Palestinian prisoners announce one day long hunger strike
The Israeli occupation has pushed Palestinian prisoners to the edge, prompting them to announce a hunger strike in protest of its arbitrary policies.
The Palestinian prisoners of the Israeli occupation's Ofer prison announce a one-day-long hunger strike starting Thursday in solidarity with their comrades on hunger strike in protest of their administrative detention, the Muhjat Al-Quds association said on Wednesday.
The prisoners' affairs association said the Palestinian inmates in Ofer prison, which amount to around 900 prisoners, have decided to go on hunger strike on Thursday in support of their 30 comrades that have been on hunger strike for 11 days in protest of the Israeli occupation's administrative detention policy.
The Palestinian Prisoners' Club warned the Israeli occupation earlier in the month that if its authorities kept administratively detaining Palestinians, there would be more inmates participating in new and upcoming hunger strikes.
At the beginning of September, the Palestinian Prisoners Information Office announced that 1200 detainees held in the Israeli occupation prisons began an open-ended hunger strike as part of the steps taken against the procedures of the Israeli administrative prisons against the prisoners.
28 out of the 30 hunger-striking Palestinian prisoners were sentenced to solitary confinement in four cells in Ofer, while human rights advocate detainee Salah Al-Hammouri faced the same measure in Hadarim Prison, as Ghassan Zawahira was also sentenced to solitary confinement in Al-Naqab Prison.
The Israeli occupation has sentenced more than 9,500 Palestinians to administrative detention since 2015. Since the start of 2022, the Israeli occupation issued more than 1,365 administrative detention orders, with August recording the most orders at 272.
The Palestinian Prisoners Club said that since late 2011, Palestinian prisoners have carried out more than 400 individual strikes, the majority of which were against administrative detention. 80% of administrative detainees have had their administrative detention renewed more than once, and they include elders, sick people, and children.
Some 600 Palestinian prisoners are suffering from diseases in the Israeli occupation's prisons, the head of the Studies and Documentation department in the Commission of Detainees and ex-Detainees' Affairs, Abdel Nasser Farwana, said in early September.
Farwana underlined that the prisoners are going through tragic circumstances, brutal treatment, agonizing torture, and criminality committed by the Israeli occupation against Palestinians imprisoned in Israeli prisons.
This day, around 4,600 Palestinian prisoners are being held in Israeli jails, including 200 children and 36 women. Of that number, 500 prisoners are in administrative detention, according to the Palestinian prisoners’ rights group Addameer.
Palestinian prisoners are incarcerated in deplorable conditions and subjected to inhumane treatment. Human rights organizations have documented a variety of physical and psychological abuses, including arbitrary beatings, excessive use of solitary confinement, and denial of family visits for years.