Palestinian detainees vow to continue hunger strike

Two Palestinian prisoners being held at an Israeli detention facility have pledged to continue their hunger strike in protest against their administrative detention by Israeli officials.

Fadi Ubeidat, a lawyer for the Palestinian Committee for Prisoners’ Affairs, said on Saturday that 26-year-old Mahmoud Muhammad Hasan al-Fasfous has stopped eating his food portions at Ktzi’ot Prison, located 72 kilometers (45 miles) southwest of Beersheba, since February 20, after his detention was renewed without trial for the third consecutive six-month period.

Fasfous told Ubeidat that Israeli authorities made the decision to keep him in custody in defiance of a court ruling against the extension of his remand.

The Palestinian hunger striker further said he has already lost six kilograms, and is suffering from a nose fracture and vision problems after jailers physically assaulted him.

Dawood Haboub, another Palestinian detainee held in Ktzi’ot Prison, also began his protest action on March 1.

On March 4, the Prisoners and Former Prisoners’ Affairs Committee said 46 Palestinians at Israel’s Etzion Prison are also refusing food in protest at mistreatment and poor conditions at the detention facility.

There are reportedly more than 6,500 Palestinians held at Israeli jails. Hundreds of the inmates have been apparently incarcerated under the practice of administrative detention, which is a policy under which Palestinian inmates are kept in Israeli detention facilities without trial or charge.

Some Palestinian prisoners have been held in administrative detention for up to eight, ten and eleven years.

The Palestinian inmates regularly hold hunger strikes in protest at both the administrative detention policy and harsh prison conditions.