Health Conditions of Four Palestinian Prisoners on Hunger Strike Deteriorate

Palestinian detainee Maher Al-Akhras was transferred to the clinic of Ramleh prison, after his health condition has seriously deteriorated. (Photo: via Social Media)

August 28, 2020

The health conditions of four Palestinian detainees who have been on hunger strike in Israeli jails, in protest against their detention without charge or trial, are deteriorating, today said the Palestinian Prisoner Society (PPS).

Maher al-Akhras, who comes from the West Bank town of Silat al-Dahr, has been on hunger strike for 33 days in a row and was recently moved to the Ramleh Prison Hospital due to a significant weight loss, continuous headaches, severe joint pain and extreme fatigue.

Mohammad Wahdan, who comes from Rantis village, near Ramallah, has been on hunger strike for 24 days in a row. He started his strike while he was remanded in the Israeli detention by four more months with no charge or trial.

Musa Zahran, who hails from the village of Deir Abu Mesh’al, has been hunger-striking for 23 consecutive days in protest of his six-month administrative detention sentence, without charge or trial.

The fourth prisoner, Abdul-Rahman Shuaibat, a resident of Beit Sahur town, has also been on hunger strike for nine days in protest of his unfair administrative detention. He is a former prisoner in Israeli jails and has served four years in prison prior to his current detention.

Israel’s widely condemned practice of administrative detention 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.

“Administrative detention is Israel’s go-to legal proceeding when it simply wants to mute the voices of Palestinian political activists, but lacks any concrete evidence that can be presented in an open, military court,” wrote Palestinian journalist and editor of The Palestine Chronicle, Ramzy Baroud.

These Chains Will Be Broken by Ramzy Baroud

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Jim Miles: It is easy to describe the actual physical tortures – the strained sitting and standing positions, beatings, burnings, starvation rations, the isolation and deprivation. What is more difficult to comprehend is the psychological torture, the attitude of the jailers towards the prisoners and their families who attempt to visit them.

PALESTINECHRONICLE.COM

These Chains Will Be Broken - Book Review

The knowledge about the prison system is already available but it has never been treated so clearly in this way, directly from the hearts of those involved.2

“Not that Israel’s military courts are an example of fairness and transparency. Indeed, when it comes to Palestinians, the entire Israeli judicial system is skewed. But administrative detention is a whole new level of injustice,” Baroud added.

There are about 4,500 Palestinian and Arab political prisoners serving sentences in Israeli detention for resisting the prolonged Israeli occupation of their homeland. Of those, there are some 350 detainees held in prison as administrative detainees, without a charge or trial including minors and elderly.