Palestinian detainees in Israeli prisons continue their hunger strike

Occupied Palestine (QNN)- At least 50 Palestinian detainees in Israeli occupation prisons are still on an open-ended hunger strike against Israel’s administrative detention without charge or trial, 30 of them have been on a hunger strike for 18 days.

On the 25th of September, 30 Palestinian administrative detainees announced the launch of a mass hunger strike, rejecting their unjust administrative detention without a charge or trial by Israeli occupation authorities and demanding “fresh air, a sky without prison bars, a space of freedom, and a family dinner.”

With additional detainees scheduled to join the battle as it continues, 20 Palestinian detainees, including Palestinians jailed arbitrarily under administrative detention as well as people serving sentences imposed by Israeli occupation military courts and people awaiting trial, joined on October 9 the mass hunger strike in solidarity with their inmates.

The PPS said that this move comes as a continuation of longstanding Palestinian efforts to put an end to Israel’s policy of administrative detention and amid an increase in the administrative detention orders issued by ‘Israel’ against Palestinians as the policy has expanded in recent years to include women, children, and elderly people.

Addameer Prisoner Support and Human Rights Association said the collective hunger strike comes in response to the Israeli occupation authorities’ broad escalation of administrative detention targeting Palestinian human rights defenders, students, politicians, and former prisoners.

It said this “highlights the Israeli occupation authorities’ increased reliance on administrative detention, a procedure in which detainees are held without charge or trial based on “secret information” for an indefinite time.”

The Palestinian hunger-striking detainees demand “an end to the policy of administrative detention as an arbitrary, coercive, and punitive measure of torture against hundreds of Palestinians, including women, children, the elderly, and civil society activists.”

This is the second mass strike against administrative detention after the strike of 2014 (62 days), which ended with an agreement with the occupation, including suspending extending administrative detention for open periods and limiting them to a maximum of a year, which has been violated. This mass strike follows various individual strikes of administrative detainees demanding an end to their detention. Since 2011, individual strikes amounted to over 400 which the Occupation authorities tried to halt and deliberately stalled in responding to the strikers.

Under the banner, “Our decision is freedom … no to administrative detention,” more than 600 administrative detainees also boycotted Israeli Military Courts for over 170 days, starting from January 1, 2022, in protest against Israel’s administrative detention without charges or trials.

The boycott includes initial hearings to uphold the administrative detention order, as well as appeal hearings and later sessions at the Supreme Court.

According to Palestinian prisoner advocacy groups, since March 2002, the number of Palestinians in administrative detention has never fallen below 100. In 2015 alone, ‘Israel’ issued 1248 administrative detention orders.

In 2020, ‘Israel’ issued 1,114 administrative detention orders while it issued 1,595 administrative detention orders against the Palestinians in 2021.

There are currently approximately 800 Palestinian prisoners jailed under administrative detention orders out of a total of approximately 4,650 total Palestinian prisoners in occupation jails, including at least 6 minors and two female detainees.