demanding an end to the attack against the prisoners.

There are 5,600 Palestinian prisoners distributed in 11 Israeli prisons, according to Khafash. "In each prison, there are five to seven sections that include around 120 prisoners, and each section is composed of 20 rooms,” he said.

The conflict between the Palestinian prisoners and the IPS coincides with the start of the negotiations over a swap deal between Hamas and Israel, which may result in the release of most Palestinian prisoners.

A Hamas official told Al-Monitor on condition of anonymity that the movement believes Israel is using the recent restrictions imposed on prisoners to pressure Hamas into making further concessions in the ongoing swap-deal negotiations, away from the media.

On Aug. 8, the Palestinian Information Center, Hamas’ official website, said Israel justified its actions against prisoners by claiming that communication is carried out between the prisoners’ leaderships inside prisons and Hamas leaders outside prisons, to pressure Israel in the ongoing swap negotiations. This communication is made through smuggling mobile phones inside prisons using Israeli guards paid by Hamas prisoners.

Abdullah Barghouti, a leader from Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades, Hamas’ military wing, is currently serving 67 life sentences in the Ramon prison. In a May 31 phone interview with al-Rai Radio station in Gaza, Barghouti called on Hamas and its military wing not to rush into a swap deal.

In the latest developments from inside the prisons, a meeting was held on the evening of Aug. 9 between the IPS in Nafha prison and representatives of the Palestinian prisoners to discuss the prisoners’ demands, but the meeting failed to achieve results.

On the morning of Aug. 10, the IPS announced the formation of an emergency room in each prison to treat prisoners on the hunger strike instead of moving them to Israeli hospitals.

The spokesman for the Palestinian Prisoners Center for Studies, Riyad al-Ashkar, said on the morning of Aug. 12, “The prisoners’ leadership announced on Wednesday, Aug. 12 at dawn the temporary suspension of struggle actions by the prisoners, for 48 hours only. This decision came following the leadership’s meeting with the IPS in Nafha prison, during which the [IPS] informed the [leadership] about initiatives that are carried out on the Israeli political level to meet [the prisoners’] demands, and about the return of calm in prisons.”

This is certainly not the first time a crisis between Palestinian prisoners and the IPS has erupted. But this time, the Palestinian-Israeli relations are witnessing mounting tension after Israeli settlers set fire July 31 to the Palestinian Dawabsha family’s house in Nablus, sparking Palestinian demonstrations and confrontations with the Israeli army and settlers in the West Bank. The deterioration of the situation in Israeli prisons may add fuel to the smoldering fire between the two sides.