After 113 days, Palestinian detainee in Israeli jails ends his hunger strike

Occupied Palestine (QNN)- Palestinian detainee in Israeli jails Miqdad Qawasmi has ended on Thursday his open-ended hunger strike after 113 consecutive days of starving and suffering in protest against his unfair administrative detention without a charge or a trial.

The director of the Palestinian Prisoners’ Information Office, Nahed al-Fakhouri, announced on Thursday evening that Qawasmi broke his hunger strike after 113 days, after reaching an agreement with the Israeli occupation authorities to release him next February.

Qawasmi, a 24-year-old resident of the southern occupied city of Hebron, was detained in January 2021 and had been on an open-ended hunger strike since July 20 in protest against his unfair administrative detention without a charge or a trial by Israeli occupation authorities.

Qawasmi has previously spent a total of four years in Israeli jails for resisting the occupation.

On the 6th of October, Israel’s High Court froze the administrative order for the detention of Qawasmi when he entered his 77th day of hunger strike.

On November 4, the Court reactivated the administrative detention of Qawasmi when he entered the 106th day of hunger strike, after claiming that Qawasmi’s health condition has improved.

Hours after reactivating his administrative detention, the Court transferred Qawasmi from the Kaplan Medical Center to the Al-Ramla prison Clinic and prevented his family from seeing him.

The court’s order of freezing his administrative detention didn’t release Qawasmi, but it simply froze the order for the period of his treatment and observation, as his health condition has been deteriorating severely.

The court’s decision also means that the administration of prisons and the Intelligence device are not responsible for his life, and turning him into an unofficial prisoner held at the hospital, under the guardianship of the hospital’s security instead of the jailors.

His family and relatives will be able to visit him at the hospital as a patient, rather than as a detainee, but his family are not allowed to transfer him to any place.

Qawasmi’s health condition has been deteriorating severely as he lost over 40 kilograms of his weight; he weighed 78 kilograms, but now he’s 40 kilograms.

Qawasmi’s family said that he has started losing a part of his memory and that Israeli doctors in the hospital were threatening to force-feed Qawasmi as they tried to coercively treat Qawasmi while he was tied to his bed in the ICU.

“He’s suffering from severe pain all over his body. He lost over 40 kilograms of his weight. His health is continuously deteriorating. There are problems in his liver and he has Bacteremia. His heart rate was very low a few days ago. There’s no improvement in his health,” his mother said.

“Miqdad did this, and he’s going on with his hunger strike because he didn’t find any other way to regain his freedom. Miqdad was sentenced to administrative detention without any legal justification or any charge just based on a secret file which is controlled by the mood of the officer just because he received information that it’s unlikely for this person to be outside the prison.”

“My son didn’t commit any charge,” his mother added.

“Today, Miqdad is struggling for life. He hopes to return to his home. He deprived himself of food to enjoy life and regain freedom. There must be an urgent intervention to save Miqdad’s life. My son didn’t ask for death. He dreams to live a good life and this is a normal right.”