GAZA, April 9 (Xinhua) -- The armed wing of the Islamic Hamas movement on Tuesday threatened to mistreat the Israeli captives in Gaza Strip in tit-for-tat retaliation for Israel's mistreatment of Palestinian prisoners.
Hundreds of Palestinian prisoners, including Hamas members, who are imprisoned in Israeli jails, have been going on a hunger strike for two days to protest the sanctions on them and their mistreatment by Israeli prison services.
Calling the hunger strike in Israeli prisons "the battle of dignity," the Palestinian prisoners and Palestinian factions demanded Israeli prison services lift all the sanctions and stop mistreating the Palestinian prisoners.
Abu Obeida, spokesman of the al-Qassam Brigades, Hamas' armed wing, said in a press statement that the prisoners issue "is our top priority," warning that "the Israelis who are captives in the Gaza Strip will be also mistreated."
"The Israeli soldier, Gilad Shalit, who was a captive in Gaza from 2006 to 2011, had received good treatment," said Abu Obeida, adding that "the Israelis, who are captives now, won't receive the same good treatment as long as our prisoners are mistreated."
Israel is currently holding more than 6,000 Palestinian prisoners including 27 prisoners who have been jailed for more than three decades.
In 2011, Egypt brokered a prisoners' swap deal between Israel and Hamas, under which Hamas freed Shalit in exchange for the release of over 1,000 Palestinian prisoners from Israeli jails.
Hamas had said in previous statements that it holding four Israelis, including two soldiers and two civilians, but declined to give any further details on their fate.
The Islamic movement, which has been ruling the Gaza Strip since 2007, said that it will only give data on the fate of the four Israeli captives only if Israel releases Palestinian prisoners re-arrested by Israel in the West Bank in 2014.
Earlier on Tuesday, a Palestinian official said that Egypt is exerting efforts with Israel to meet the demands of the Palestinian prisoners on a hunger strike in Israeli jails.
"Egyptian mediators are making efforts with Israel to implement what has been agreed upon between the prisoners and the Israeli prisons services," said Qadri Abu Bakr, head of the prisoners' affairs section in Palestine Liberation Organization.
Abu Bakr said the Egyptian efforts "are conducted directly with the Israelis side on one hand and with Hamas Movement on the other within a truce understanding between Palestinian factions and Israel in the Gaza Strip."
He also pointed out that the prisoners are watching what result could come out from the Egyptian efforts in order to decide whether to proceed with the strike or suspend it.
The PLO official expressed the hope that Israel would respond positively and bring the situation in the prisons back to what it used to be before the strike.
The Palestinian Prisoners' Club announced that dozens of Palestinian prisoners in Israeli prisons began Monday afternoon an open hunger strike.
Qadoura Farres, the association's chairman, told Xinhua that the hunger strike came after the Israel Prison Service (IPS) was "intransigent" in responding to the prisoners' demands for improving their conditions inside the prisons.
He said that the prisoners are demanding for the upgrading of prison services by removing the jamming devices for cell phones that threaten their health and providing necessary care for the sick and child prisoners.
Farres added that the prisoners also demanded for lifting the Israeli sanctions imposed on the prisoners of Hamas and Islamic Jihad movements, including a ban on their families' visits.
