U.S. military guards raided the largest camp at Guantanamo Bay early Saturday morning and fired four non-lethal shots as they moved detainees into solitary cells to suppress a widening protest, military officials said in a statement.

The unusual pre-dawn raid, ordered by Cmdr. Rear Adm. John W. Smith, was prompted by detainees' efforts to cover surveillance cameras, windows and glass partitions -- blocking views by guards -- amid an ongoing hunger strike that has now spread to more than 40 detainees and required officials to order some prisoners to be force fed through tubes.   

During the raid, "some detainees resisted with improvised weapons, and in response, four less-than-lethal rounds were fired. There were no serious injuries to guards or detainees," according to the statement released by the Joint Task Force at Guantanamo.

Carlos Warner, a lawyer who represents detainees, said in an email to NBC News the raid was "a major event" and accused military officials of "escalating the conflict."

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Warner also said the military timed the raid just after an International Red Cross delegation left the facility.

“They are doing exactly what they shouldn't be doing - provoking men who have nothing to lose and who are ready to die. These actions will drive the men closer to death, so yes the situation is rapidly deteriorating,” he added.

A White House spokesperson said: "We have been monitoring the situation at Guantanamo closely and were informed by DOD in advance of the Task Force's plan to transition detainees at Camp VI from communal to single-cell living to ensure their health and security."

In recent weeks, as the hunger strike has spread among detainees, human rights groups have called on the Obama administration to fulfill its promise to shut down Guantanamo and step  up its efforts to return detainees who have been cleared for release to their home countries.

Lawyers for the detainees said they have been told of detainees losing consciousness and coughing up blood due to the hunger strike.

The Saturday morning raid occurred in Camp VI -- the largest at Guantanamo -- where detainees deemed "compliant" live in communal areas and are given special privileges. But military officials said that, in order to "reestablish proper observation" of the detainees, military forces began moving the detainees back into "single cell" confinement, triggering the resistance that led them to fire shots. Officials have said in the past that guards are equipped with rubber bullets.

Last month, U.S. military officials denied any detainees' lives were in danger but acknowledged that resistance and frustration among the detainees is growing, a development that a senior general said is because they are “devastated” that President Barack Obama’s pledge to shut down the facility has not been fulfilled.

White House officials say they remain committed to closing Guantanamo but have been blocked from doing so by Congress, leading officials to close the small State Department office charged with finding new homes for the detainees.

Related:

Pentagon ponders Gitmo overhaul amid growing detainee unrest

'Non-lethal round' fired at Gitmo detainees in soccer field incident, US military confirms

RAMALLAH, West Bank -- A deal has been reached with Israel to end a weeks-long high-profile hunger strike by hundreds of Palestinian prisoners, an official said on Monday. 

The prisoners signed the deal Monday afternoon at an Israeli prison in Ashkelon, the Palestinian Minister for Prisoner Affairs Issa Qaraqe said. He did not have details of the deal, and Israeli officials had no immediate comment.

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At least 1,600 prisoners held by Israel have been on a hunger strike since mid-April, demanding better conditions. A handful of prisoners have been refusing food for as long as 77 days, and are said to be in critical condition.   

The peaceful campaign had focused attention on so-called "administrative detention," a practice that has drawn international criticism, and raised fears of a violent Palestinian backlash if any of the protesters die. 

Fighting Israeli detention, Palestinians resort to hunger strike

Earlier, officials told Reuters that Israeli authorities had balked at the agreement's call for the release of any inmate whose detention term, usually a six-month period that can be renewed by a military court, has ended. 

But they said Israel had agreed under the deal to renew family visits for prisoners from the Gaza Strip and end the solitary confinement of 19 inmates. 

PhotoBlog: 1,200 Palestinian prisoners declare hunger strike

Relatives' visits from Gaza were suspended after Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit was captured by Palestinian militants and taken to the Hamas-ruled territory in 2006. He was released in October in exchange for more than 1,000 Palestinian prisoners. 

