After 69 days, Palestinian prisoner in Israeli jails ends his hunger strike

The Palestinian Commission of Detainees’ and ex-Detainees’ Affairs said that Palestinian prisoner Shadi Abu Akaer broke his hunger strike on Monday after 69 days, after reaching an agreement with the Israeli occupation authorities to release him next April.

The Commission said that 37-year-old Abu Akaer ended his hunger strike yesterday after 69 days, following an agreement reached with the Israeli occupation authorities to release him in April, 2022.

Abu Akaer is from Aida refugee camp on the northern side of the city of Bethlehem, and he is a father of 2 children.

Israeli occupation authorities arrested Abu Akaer in October 2020, and he was held in administrative detention without a charge or trial.

He had been on an open-ended hunger strike since August, 2021 in protest against his unfair administrative detention without a charge or trial.

He was arrested by Israeli occupation authorities before and sentenced for over 10 years and released in 2012. Later, he was arrested three times and held in administrative detention.

He is supposed to be released this October, but Israeli occupation authorities kept reactivating his detention.

While he had been on an open-ended hunger strike, his health had been deteriorating severly and he was transferred several times from the Al-Ramla prisoner clinic to civil hospitals.

There are another 5 Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails continue their hunger strike amid fears of death:

•Kayed Fasfous (111 days of hunger strike)
•Alaa Al-A’raj (86 days of hunger strike)
•Miqdad Qawasmi (104 days of hunger strike)
•Hisham abu Hawash (77 days of hunger strike)
•Ayyad Harimi (41 days of hunger strike)
•Loay Alashqar (23 days of hunger strike)

Over 40 Palestinian detainees started hunger strike since the start of 2021, in protest against Israel’s detention without a charge or trial.

Administrative detention is illegal under international law, however, the occupation state uses it to repress the Palestinian people.

‘Israel’ routinely uses administrative detention and has, over the years, placed thousands of Palestinians behind bars for periods ranging from several months to several years, without charging them, without telling them what they are accused of, and without disclosing the alleged evidence to them or to their lawyers.

Thus, the hunger strike is a method of a non-violent resistance which the prisoners use to protect their lives and their fundamental rights and a response to the occupation racist policies which they face in the prisons.

There are 4,650 Palestinian political prisoners held in Israeli jails, among the prisoners are 520 administrative detainees held without charge or trial, 200 child prisoners and 39 female prisoners.