30 Palestinian detainees enter third day of hunger strike to end Israeli policy of detention without trial

Dozens of Palestinians held a vigil in front of the Red Cross offices in Ramallah and in Nablus on Tuesday, in support of some 30 Palestinian administrative detainees, held without charges by Israeli forces, who started a collective hunger strike on Sunday.
 
The vigil was organised by a coalition of human rights groups and Palestinian prisoners' support organisations, namely the Palestinian Prisoners' Club, the Palestinian Commission for Prisoners' Affairs and the Addameer Prisoners' Support Association.
 
"The hunger strike was launched to demand the end of the Israeli administrative detention policy, and to draw attention to the 780 Palestinian administrative detainees held under this system currently," Milena Ansari, spokesperson for Addameer told The New Arab.

 
"This move comes after Israeli authorities have increased the use of administrative detention dramatically in recent months," said Ansari. "Since the beginning of 2022, Israeli forces issued around 1,500 administrative detention orders against Palestinians in the West Bank."
 
"In August alone, Israeli forces issued 272 detention orders, of which 143 were new orders. The rest were renewal orders of already-going detentions," she added.
 
Administrative orders can be as long as six months and renewed indefinitely based on "secret information" provided by the Israeli intelligence that nor the detainee nor their layer has access to.
 
"The longest detention time among the currently-held detainees reaches five years in total, between renewed detention orders and new ones issued a few months after the person has been released from a previous one," Amani Sarahneh, spokesperson for the Palestinian Prisoners' Club, told The New Arab.

30 Palestinian detainees will start hunger strike in protest against Israel’s policy of administrative detention. #FreeThemAll pic.twitter.com/wZALvZOFVK

— PALESTINE ONLINE 🇵🇸 (@OnlinePalEng) September 24, 2022

"Lately, we have noticed that Israeli forces have gone to new extents in administrative detentions," said Sarahneh.

"Many former prisoners have been detained, as well as social and community activists. It's as if the occupation wants to put any Palestinian who is active in the community behind bars," she added.
 
The currently-held administrative detainees include four children and two women, as well as several ill detainees, like 64-year-old Palestinian-Colombian citizen Jamal Zayed, who suffers from kidney dysfunction and has been detained for a full year under renewed detention orders.
 
Among the 30 detainees taking part in the hunger strike is the Palestinian-French lawyer and human rights activist Salah Hamouri, detained since March and faces the threat of deportation since Israeli authorities revoked his residency rights in Jerusalem in October of last year for "lack of loyalty" to the state.

'isr*eli court' has issued at least 1500 administrative detention orders against Palestinians since the start of this year. pic.twitter.com/F2qAPDtCDV

— Sara Rey (@SaraReyi) September 26, 2022

According to a report issued by the Palestinian Prisoners' Club earlier this month, 80% of administrative detainees in Israeli jails are former Palestinian prisoners.
 
Some of them were arrested and put under administrative detention shortly after serving their sentence and being released, according to the report. One case of this sort is 39-year-old Basem Al-Kaabi. He was released in April of last year after serving an 18 years sentence in Israeli jails. Israeli forces arrested him in late August under administrative detention.
 
The current hunger strike follows several individual hunger strikes by Palestinian administrative detainees who have refused food to demand their release.
 
Earlier this month, 40-year-old Khalil Awawdeh ended his individual hunger strike after 172 days of protesting his administrative detention, after a deal with Israeli authorities fixing a date for his release. In January, 40-year-old Hisham Abu Hawash ended his 140-day-long hunger strike after a similar deal.
 
Last November, three Palestinian detainees ended their individual hunger strikes following deals with the Israeli jails authority. Miqdad Qawasmeh, 24 years old, after 113 days, Kayed Fasfus, 32 years old, after 131 days, and Ayyad Hreimi, 28, after 61 days without food.

Hunger for freedom...

30 Palestinian prisoners launched yesterday, Sep. 25, a mass hunger strike, rejecting their administrative detention without charge or trial behind Israeli prison bars. #FreeThemAll pic.twitter.com/zq87GgLl65

— Rawand Shurrab𓂆🇵🇸 (@ShurrabRawand) September 27, 2022

Since the first Palestinian administrative detainee's individual hunger strike by Khader Adnan in 2011, some 400 Palestinian detainees have refused food for extended periods of time to protest their detentions, according to the Palestinian Prisoners’ Club.
 
"We have noticed that Israeli authorities let individual hunger strikes for longer periods, before agreeing to a release date, seriously damaging the health of detainees," Amani Sarahneh from the Prisoners' Club said. "This is why the detainees have decided to take collective action."
 
In early January, Palestinian administrative detainees started to boycott Israeli court hearings as a form of collective protest.
 
The boycott continued unanimously by all detainees until July, when several detainees began to attend court hearings to try and avoid their detentions to be extended further, according to Palestinian legal sources. Several hundred continue to boycott Israeli court hearings, sources said.
 
According to the Palestinian Prisoners' Club, more detainees are expected to join the hunger strike in the coming weeks.