High esteem
Israel says the detentions are necessary because some cases cannot be brought to open court for fear of exposing Palestinian intelligence sources who have cooperated with Israel. 

Palestinians jailed by Israel are held in high esteem by their fellow Palestinians, who see them as heroes in what they term a struggle against occupation. 

The hunger strikers include militants from Islamist Hamas and Islamic Jihad, which reject peace with Israel, as well as members of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas's Fatah group. 

Two inmates who helped to launch the strike, Bilal Diab and Thaer Halahla of Islamic Jihad, were in the 77th day of their fast on Monday. 

As Palestinian hunger strikers starve, a mother waits 

Last week, Israel's Supreme Court turned down their request to be freed from detention without trial but said security authorities should consider releasing them for medical reasons.

The court said administrative detention "causes unease to every judge" but was a necessary evil because Israel was "constantly fighting terror."

A month ago, Israel released hunger striker Khader Adnan, an Islamic Jihad member, amid concerns he would die. He agreed to end his fast after 66 days in exchange for a promise not to renew his detention. 

On Monday, thousands of people held a rally in Gaza in support of the hunger strikers, chanting "We will give our souls and blood to redeem the prisoners." 

Reuters and The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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JENIN, West Bank – Im Hisham, 65, spends her days sitting in her home in Kufur Raei village near here waiting for news about her 27-year-old son, Bilal Diab.

“I haven’t seen my son since the day Israeli Special Forces raided our home in the middle of the night and arrested him in front of my eyes,” she said of the incident on Aug. 16, 2011. “They gave him administrative detention for six months and when the six months ended they extended his detention for six more without charges or trial.”

Palestinians resort to hunger strike in protest

Diab has since become one of the faces of a mass hunger strike by Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails. 

On Friday, Diab and Thaer Halahleh, another prisoner, entered their 74th day without food. They are demanding that the Israeli courts either charge them or set them free. 

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Israel’s practice of administrative detention allows the military to hold prisoners indefinitely based on secret information without charging them or allowing them to stand trial. Israeli officials defend its use as a way to hold Palestinians who pose an immediate threat to the country's security. Israel says they keep the evidence secret from lawyers and the accused because it would expose their intelligence-gathering networks if released.  

 

Attention to Diab and Halahleh’s protest escalated on April 17 when an estimated 1,600 inmates launched their own mass hunger strike in solidarity, a move that led to Palestinians taking to the streets in the West Bank and Gaza almost daily to rally in support of the prisoners’ protest.

Fears for life
On Friday, a spokesperson for Physicians for Human Rights, a humanitarian organization in Israel, said he fears for Diab and Halahleh’s lives. 

Yael Marom complained that the last time the Israeli Prison Service allowed one of their doctors to visit Diab was on April 30.  “The Israeli Prison Service is still denying regular access to [Diab] and the other hunger strikers by independent physicians and do not update us or the families, which is a blatant breach of medical ethics," she said.

Israel says all prisoners receive adequate medical attention, including care civilian hospitals if required. "As of now, I know that those who should be receiving extra care are receiving it," a spokeswoman, Sivan Weizman, told Reuters. 

Mark Regev, the Israeli government’s spokesman, also claimed that Israel was providing adequate medical treatment for the prisoners and said they were free to choose their own doctors. 

"But ultimately, this is not about medical facilities," he said, "this is about hard-core activists, from Hamas and Islamic Jihad, who through this protest are trying to instigate violence."

Mass support among Palestinians
Meanwhile, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas warned Israel that the death of one of the prisoners could result in chaos. 

“If anybody dies today or tomorrow or after a week it would be a disaster and no one could control the situation," Abbas said in an interview with Reuters at his office in Ramallah. "I told the Israelis and the Americans if they do not find a solution for this hunger strike immediately, they will be committing a crime."

