RAMALLAH, Seven Palestinian prisoners in Israeli detention currently remain on hunger strike in protest of their unfair administrative detention without a charge or trial, according to the Detainees Affairs Commission.
The oldest hunger-striker of the seven prisoners is prisoner Kayed Fasfous, who has been on hunger strike for 102 days in protest of his detention without a charge or trial, followed by Miqdad Qawasmeh (95 days), Alaa Aaraj (78 days), Hesham Abu Hawwash (69 days), Shadi Abu-Akr (61 days), Ayyad Hureimi (32 days) and Raafat Abu Rabee (8 days).
Both Fasfous and Qawasmeh have been in hospital following serious deterioration in their health conditions. They have been demanding an end of their detention without charge or trial and based on the so-called secret file which even their lawyers are not allowed to view.
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.
On Thursday, UN experts expressed grave fear for the lives of the hunger strikers, and called on Israel to either release or charge the prisoners, and to completely end its unlawful practice of administrative detention.
“In violation of international law, Israel continues to use administrative detention to imprison more than 500 Palestinians — including six children — without charges, without trials, without convictions, all based on classified secret information that the detainees have no access to,” the experts said. “They have no recourse to challenging these undisclosed allegations, and they do not know when, or if, they are going to be released.”
Currently, Israel is holding over 450 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.
Over the years, Israel has placed thousands of Palestinians in administrative detention for prolonged periods of time, without trying them, without informing them of the charges against them, and without allowing them or their counsel to examine the evidence.
Source: Palestinian News & Info Agency