Arab Organisation for Human Rights in the UK (AOHR UK) reports that the life of Palestinian detainee Hisham Abu Hawash is in grave danger, following 135 days of his strike in protest against his “administrative detention”, or detention without trial. Abu Hawash’s health has massively deteriorated, meaning a total loss of movement and speech.
Israeli occupation forces arrested Abu Hawash in October 2020, after which his administrative detention has been arbitrarily renewed – against which, Abu Hawash has protested through a hunger strike since August 2020.
AOHR UK records that, according to medical reports, Abu Hawash is facing death due to a lack of fluids and salts; he has lost a huge amount of weight, suffers severe fatigue and permanent dizziness, and is suffering damage to the nervous system and vital organs, including his heart, liver, kidneys, and lungs.
A video clip, shared widely on social media, shows that Abu Hawash can no longer support himself physically and has lost much of his perception. He therefore urgently requires a transfer to a fully equipped hospital – however, the occupying administration has thus far refused to release Abu Hawash.
Earlier this week, AOHR UK reported that the occupation authorities paused Abu Hawash’s administrative detention, meaning that both the prison and intelligence services (Shin Bet) are free of any responsibility for his fate. He is now a “detainee” in Shamir hospital, leaving Abu Hawash under the guard of hospital security – rather than his actual jailers – and his family unable to transfer him to a more suitable location.
AOHR UK underlines that the occupation authorities’ obstinacy – their refusal to respond to Abu Hawash’s demand to end his administrative detention, which was renewed for four months only two weeks ago – confirms the occupation’s disregard for Palestinian prisoners’ lives.
AOHR UK, therefore, calls on the relevant bodies of the United Nations, in particular the Human Rights Council, and those countries with relations with the occupying authority, to intervene urgently to save the life of detainee Hisham Abu Hawash, and to work towards his release.