Issa Qaraqe, the Palestinian Authority’s minister of prisoner affairs, has appealed to the international community, including the U.N. and even Pope Benedict, to intervene.

“Palestinian hunger strikers are fighting for what they have been systematically denied — their dignity, rights and justice,” he said. “I appeal to the world to immediately intervene and save the prisoners’ lives before it’s too late. If the hunger strike results in the death of one of the prisoners then Israel should expect an escalation of violence in the West Bank and even inside the Israeli prisons.”

On May 7, Israel’s Supreme Court rejected Diab and Halahleh’s appeal against imprisonment without charge or trial and ruled that they could not be released because they are a security risk. But the court added that the Israeli authorities should consider
releasing them on medical grounds.

Hoping for the best
Meanwhile, Diab’s mother is maintaining her vigil for her son. Since she has had no direct contact with him since his detention, the only way she can get updates on his health situation is through human rights organizations and media outlets.

“I am constantly listening to the news hoping to hear anything about my son,” she said. “I haven’t been allowed to see him for nine months now. Every time I close my eyes I can see him lying in a bed, looking pale, thin and weak, and I tell him to stay strong and that victory is near.

“I know that my son’s health is suffering as a cause of the hunger strike but I don’t dare think that something bad will happen to him. I just want to see my son, touch his face and tell him that everything will be ok. I will die if anything happens to him.”

KHARKIV, Ukraine -- Former Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko has gone on hunger strike in prison after guards dragged her off her bed and punched her in the stomach, her lawyer said on Tuesday.

Prison authorities deny the accusations.

Tymoshenko, the main opponent of President Viktor Yanukovich, is in jail convicted of abuse of office. She said the beating took place while she was being moved to a state-run hospital last Friday after complaining of back pain. 

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"They approached my bed, put a sheet over me and started dragging me off the bed, using brute physical force. In pain and desperate, I started defending myself the way I could and received a strong fist punch in the abdomen," Tymoshenko said in a statement read to reporters by her lawyer, Serhiy Vlasenko.

The 51-year-old was convicted last year in a case that strained relations between Ukraine and the West, which saw it as politically motivated.

PhotoBlog: Ukraine court jails former PM Yulia Tymoshenko for 7 years

In the statement, she said she had been attacked by three prison guards: "They twisted my arms, lifted me up and dragged me outside wrapped in a blanket. I thought those were the last minutes of my life."

The prison administration denied using any force against Tymoshenko, the Interfax news agency reported.

A state prosecutor denied allegations of beating but said Tymoshenko's move last week had indeed been forced.

"She packed up and got dressed and then lay on her bed and said 'I am not going anywhere'," Interfax quoted regional prosecutor Henady Tyurin as saying.

"The law ... allows the prison service to use physical force: (guards) lifted her, carried her to the car and took her to the hospital."

Tymoshenko returned to her prison in the city of Kharkiv on Sunday after she refused to be examined.

The opposition leader has been on a hunger strike since Friday to draw international attention to the situation in Ukraine, Vlasenko said.

Facing new trial
Tymoshenko was sentenced to seven years in prison in October, convicted of abusing her power as prime minister in brokering a 2009 gas deal with Russia.

Yanukovich's government says the deal ran against national interests and has saddled Ukraine with an exorbitant price for vital energy supplies.

Tymoshenko is now standing a new trial, charged with tax evasion and attempted embezzlement, and faces up to 12 years in prison if found guilty.

She refused to attend the opening hearing this month citing poor health. The next session is scheduled for April 28.

Tymoshenko has denied any wrongdoing in both cases, dismissing them as part of a campaign of repression by Yanukovich's government.

Russia expressed concern over "media reports about the worsening health" of Tymoshenko. A Foreign Ministry statement urged Ukrainian authorities to ensure her legal rights are protected and to display "humanity".

The European Union has warned Ukraine that its members will not ratify key bilateral agreements on political association and free trade while Tymoshenko remains in prison.

