Middle East Monitor / April 27, 2021
Palestinian prisoner Imad Sowarka has entered the 40th day of his hunger strike in protest of his continued administrative detention by Israel in Ashkelon prison, the Palestinian Prisoners’ Club announced yesterday.
“Sowarka’s health has been deteriorating,” the club warned in a statement, adding that the occupation authorities were continuing their “obstinacy and refusal to respond to his demands of standing trial.”
The statement pointed out that the prison administration had prevented Sowarka’s attorney from visiting him. The lawyer had said the reasons given were “flimsy pretences.”
Sowarka is a 37-year-old father from the occupied West Bank city of Jericho.
“In addition to Sowarka, 33-year-old Musab al-Hor from Al-Khalil/Hebron, and the 43-year-old journalist, Alaa al-Rimawi from Ramallah, have been on hunger strike for the same reason,” the humanitarian organisation noted.
It added that Al-Hor had been on strike for 14 days in an Israeli prison in the Negev, noting that Al-Rimawi had been refusing to eat for six days in the Ofer Detention Centre.
“The three prisoners are former detainees who had spent years in Israeli detention, most of which under administrative detention,” the statement explained.
A total of 440 Palestinian prisoners have been languishing in Israeli prisons under administrative detention, including two children, three females, and elderly prisoners, according to the club’s official data.
“Since January 2021, the Israeli intelligence has issued more than 280 administrative detention orders,” the club added.
Administrative detention is a form of detention without charge or trial. Its use may result in arbitrary detention and if prolonged or repeated can amount to cruel, inhuman, and degrading treatment or punishment, Amnesty International has previously warned. It has no time limit, and the evidence on which it is based is not disclosed.
