The Israeli occupation authorities (IOA) extended on Monday the detention of the Palestinian prisoner Khalil Awawda who ended his 172-day hunger strike in August days before his expected release.
Al-Awawda 40 was due to be released on October 2 but an Israeli court ruled that he would be held until next Thursday.
The father of four was arrested by Israeli forces from his home in the village of Ithna south of al-Khalil in the occupied West Bank in December 2021.
He was placed in so-called “administrative detention” an Israeli policy that allows the indefinite imprisonment of Palestinians without trial or charge based on “secret information” that is not accessible to the detainee nor his lawyer.
There are currently more than 760 Palestinian prisoners jailed under administrative detention orders out of a total of approximately 4650 Palestinian prisoners held in Israeli jails.
Administrative detention is a detention without charge or trial. It is based on a secret file that neither the detainee nor his lawyer have access to. According to the military orders of the occupation an administrative detention order can be renewed unlimited times for a maximum renewable period of six months.
For decades Israel has intentionally used administrative detention to detain individuals including prisoners of conscience held solely for exercising their rights to freedom of expression assembly and association to punish them for their views and activism.
