Palestinians imprisoned by Israel under its contested policy of administrative detention have continued to protest their ill-treatment and repressive Israeli policies through hunger strikes and boycotting military court hearings - even if it means putting their lives and health at risk.

Under administrative detention, Israel detains individuals - overwhelmingly Palestinians - without trial or charges for renewable periods of up to six months. The policy imposes no obligation on the Israeli government to present any official suspicions or evidence to  justify an arrest or detention - circumstances that critics argue violate international law.
 

Among six Palestinian prisoners currently undergoing an open-ended hunger strike, Miqdad al-Qawasmeh is more than two months into his strike and is now facing serious health complications, according to a statement by the Palestinian Prisoners' Society (PPS). 

A 24-year-old native of the southern occupied West Bank city of Hebron, Qawasmeh recently decided to escalate his hunger strike by refusing to take any supplements or intravenous fluids. 

The Palestinian Prisoners’ Affairs Committee warned in a statement that Qawasmeh’s health had sharply deteriorated, with the young man suffering from extreme weight loss, low heart rate, shortness of breath, blurry vision, migraines and severe pain, and was now unable to stand up.

While the strikes have brought attention to the fates of individual Palestinians in Israeli prisons, prisoners’ rights advocates say the movement seeks to bring attention to the sharp rise in administrative detention sentences and the broader struggle of Palestinian prisoners under the occupation.
 

Spike in detentions

According to the Prisoners’ Affairs Committee, three Israeli guards surround Qawasmeh at all times in the Kaplan Medical Centre in Rehovot, Israel, deliberately eating food in front of him while his right hand and left foot are cuffed to his hospital bed at all times.

Qawasmeh was arrested by the Israeli army in January, then sentenced to six months in administrative detention. His administrative detention was renewed for a second time in June, without him or his lawyers being informed of what charges were being held against him - prompting the Palestinian to launch his hunger strike alongside several other prisoners..

Qawasmeh’s brother Qutayba told Middle East Eye that lawyers were able to visit him on Thursday night, and had informed the family that he was in critical condition.

“We as a family have been living in constant fear and worry over Miqdad’s health for the past two months, and now we’re afraid of losing him in light of his ongoing hunger strike and his refusal to take supplements,” Qutayba said, stressing that Israeli authorities were deliberately neglecting his brother and refusing to even negotiate his demands.

Five other Palestinians are currently on hunger strike protesting their administrative detention. Kayed al-Fasfous, 32, has been on strike the longest, refusing food since early July to denounce being held without charges since July 2020.
 

In her husband’s absence, Myassar has been left alone to raise the couple’s 15-year-old twins Khaled and Jana, born after years of struggle.

“It was difficult to have our children, and today Yousef is prevented from living a normal life as a father with his children. We suffer from his absence,” she said. “Today my children are denied their most basic right to live a normal life with their father.

“We have been suffering because of administrative detention for many long years, and we reject it completely, because it is an unjust form of imprisonment without any justification, and destroys our daily lives,” she added. “We have faith that Yousef and his comrades will succeed in ending their administrative detention and put an end to this policy.”