Marwan Barghouti
Marwan BarghoutiReuters

Fatah leader and archterrorist Marwan Barghouti, who is leading a mass hunger strike of Palestinian Arab terrorist prisoners, on Friday published a letter from prison in which he called on Palestinian Arabs to express their support for the hunger strikers.

Barghouti, who headed the Tanzim terror wing of Fatah, is serving five life sentences in Israel for his role in planning suicide terror attacks during the second intifada from 2000 to 2005.

"Israel imagines that the policy of incitement, isolation and oppression will prevent us from continuing our struggle for our demands, but the prisoners are certain that their people will never disappoint them and unite around their prisoners and families who bear the painful burden," Barghouti wrote in the letter, which was published by the Lebanese Al-Mayadeen TV network and quoted by Channel 10 News.

"I am sending words to you from the isolation to which I was sent on behalf of the hundreds of prisoners who joined the strike," Barghouti continued. “The occupation does not hurt our strength and we are still rising up against the humiliation we are going through. We are confident that the loyalty of the prisoners to their people and their homeland will be met by faith towards them. "

Barghouti also wrote that the hunger strike is an inalienable part of the Palestinian Arab campaign for" freedom and dignity. "

The terrorist prisoners launched the hunger strike on April 17, but it has since showed signs of weakening.

Jailed terrorists have often used hunger strikes as a pressure tactic aimed at forcing Israel to improve the conditions of their imprisonment or release them out of fear for their lives. Israel has several times in the past caved to the pressure and released some hunger strikers.

Some 1,550 Palestinian Arabs imprisoned in Israel ended a hunger strike in May 2012, in exchange for a package of measures which would allow visits from relatives in Gaza and the transfer of detainees out of solitary confinement.

(Arutz Sheva’s North American desk is keeping you updated until the start of Shabbat in New York. The time posted automatically on all Arutz Sheva articles, however, is Israeli time.)