Agencies-Gaza post
Palestinian inmate remains on hunger strike for 153 days
Palestinian prisoner Khalil Awawdeh, 40, has been on hunger strike for 153 days despite his critical health condition against his prolonged administrative custody without charge or trial by the Israeli occupation authorities.
Awawdeh, from the town of Idna in the southern West Bank in Hebron, broke a 111-day fast last month after being comforted by Israeli jail authorities that his administrative arrest would not be renewed, but he continued the hunger strike a week later after the occupation authorities rejected on their promise not to end his unfair arrest order.
The Israeli military court of Ofer on Thursday allowed his lawyer and a physician to visit him for the first time in order to organize a medical report about his health condition and present it before the court next Sunday to look into his release.
Awawdeh, who is held in the Ramla jail is currently suffering from severe joint aches, headaches, severe dizziness, and blurred vision, he is also unable to walk and moves only in a wheelchair.
The father of four has been in jail since 27 December 2021 and has been placed in administrative arrest, without charge or trial, ever since.
Israel’s widely condemned policy of administrative arrest permits the detention of Palestinians without charge or trial for renewable intervals usually ranging between three and six months based on unknown evidence that even an inmate’s lawyer is barred from viewing.
Currently, Israel is holding over 680 Palestinians in administrative arrest, deemed illegal by international law, most of them former prisoners who spent years in jail for their resistance to the Israeli occupation.
Amnesty International, described Israel’s administrative arrest policy as a “cruel, unjust practice which helps keep Israel’s system of apartheid against Palestinians.”
