Hesham Abu Hawwash, a Palestinian prisoner who has been on hunger strike for 129 days against detention without charge or trial by Israel, has lost his ability to move, and is suffering speaking difficulty, according to his lawyer, Jawad Boulus.
Boulus said although his client is in critical health condition after 129 days of hunger strike, the Israel Prison Service (IPS) has kept Abu Hawwash in prison and refused to move him to hospital, despite his bad need for medical follow-up and hospitalization.
“Despite the critical health condition of Abu Hawwash, IPS is still rejecting to move him to a civil hospital, and is seemingly aiming to impose this as a reality in the issue of the hunger-strikers,” said Boulus in a statement shared by the Palestinian Prisoner’s Society (PPS).
“The demand to move Abu Hawwash to hospital requires additional efforts. After the IPS used to move the [hunger-striking] prisoners to a civil hospital after some time into their hunger strike, today it deliberately keeps them in prison,” Boulus added. he pointed out that moving hunger-striking prisoners to a civil hospital has become a condition for the court to suspend the administrative detention, without charge or trial.
Abu Hawwash, married and a father of five children, was detained on October 27, 2020, for his political activities and immediately served with an administrative detention order for six months that has been renewed ever since.
Palestinians serving time in administrative detention in Israel without charge or trial and based on classified evidence often resort to hunger strike to regain their freedom.
Israel’s widely condemned policy of administrative detention allows the detention of Palestinians without charge or trial for renewable periods ranging between three and six months based on undisclosed evidence that even a detainee’s lawyer is not allowed to review.
Source: Palestinian News & Info Agency