Palestinian prisoner Khalil Awawdeh administrative detention suspended

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The Israeli occupation Supreme Court issued on Friday an urgent decision to suspend the administrative detention of hunger-striking Palestinian prisoner Khalil Awawdeh, Muhjat Al-Quds said.

"The suspension of the prisoner's administrative detention is a step that allows his family to keep an eye on him and stand by his side," said Dalal Awawdeh, the hunger-striking prisoner's wife. "The prisoner's lawyer submitted a petition to the Supreme Court earlier today," she added.

She lauded the people calling for her husband's freedom, saying: "Public opinion contributed to putting pressure on the court."

Awawdeh underlined that her husband's lawyer was with him in the hospital currently. "We expect that he will be freed later on."

"Prisoner Khalil Awawdeh is until this moment continuing with his hunger strike," Dalal Awawdeh stressed.

"The decision to suspend prisoner Awawdeh's administrative detention is laughable," the Commission of Detainees and ex-Detainees' Affairs said. "We must ignore it in terms of the media and public."

"What is needed is more pressure on the occupation and the implementation of all means of support for this heroic [hunger] strike," the commission added.

The Israeli occupation's Ofer court rejected on August 15 Awawdeh's appeal for his release from arbitrary administrative detention.

The Commission of Detainees and Ex-Detainees Affairs warned on Sunday of the possibility that Awawdeh could die surprisingly as his health condition deteriorates drastically.

"Prisoner Awawdeh's health condition is getting worse day by day," commission spokesperson Hassan Abed Rabbo said. "He has lost more than half of his body weight, and he feels incredibly weak. His vision is impaired so much so that he could not recognize his wife Dalal Awawdeh as she was visiting him at the Assaf Harofeh hospital."

Human rights organizations have also confirmed that the prisoner Awawdeh "is at risk of martyrdom at any moment, in light of the occupation's refusal to respond to his demands to end his arbitrary administrative detention, despite the seriousness of his health condition."

An Israeli occupation court held last week an unplanned court session for Awawdeh due to his deteriorating health condition. He was still in the "Ramleh" prison clinic, however, without being transferred to a hospital.

The freedom of Awawdeh was one of the clauses of the Egyptian-mediated ceasefire between Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) and the Israeli occupation, which took place earlier this week after several days of Israeli aggression on the Gaza Strip, killing dozens of Palestinian civilians and wounding hundreds of others.

The head of the political department in the Islamic Jihad Movement, Muhammad Al-Hindi, said on August 7 that "a formula for the Egyptian declaration of the truce agreement has been reached, and it includes Egypt's commitment to work for the release of the two prisoners, Khalil Awawdeh and Bassam Al-Saadi."