After three days of a hunger strike by Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails initiated and led by the most senior Fatah inmate, Marwan Barghouti, Israel and Palestinian Authority (PA) leaders are convinced it will all be much ado about nothing. They believe that as the days go by and Barghouti realizes that he does not enjoy sweeping support, the strike will fizzle.

With the March 24 declaration of the planned strike, Israeli authorities feared that all 3,500 prisoners affiliated with Fatah, who constitute more than half the 6,000 Palestinians jailed in Israel for security-related offenses, might heed Barghouti’s call. According to figures compiled by the Israel Prison Service (IPS), 1,187 inmates are refusing food. So it now appears that only some 800 Fatah prisoners have followed Barghouti’s lead, and some 400 prisoners affiliated with Hamas and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine have joined them.

According to an IPS source who spoke with Al-Monitor on condition of anonymity, many of the prisoners who joined the strike did so unwillingly and are therefore highly unlikely to persevere. He called their strike “light,” meaning they had gone along with it, but the chances of their sustaining it are nil.

“We’re not talking here about prisoners with serious stamina and personal discipline, as we saw with the administrative prisoners [who are detained without trial] who persevered with a 2012 hunger strike for 100 days or more, jeopardizing their lives,” said the source. Many of the current striking prisoners were dragged into the strike against their will, for fear that Barghouti and his people would see them as scabs, he asserted.