Days of Palestine – Ramallah
Amid growing fears over their lives, five Palestinian prisoners in Israeli detention currently remain on hunger strike in protest of their unfair and indefinite administrative detention without a charge or trial, according to the Detainees Affairs Commission.
Prisoner Kayed al-Fasfous, from Dura town in al-Khalil, is considered the longest hunger striker as he has been on hunger strike for 123 days.
The other hunger-striking administrative detainees are Alaa al-Araj, Hisham Abu Hawash, Ayyad al- Harimi and Louay al-Ashqar. They have been on hunger strike for 99, 90, 53, and 35 days respectively.
Most of the hunger strikers, especially Fasfous, suffer from life-threatening health issues due to their protracted hunger strike, according to the Palestinian Commission of Detainees’ and Ex-Detainees’ Affairs.
Israeli doctors recently told hunger-striking prisoner Kayed al-Fasfous that he was close to sudden death at any moment.
Asra Media Office quoted the hunger striker’s brother as saying that doctors talked about the presence of clots in Fasfous’s blood that could lead to his death.
Israel’s widely condemned policy of administrative detention allows the detention of Palestinians without charge or trial for renewable intervals usually ranging between three and six months based on undisclosed evidence that even a detainee’s lawyer is barred from viewing.
On Thursday, UN experts expressed grave fear for the lives of the hunger strikers, and called on Israel to either release or charge the prisoners, and to completely end its unlawful practice of administrative detention.
“In violation of international law, Israel continues to use administrative detention to imprison more than 500 Palestinians — including six children — without charges, without trials, without convictions, all based on classified secret information that the detainees have no access to,” the experts said. “They have no recourse to challenging these undisclosed allegations, and they do not know when, or if, they are going to be released.”
Currently, Israel is holding over 450 Palestinians in administrative detention, deemed illegal by international law, most of them former prisoners who spent years in prison for their resistance of the Israeli occupation.
Over the years, Israel has placed thousands of Palestinians in administrative detention for prolonged periods of time, without trying them, without informing them of the charges against them, and without allowing them or their counsel to examine the evidence.
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