A Palestinian prisoner in Israel who has been on hunger strike for one month in protest against his unending administrative detention without charge or trial ended it today after he was told that his incarceration would not be renewed past October 23, according to the Palestinian Prisoner Society (PPS), which said that four other prisoners are continuing their hunger strike for the same reason.
It said the five prisoners have been subjected to all kinds of oppressive measures by the Israel Prison Service (IPS) since they started their hunger strike in an effort to force them to end it.
The PPS said Khaled Farraj, 31, from Dheisheh refugee camp in the southern West Bank city of Bethlehem who has been held in administrative detention since January 23 of last year and who went on hunger strike on March 26, ended his strike after reaching a deal with the IPS in which his current administrative detention term will end on October 23 and it will not be renewed.
Meanwhile, Hussam Razzeh, 61, from Nablus, who was detained on April 17 of last year and who had spent a total of 18 years in Israeli prisons for resisting the occupation, 11 of them in administrative detention, remains on hunger strike for the 38th day in a row.
In addition, Mohammad Tabanjeh, 38, from the Nablus district and held in administrative detention since June 28, 2018, went on hunger strike on 25 March; Hasan Owawi, 38, from Hebron, detained since January 15 and a father of three, remains on hunger strike started on April 2; and Odeh Hroub, 32, a father of 10 also from the Hebron district and detained since December of last year, started his hunger strike on April 2.
Hundreds of Palestinians held in indefinite administrative detention by Israel believe that the only way to end this flagrant violation of their human and civil right of holding them in open-ended administrative detention without charge or trial and based on secret evidence not even their lawyers are allowed to see, is by going on hunger strike. The majority have succeeded in their endeavor, some after only weeks and others after several months of hunger strike that has almost killed them.