Tymoshenko was one of the leaders of the 2004 Orange Revolution which derailed Yanukovich's first bid for the presidency. She went on to serve twice as prime minister and lost the 2010 presidential vote to Yanukovich in a close race.

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ARABEH, West Bank – For a moment Randa Adnan’s dark, defiant eyes, the only part of her face visible behind a white veil, softened with tears.

NBC News was at her home for an interview Tuesday and we had just passed on the news that her husband, Khader Adnan, a Palestinian prisoner, had agreed to end his two-month hunger strike after reaching a deal with Israel’s Justice Ministry that it would release him in April.   

Adnan, 33, had starved himself, refusing food for 66 days, to protest against Israel’s controversial policy of holding suspected Palestinian militants without charge. He was arrested in his West Bank home on Dec. 17 – but neither he, nor his legal team, were ever told the evidence against him.

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The Israeli authorities would say only this of his case: “Adnan’s detention stems from involvement in actions that threaten regional security.”

In 2008, Adnan was convicted of membership of Islamic Jihad, the outlawed extremist group that has killed dozens of Israelis in suicide bombings and other attacks. But his family insists he has never been party to any violent act.

His wife was overjoyed at the news of his imminent release.

“By God’s will, I am proud of him. Not just as a husband, but as a leader of our people. This is a great victory,’’ she said.

Randa Adnan is the mother of two daughters, with a third child, a son, on the way.

“I swear I felt him kick inside when you told me the news,” she smiled.

Anti-terror tool
Over the past few weeks, Adnan’s case has become a cause célèbre – his face, in graffiti form, has come to adorn security walls all over the West Bank and has been emblazoned on dozens of flags flown at protest marches.

He is just one of some 300 Palestinians held without proper trial in Israel, on the basis of secret intelligence dossiers, a practice known as “administrative detention.” It is a highly controversial practice that is bitterly criticized by human rights groups, but according to the Israeli military, extremely effective in protecting the security of the state.

In an interview with the Jerusalem Post, retired Maj. Gen. Giora Eiland, a former national security adviser to the Israeli government, explained one of the reasons why the legal loophole is used. “The first is that you know someone is planning an attack, but you can't prove it through a legal process. If you relied on the legal process, the suspect would go free, but the risk [to the public] would be very high.  
 
Alan Baker, one of Israel’s leading lawyers and a former senior legal adviser to the Israeli military, explained another reason commonly cited for administrative detention: to protect the highly sensitive sources.

“There are times when you cannot make evidence against some individual public,” said Baker.  In other words, the information is so sensitive that revealing it publicly might threaten the safety of the informant. 

But Adnan’s case, Baker said, might now make the authorities think twice about imposing detention orders. “It’ll keep them on their toes,” he said.

For his part, Adnan’s lawyer, Jawad Bulos, said the deal that will free his client is a “painful compromise.”

Asked whether he thinks the case might encourage other Palestinian detainees to starve themselves in return for freedom, he paused for a moment, pondering the personal stamina that requires. “Adnan was a special man. In all my experience of cases, I have never met anyone quite like him.’’

Adnan will probably spend the rest of his sentence in a hospital. His hunger strike has left him gravely ill. His family still fears he might not recover.
 

 

 

BISHKEK, Kyrgyzstan — Inmates at several prisons in Kyrgyzstan have gone on a hunger strike over new restrictions that effectively bars them from having prostitute visits, a state official told AFP on Tuesday.

"Prisoners at seven prisons have refused to take their meals," Joldochbek Bouzourmankoulov, spokesman for the country's prison sentencing agency, told the news service.

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Bouzourmankoulo said the hunger strike was tied to new limits on prisoner visits. In the past inmates had the right to visits from their families and others, he said. "But under the label for 'others,' they were bringing prostitutes to the prison," he told AFP.

From now on, only relatives with identity cards can visit, AFP reported.

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