Palestinian detainee Maher Al-Akhras continues his hunger strike protesting his administrative detention for the 103rd consecutive day Friday amid the intransigence of the Israeli occupation authorities (IOA) on his release and their insistence on completing his detention period.
Qadri Abu Bakr the head of the Prisoners and Ex-prisoners Affairs Authority in cooperation with the Negotiations Affairs Department of the PLO called on the international community to carry out its legal and humanitarian responsibilities towards the administrative detainees and to immediately intervene to pressure the IOA to release Akhras.
Abu Bakr addressed a letter to the Secretary-General of the United Nations the High Commissioner for Human Rights the Foreign Ministers of Russia China and the European Union the International Committee of the Red Cross the Secretary-General of the Arab League and the Secretary-General of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation to find deterrent mechanisms to stop the Israeli policy of administrative detention and to hold the occupation accountable for its deliberate violations of the provisions of international law and human rights.
The Authority warned of the seriousness of Akhras’s health condition and his possible martyrdom at any moment.
In a press release the Authority warned that the health condition of Akhras is still very difficult as he suffers from severe fatigue and exhaustion and his senses of hearing and speaking have also been affected negatively. Furthermore he suffers from seizures severe pain in all his body and severe headache.
Akhras was arrested on July 27 2020 and transferred to Hawara detention center in which he began his open hunger strike. Later he was transferred to Ofer prison and the IOA ordered his administrative detention for four months.
His detention continued in Ofer prison until his health deteriorated with time. The Israel Prison Service transferred him to the Ramla Clinic prison where he stayed until the beginning of last September. He was then transferred to Kaplan Hospital where he is still being held in a difficult and dangerous health condition and he refuses to take any supplements or conduct medical examinations.
On September 23 2020 the Israeli Supreme Court issued a decision to freeze Akhras’s administrative detention. Akhras and human rights institutions considered the freezing order an attempt to break his strike because it does not mean the immediate end of his detention.
On October 1 2020 after his lawyer submitted a new request for his release the court rejected to release him and kept the decision to freeze his administrative detention.
