Twenty more Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails joined on Saturday an ongoing mass by 30 detainees who have been refusing food for two weeks to protest the Israeli policy of administrative detention.
The collective hunger strike, which launched in mid-September, came after a significant increase in Israeli detentions without charges under the administrative detention system.
According to the Palestinian Prisoners' Club, Israeli forces have issued over 1,500 administrative detention orders since the beginning of 2022, with more than 200 new detention orders in August alone.
"Dialogue between the detainees and the Israeli occupation's prisons authority have not advanced," a source from the Palestinian Prisoners' Club told The New Arab.
"The detainees decided the hunger strike as a cry of protest rather than as a means to achieve a specific demand," the source explained.
"However, negotiations were held in the first days of the strike, with detainees focusing on the current large-scale use of administrative detention, especially against former prisoners," the source revealed.
"The Israeli occupation authorities haven't responded to these remarks so far, as far as we know," they added.
Last week, Palestinians rallied in Nablus, Tulkarm, Hebron and Bethlehem in support of the detainees on hunger strike.
On Saturday, hundreds of Palestinians marched in Gaza in support of the hunger strikers, while a similar march was organised on Sunday in Ramallah.
Families of detainees held pictures of their relatives as they walked down the Lions Square in Ramallah and chanted slogans in support of the detainees.
"My son has been under administrative detention for almost a year now," the father of 34-year-old hunger striker Saleh Abu Alia, present at the protest, told The New Arab.
"He had served a sentence for charges of belonging to a political party before, and then been released," said the father.
"Then last year he was arrested again and placed under detention without charges for six months, and just when his detention order was about to expire and we were preparing to receive him at home, the Israeli military court extended his detention order for another six months," he pointed out.
"The extended detention order is about to end in two months' time, but there is no guarantee that it will not be extended again," he added, as his youngest son held the detainee's picture for The New Arab’s camera.
"My father has served 13 years in the occupation's jails," said the 19-year-old daughter of hunger striker Thaer Taha. "Eight years of those were without charges, under the administrative detention system."
"I'm here to protest because I haven’t had the time to know my father growing up, and because all detainees have families who are forced through unjustified anguish," she added.
Human rights groups reported to Palestinian media on Sunday that three detainees taking part in the hunger strike have begun to show signs of health deterioration, although none has been transferred to the jail's clinic yet.
Two of the hunger strikers have had their detention orders extended after the beginning of the hunger strike, according to the Palestinian Prisoners' Club.
More detainees are expected to join the hunger strike in the coming days, as dialogue with Israeli jail authorities shows no progress.
Currently, some 800 Palestinians are held in Israeli jails without charges, under administrative detention orders, according to human rights groups.