The decision by the Palestine Liberation Organization’s imprisoned leader Marwan Barghouti to lead a mass hunger strike is a political gamble that could pay off well if it succeeds. Some 1,500 prisoners held in Israeli jails, mostly belonging to the PLO secular factions, Fatah and left-wing groups, have refused to eat anything since April 17.

The hunger strike comes on the eve of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas’s visit to Washington on May 3 and at a sensitive time between Abbas and the Hamas leadership in Gaza. The Palestinian president appears poised to put an end to the Gaza-West Bank division, even if it requires financial and other means of pressure on Hamas.

For their part, the prisoners in Israeli jails belonging to Hamas were not enthusiastic about joining the hunger strike. Monjed Jado, the editor-in-chief of the Bethlehem-based Palestine News Network, told Al-Monitor that the vast majority of Hamas prisoners chose not to participate. “They don’t want to give any credit to Fatah and the PLO for making any tangible results, even though their demands are almost all humanitarian,” Jado said.

Jado added that the majority of prisoners in Israeli jails are members of the PLO’s leading Fatah movement. “Of the 6,500 prisoners, about 57% belong to the Fatah movement and a smaller number belong to the left-wing PLO factions, which means that the supporters of Hamas in Israeli jails are no more than 30-35%,” Jado noted.