Thousands of Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails announced on Thursday they have ended the 19-day-old hunger strike after prisons' authorities accepted some of their demands.

Most of the inmates ended their hunger strike in the morning and the last 600 diehards ate their first meal Thursday afternoon, according to Israeli and Palestinian sources.

Eassa Qaraqea, chief of the Palestinian Prisoners Association, said 840 prisoners in Nafha and 600 in Hadarim ended their strike, plus 1,500 prisoners in other Israeli jails.

Prisons Service officials rejected Palestinian claims that Israel had met key demands of the prisoners, saying "the strike ended without us giving in to any of their demands." Ofel Lefler, spokesman for the Israeli prisons' authority, said earlier that "Israel has not caved in to any demand of the prisoners and nothing is being discussed."

However, well-informed sources close to Palestinian prisoners said earlier that the Israeli prisons' authority had accepted most of the prisoners' demands, such as returning isolated prisoners to their originally-inhabited rooms and accepting their rights to walk outside cells.

About 4,000 Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails launched the open-ended hunger strike on Aug. 15, demanding better living conditions and stop of humiliation measures.

Israel is holding some 7,500 Palestinian prisoners on security-related charges.

(Xinhua News Agency September 3, 2004)