Israeli occupation Prison Service subjected Tuesday, 4 October 2022 French-Palestinian human rights defender Salah Al-Hammouri to a sequence of punitive measures after he started a hunger strike on 25 September. 

Hammouri is on hunger strike for the 10th day in a row in protest against his illegal detention without a charge nor trial, along with 29 other Palestinian administrative detainees. He is held in solitary confinement, drinks water, and refuses any medical examination.

Hammouri’s lawyer pointed out that three days after Salah started his hunger strike the Israeli prison authorities transferred him to solitary confinement. He is now isolated in a 2 x 2 square meter cell that lacks ventilation. 

Israeli occupation prison administration imposed other punitive measures on Hammouri including depriving him of outdoor time or activity and family visits and the right to purchase supplies; sending him to the bathroom in double hand and foot cuffs; and other humiliating conditions. Hammouri is suffering from back, joint, and head pains.

The Israeli occupation forces detained Hammouri on 7 March based on a three-month administrative detention order that has been renewed twice based on “secret evidence”. 

Israel’s illegal policy of administrative detention is a pre-emptive measure that allows the detention of Palestinians without charge or trial for lengthy periods of time based on disclosed allegations that even a detainee’s lawyer is barred from viewing.

Palestinian detainees have constantly resorted to hunger strikes as a method to oppose their administrative detention, demanding an end to this illegal policy that violates international law and Human rights accords.