RAMALLAH, March 18, 2011 (WAFA) – About a dozen Palestinians who have been on hunger strike at Manara Square in Ramallah since Sunday announced on Friday that they have suspended their strike in light of “positive signs” toward national reconciliation.

Meanwhile, the March 15 Youth Coalition in the Gaza Strip called on Palestinians to gather at the Unknown Soldier memorial in the center of Gaza City to continue pressure on Hamas to take steps toward reconciliation.

Hamas forces have cracked down on Gaza protestors in the last few days and prevented journalists from covering the demonstrations, beating and arresting some of them.

The Palestinians who were on hunger strike in Ramallah said in a statement that they have decided to suspend their hunger strike for 72 hours “in response to the initiatives that came from the West Bank and Gaza Strip toward reconciliation and to give those initiatives a chance to be implemented on the ground.”

It said that “while we see in these initiatives positive signs toward ending division, suspending our strike is nevertheless conditional on clear demands.”

The conditions included a call on the disputing parties to hold meetings and to agree on practical steps and a timetable to end the division, as well as releasing all political prisoners held by the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank and Hamas in Gaza.

They also demanded that both sides put an end to their propaganda war against each other.

Palestinians held wide protests in the West Bank and Gaza on Tuesday, March 15 highlighting their demand for an end to four years of split that plagued Palestinian society and politics.

M.A.