One of the prisoners, Akram Mansour, who Firas says is serving a life sentence and has been held since 1979, is said to be in a coma from his hunger strike. Firas claims he has brain cancer as well.
Middle East Monitor, the UK-based pro-terrorist website, says that Mansour is being held "for his role in seizing an Israeli bus in response to a major Israeli military incursion."
However, Mansour actually was sentenced for murdering a reserve soldier named Yitzchak Trumpeldor in 1979.
In April, a Palestinian Authority TV show praised Mansour and send "greetings of love and loyalty" to him, using his loving nickname "the beast."
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