After 113 days, Ra’ed Rayyan breaks his hunger strike

Occupied Palestine (QNN)-Palestinian administrative detainee in Israeli prisons Ra’ed Rayyan ended on Thursday his hunger strike which lasted for 113 consecutive days of starving and suffering in protest against his unfair administrative detention without a charge or a trial.

Rayyan broke his hunger strike after reaching an agreement with the Israeli occupation authorities not to renew his current administrative detention term, according to the Palestinian Prisoner’s Society (PPS).

27-year-old Rayyan, from the Beit Duqqu village, northwest of occupied Jerusalem, has been held at Israel’s infamous Ramla Prison, where he has been arrested since November 2021.

He was given an administrative detention order for a period of six month upon his arrest, and his detention was subsequently renewed in April for an additional six month, prompting him to begin his hunger strike.

To protest against this decision, and to demand his release, he started a hunger strike on April 6, 2022. Since the beginning of his hunger strike, he has not received a medical examination. He suffers from headaches and pains all over his body and has difficulty walking.

Rayyan was arrested for the first time in June 2019 and jailed without a charge or trial until April 2021.

A total of 4,650 Palestinian detainees are currently held in Israeli occupation prisons, including 30 women, 180 minors, and about 650 held in administrative detention without a charge or trial, according to Palestinian prisoners’ advocacy groups.

The groups, the Palestinian Commission of Detainees and ex-Detainee affairs, the Palestinian Prisoner Society, Addameer Prisoner Support and Human Rights Association, and Wadi Hilweh Information Center, said in a joint-monthly report issued in July that Israeli occupation issued 862 administrative detention orders against Palestinians since the start of this year, including 398 new orders.

The Palestinian prisoners’ advocacy groups noted that the Palestinian administrative detainees have been boycotting the Israeli Military Courts since January 1, 2022. The boycott includes initial hearings to uphold the administrative detention order, as well as appeal hearings and later sessions at the Supreme Court.

Under the banner, “Our decision is freedom … no to administrative detention,” the detainees said their move comes as a continuation of longstanding Palestinian efforts “to put an end to the unjust administrative detention.” They noted that Israel’s use of this policy has expanded in recent years to include women, children and elderly people.

“Israeli military courts are an important aspect for the occupation in its system of oppression,” the detainees said, describing the courts as a “barbaric, racist tool that has consumed hundreds of years from the lives of our people under the banner of administrative detention, through nominal and fictitious courts – the results of which are predetermined by the military commander of the region”.

Since March 2002, the number of Palestinians in administrative detention has never fallen below 100. In 2015 alone, ‘Israel’ issued 1248 administrative detention orders.