The wife of the Palestinian detainee Khalil Awawda, who has been on a hunger strike for 153 days in protest of his administrative detention, said on Saturday, August 13th, that his condition is very difficult, as his body has turned into a “skeleton”, his features have changed, and he speaks with great difficulty.
After she was able to visit her husband, on Saturday, at the “Asaf Harofeh” hospital–near Lod within the 48 lands, where he was transferred after his health condition deteriorated last Thursday from Ramleh prison.
Dalal Awawdeh added that Khalil suffers from amnesia and does not remember the names of his daughters, explaining He has lost more than half his weight and is so weak and debilitated that he doesn’t even recognize her”
She continued, “He told me I can hardly see you, because of the blurring of vision, but you are engraved in my heart.”
Awawdeh pointed out that Khalil told her that he would continue to strike until his freedom is achieved, and stressed that his hunger strike “is not against life, but against restriction and in order to wrest his freedom,” stressing that his spirits are very high despite the seriousness of his health condition.
Regarding the visit, Awawdeh said, “there were 4 prison guards with me inside the room, and 5 others outside the door. They only allowed me to shake hands with him, then they prevented me from approaching him and threatened to cancel the visit just because I held his hand.”
She quoted her husband as saying that “the elements of the occupation prison administration eat food in front of him, and he grieves for them, as they think that this may affect him,” pointing out that “Khalil stressed that his morale is skyrocketing and he will snatch his freedom.”
In a related context, The Commission of Detainees and Ex-Detainees Affairs said in a statement, “The visit of the detainee’s wife, Awawdeh, was short, and took place by and in the presence of the International Committee of the Red Cross, and for a period of half an hour, it was extended, without allowing the wife to hold hands with her husband or approach him.”
on Friday, the Ofer Military Court allowed the detainee’s lawyer, to visit him urgently, accompanied by a specialized doctor, to examine him and prepare a medical report on his health condition, to be submitted to the court, which will consider the appeal submitted about his case on Sunday.
Dozens of activists demonstrated in the 48 lands, on Saturday, in front of “Asaf Harofeh” hospital near the city of Lod, in solidarity with Awawdeh, who has been on hunger strike for 153 days, rejecting his administrative detention.
The sit-down came at the invitation of the Palestinian political and popular forces in the 48 lands in support of the detainees who are engaged in an open hunger strike, in refusal of administrative detention, and the arbitrary measures of the Israeli occupation’s detention facilities against them.
The demonstrators raised the Palestinian flag and pictures of the detainee, Awawdeh, chanting slogans calling for his immediate release and all detainees’.
The Palestinian Prisoners Club stated that a court session for the detainee, Awawda, is supposed to be held on Sunday, after submitting the updated medical report on his health condition.
It is noteworthy that the detainee, Awawda, resumed his strike on the second of last July, after suspending it earlier after 111 days of the strike, based on promises to release him, but the occupation retracted its promise and issued a new administrative detention extension order against him for a period of four months.
He has been detained since December 27, 2021, when the Israeli occupation issued an administrative detention order against him for a period of six months, and his detention order was renewed for the second time for another four months.
The detainee, Awawdeh (40 years), from the town of Ithna, west of Hebron, is a father of four girls, and a former detainee who spent years in Israeli detention.
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