Israeli prison service said that 1,187 inmates had launched a hunger strike on Palestinian Prisoners' Day.
If the reasoning for the hunger strike was not obvious - the mistreatment and torture in Israeli jails has been well documented - it was spelled out by Marwan Barghouti in a New York Times opinion column on Sunday.
Protesters have launched sympathy marches in several major towns in the West Bank, such as Hebron and Ramallah. It is known that he has been placed into solitary confinement.
The Arab League called on Sunday for worldwide protection for Palestinian prisoners held by Israel, Anadolu has reported.
Some Israeli analysts have sought to highlight the rivalry between Barghouti and Abbas within their Fatah party, suggesting his call for a hunger strike was also related to internal politics. He said "as a matter of principle, wherever it may be, we always call for prisoners to be treated in a humane way".
Palestinians marked Monday as Prisoners' Day.
The strike prompted a large rally in Gaza and a protest broke out near the occupied West Bank town of Bethlehem where Palestinian demonstrators clashed with Israeli forces.
Israeli Prison Service (IPS) spokesman Assaf Librati warned that the hunger strikers would face punishment.
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There are approximately 6,000 Palestinian prisoners in Israeli prisons, serving a variety of sentences.
Israel said the move by the prisoners, many of whom were convicted of attacks or planning attacks against Israel, was politically motivated.
In his op-ed published on Monday, Barghouti described hunger striking as "the most peaceful form of resistance available".
Barghouti is one of the best-known among thousands of Palestinians jailed for charges ranging from stone-throwing and membership in terror groups, to attacks that wounded or killed Israelis.
The New York Times later changed its description of Barghouti, while noting that the Palestinian leader had refused to provide a defense at his trial as he did not recognize the court's legitimacy.
Some 6,500 Palestinians are now detained by Israel for a range of offences and alleged crimes, and for many Palestinians the prisons themselves have become a stark symbol of Israel's occupation. He said he organized the hunger strike to fight back, after exhausting all other options.
"When a despicable murderer like Barghouti protests in prison for improved conditions, while the relatives of those he murdered are still in pain, there is only one solution - death penalty for terrorists", Katz tweeted Monday.
"The paper recanted after we pointed it out to them", Netanyahu said, adding that calling Barghouti a political leader was akin to calling Syrian President Bashar Assad a doctor.
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