The Israeli occupation authorities today transferred a hunger-striking prisoner to a hospital following the grave deterioration of his health, according to the Prisoners’ Affairs Commission.
Spokesperson for the Commission, Hassan Abed-Rabbu, said that the Israeli Prison Services (IPS) decided to transfer Khalil Awawdeh from the Ramleh Prison clinic to the Tel Aviv-based Assaf Harofeh Hospital following a grave deterioration of his health, noting that the decision was taken during a court hearing on his case at the request of his attorney.
Awawdeh, 40, a father-of-four from Idhna town in the southern West Bank district of Hebron, has been on a hunger strike for 63 days now in protest of his illegal administrative detention without charge or trial.
He was detained on December 27, 2021 and initially transferred from a solitary confinement cell in the notorious detention facility of Ofer, west of Ramallah, to the Ramleh Prison clinic following his health deterioration, as he suffers from headache, joint pain, severe fatigue, arrhythmia, frequent vomiting in addition to significant loss of weight, as he has lost over 20 kilos.
IPS continues to reject to consider his request with regards to ending his administrative detention.
Israel’s widely condemned practice of administrative detention that allows the detention of Palestinians without charge or trial for renewable intervals ranging between three and six months based on undisclosed evidence that even a detainee’s lawyer is barred from viewing.
The US State Department has said in past reports on human rights conditions for Palestinians that administrative detainees are not given the “opportunity to refute allegations or address the evidentiary material presented against them in court.”
Amnesty International has described Israel’s use of administrative detention as a “bankrupt tactic” and has long called on Israel to bring its use to an end.
Palestinian detainees have continuously resorted to open-ended hunger strikes as a way to protest their illegal administrative detention and to demand an end to this policy, which violates international law.
Source: Palestinian News & Info Agency (WAFA)