RAMALLAH, An Israeli court has extended the detention of Palestinian prisoner Khalil Awawdeh until Thursday, according to the lawyer representing him.

Khaled Zabarka said that the detention of the prisoner Khalil Awawdeh has been extended for Thursday, without an indictment being filed against him.

Awawdeh was due to be released Sunday after going on an open-ended hunger strike for 172 days in protest of being placed under administrative detention.

Awawdeh, 40, from Idna in the southern West Bank district of Hebron, broke his hunger strike on 21 June after being promised by the Israeli authorities that his administrative detention would not be renewed.

A week later, he resumed his protest after the occupation authorities backtracked on their promise and decided to continue his detention. He broke his hunger strike again on 31 August when it was agreed that he would be released on 2 October.

However, the Israeli magistrates’ court in Rishon LeZion, near Tel Aviv, ruled last Wednesday that he would be held until at least 9 October. Nevertheless, the authorities then agreed that he would be released today, 3 October, although the Palestinian Prisoners’ Ministry in Gaza expected this to mean the resumption of Awawdeh’s administrative detention.

Israel’s widely condemned policy of administrative detention allows the detention of Palestinians without charge or trial for renewable intervals usually ranging between three and six months based on undisclosed evidence that even a detainee’s lawyer is barred from viewing.

Currently, Israel is holding over 680 Palestinians in administrative detention, deemed illegal by international law, most of them former prisoners who spent years in prison for their resistance of the Israeli occupation.

Amnesty International, has described Israel’s administrative detention policy as a “cruel, unjust practice which helps maintain Israel’s system of apartheid against Palestinians.”

Source: Palestine News & Info Agency