Days of Palestine – Ramallah
Lo’ai Al-Ashqar, a Palestinian prisoner who has been on hunger strike for 49 days in protest of his administrative detention by Israel, ended his hunger strike today after reaching out an agreement with the Israeli occupation authorities setting a date for his release.
The Palestinian Prisoner’s Society (PPS), a prisoner advocacy group affiliated with Fatah Movement, confirmed reports by Al-Ashqar’s family about their son ending his hunger strike.
A father of eight children, Al-Ashqar was arrested by the Israeli occupation army in October 2021, and was immediately placed under administrative detention, a widely condemned Israeli policy allowing the Israeli military to hold Palestinians in prisons indefinitely based on secret information without charging them or allowing them to stand trial.
Immediately after being placed in administrative detention, Al-Ashqar embarked on a hunger strike fearing that he will remain in prison for indefinite period under the Israeli policy of administrative detention.
Last month, UN experts expressed grave fear for the lives of the Palestinian hunger strikers, and called on Israel to either release or charge the prisoners, and to completely end its unlawful practice of administrative detention.
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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