RAMALLAH, May 13, 2012 (WAFA) – President Mahmoud Abbas Sunday expressed hope that Israel would respond to striking prisoners’ demands to end the current severe crisis.

Abbas, during a PLO Executive Committee meeting in the presidential headquarters in Ramallah, said the prisoners’ issue is a priority to the Palestinian leadership, especially as some prisoners have been on hunger-strike for 76 days.

The Palestinian Authority is making immense efforts to reach a solution as soon as possible, because it will be a national catastrophe if any prisoner dies, he added.

Abbas noted that PA held talks with the Arab League, ambassadors and US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on the issue of prisoners, as well as that he discussed the situation with the Israeli envoy Yitzhak Molcho, who delivered a letter from the Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, to Abbas on Saturday.

The prisoners are striking for just, humanitarian demands regarding their living conditions in prisons, said Abbas, adding that the situation in jails remains critical.

M.H.