RAMALLAH (Ma’an) – The Israel Prison Service at Ofer detention center has been exerting pressure on three hunger striking Palestinian prisoners in an attempt to force them to end their hunger strike, says their lawyer.

Ibrahim al-Aaraj, who works for the Palestinian ministry of prisoners’ affairs, confirmed Saturday that detainees Muhammad al-Najjar, Zakariyya al-Heih and Ibrahim al-Sheikh had been abstaining from food since Feb. 26. They drink only water protesting detention without trial in Israeli custody.

According to the lawyer, prison authorities deliberately move the three from one ward to another and occasionally send them to solitary confinement .

Muhammad al-Najjar told the lawyer that the Ofer's intelligence officer threatened to impose fines and to deprive strikers of family visits if they don’t stop. He added that he lost 13 of his 76 kilograms since he started the strike.

A spokesman of Palestinian prisoners at Ofer center, Mahmoud Ghalama, said prison services withdrew 3,140 shekels ($850) from the accounts of each detainee in wards 14 and 15 to punish them over the protests they carried out in response to the death of Arafat Jaradat in Israel’s Megiddo prison.

He added that no vegetables were allowed into ward 14 for two weeks for the same reason.