Days Of Palestine – Ramallah

A Palestinian prisoner on hunger strike was hospitalized, while the health of another has seriously deteriorated, according to a statement released today by Prisoners and Ex-Prisoners Affairs Commission.

It said that hunger-striking prisoner Ramadan Mashahra, 44, was moved to hospital after his health deteriorated.

Mashahra, from Jabal al-Mukabber neighborhood of occupied East Jerusalem, has been in prison for 18 years for resisting the occupation. He was sentenced to 20 life terms. He has been on hunger strike since September 8 in protest against the installation by the prison administration of jamming devices, which prisoners insist cause cancer.

Additionally, the commission noted in the statement that another prisoner, Sultan Khlouf, 38, from Burqin village in the north of the West Bank, and who has been on hunger-striking for 61 days in a row in protest against his administrative detention, is going through a serious deterioration in his health, according to Khlouf’s lawyer.

She said that Khlouf has entered a critical and difficult stage and that he now suffers from brain dysfunction, severe mouth sores, vision impairment, pain throughout his body, and significant weight loss.

Several prisoners started earlier this month an open-ended hunger strike in protest against installation of jamming devices in the prison, which they fear cause cancer, and demanding better conditions mainly for women prisoners. Several Palestinians held in administrative detention without charge or trial for long periods of time are also observing hunger strike demanding an end to their incarceration.