Scores of Palestinians on a hunger strike ended their protest against detention without trial on Wednesday after winning limited concessions from Israel — but no major policy change. About 120 Palestinians on so-called "administrative detention" began fasting April 24. Over the past two months they were joined by 180 others. About 75 needed hospitalization, fueling debate in Israel over a proposed force-feeding law.
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Previous hunger strikes stirred international sympathy for the Palestinians and ended with some inmates being released. But this protest was largely eclipsed by diplomatic crises over the collapse of U.S.-sponsored peace talks after rival Palestinian factions signed a unity deal and by the June 12 kidnapping of three Israeli teenagers in the occupied West Bank. A prisoner advocate said Israel agreed to remove the punishments imposed on the detainees and other measures. "We are not talking about a big, clear victory in the procedural, practical sense," Qadoura Fares said.
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