The health condition of Palestinian prisoner Khalil Awawdeh has become more critical than before as he entered on Sunday day 169 of the hunger strike he staged in protest at his administrative detention.
As he nears the sixth month of his hunger strike Awawdeh is in a life-threatening health condition weighing about 38 kilograms (84 pounds).
Doctors in Assaf Harofeh Hospital and prisoner rights groups have warned that Awawdeh father of four from the village of Idhna in the occupied West Bank could die at any moment.
Recently an Israeli court froze his administrative detention but Awawdeh said he would not stop his hunger strike until his jailers decide to release him.
The prisoner’s lawyer Ahlam Haddad affirmed that Awawdeh would not suspend his hunger strike because he was asking for his release and not for a freeze on his administrative detention.
As a result of his prolonged hunger strike Awawdeh suffers from multiple health problems including severe joint pains a persistent headache emaciation extreme fatigue irregular heartbeats and breathing and blurred eyesight.
Awawdeh was kidnaped in December 2021 and since then he has been held under administrative detention – a tool used by the Israeli occupation authority in order to jail Palestinians for several months without charge or trial and extend their detention indefinitely.
Meanwhile prisoners Ahmed and Idhal Mousa brothers from al-Khader town in Bethlehem have been on open-ended hunger strike for 22 days in protest at their administrative detention without trial or charge.
The brothers were kidnaped by the Israeli occupation forces on August 7 2022 and later an Israeli military court approved the administrative detention of Ahmed for four months and Idhal for three months.
Out of the approximately 4450 Palestinian prisoners currently held by Israel about 670 are being held as administrative detainees a number that has increased since March as Israel stepped up its raids in the occupied West Bank.
Administrative detention is an Israeli policy that allows the indefinite detention of prisoners without trial or indictment based on alleged “secret evidence” that neither the detainee nor his lawyer is allowed to know.
Human rights groups have always described Israel’s use of this type of detention as arbitrary and a violation of the international law.
