Days of Palestine – Ramallah
Palestinian detainee Khalil Awawdeh, who has been on hunger strike for 154 days in protest of his prolonged detention without charge or trial by the Israeli occupation authorities, is facing a risk of sudden death, Hasan Abed Rabbo, a spokesman for the Detainees Affairs Commission said today.
Abed Rabbo told the official WAFA news agency in a phone call that the health condition of Awawdeh is worsening day after day, and that he is suffering from severe joint pains, headaches, dizziness, and blurred vision, in addition to his inability to walk without a wheelchair.
He added that Awawdeh has also lost half of his weight due to the hunger strike and that he was not able to recognize his wife who visited him yesterday in the Israeli hospital of Assaf Harofeh.
Awawdeh, 40, from the town of Idna in the southern West Bank district of Hebron, broke a 111-day fast last month after being reassured by Israeli prison authorities that his administrative detention would not be renewed, but he resumed the hunger strike a week later after the occupation authorities reneged on their promise not to end his unfair detention order.
On Thursday, the Israeli occupation military court of Ofer allowed his lawyer and a physician to visit him for the first time in order to prepare a medical report about his health condition and submit it before the court next Sunday to look into his release.
The father of four has been in jail since 27 December 2021 and has been placed in administrative detention, without charge or trial, ever since.
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.
Currently, Israel is holding over 680 Palestinians in administrative detention, deemed illegal by international law, most of them former prisoners who spent years in prison for their resistance to the Israeli occupation.
Amnesty International, has described Israel’s administrative detention policy as a “cruel, unjust practice which helps maintain Israel’s system of apartheid against Palestinians.”
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