Despite their worsening health conditions the Israeli prison service (IPS) has rejected requests for the transfer of hunger-striking prisoners Khalil Awawdeh and Ra’ed Rayan to hospitals.
According to their lawyers Awawdeh and Rayan entered day 95 and day 60 respectively of the hunger strike they staged in protest at their detention administratively.
Awawdeh a resident of Idhna town in al-Khalil was taken back about 10 days ago to the Ramla prison infirmary although the Israeli high court of justice had ordered his immediate transfer to a hospital due to his critical health condition.
Awawdeh suffers from a persistent headache joint pains emaciation extreme fatigue irregular heartbeats and breathing and frequent vomiting of blood.
As for prisoner Ra’ed Rayan he staged his hunger strike to protest an Israeli decision extending his administrative detention.
Rayan who is being held in Ofer jail was kidnaped from his home in Beit Duqqu village northwest of Occupied Jerusalem on December 3 2021 and soon later an Israeli military court ordered his detention administratively for six months.
He also suffers from serious health problems as a result of his prolonged hunger strike.
Meanwhile hundreds of Palestinian prisoners held without trial or charge in Israeli jails have been staging a boycott of Israeli courts for the 155th consecutive day to demand an end to the policy of administrative detention.
In early January the administrative detainees announced a complete boycott of all judicial procedures related to their administrative detention.
The administrative prisoners also decided in recent days to take additional protest steps to pressure Israeli jailers to respond to their demands before staging an open-ended hunger strike as a final resort.
According to the Palestinian Center for Prisoners Studies the administrative detainees decided to organize sit-ins in prison yards and delay standing up for the evening count in all jails.
For its part Amnesty International said that the boycott of Israel’s military courts by hundreds of Palestinian administrative detainees “underscores the need to end this cruel and unjust practice which helps maintain Israel’s system of apartheid against Palestinians.”
“Nearly all the 490 Palestinian administrative detainees currently being held by Israel began a collective boycott on 1 January 2022 by refusing to participate in military court procedures that lack due process and are used merely to rubber stamp arbitrary detention” Amnesty said on its website.
“Their act of disobedience highlights the long-standing complicity of military courts in the use of administrative detention against Palestinians where individuals are held for months without charge or trial often on the whims of military officials or the minister of defense and based only on secret information provided by the Israeli security agency” the rights group added.
