Arab Organisation for Human Rights in the UK (AOHR UK) is dismayed at the recently-released photographs of Palestinian detainee Khalil al-Awawdeh, which reveal his emaciated condition after over 160 days of continuous hunger strike against his detention.
AOHR UK calls for al-Awawdeh’s immediate release, and for the end of the use of “administrative detention” against Palestinian citizens.
Awawdeh, a married father of four girls, was arrested by Israeli occupation authorities in December 2021, after which he was “administratively detained”, meaning that he was imprisoned without charge or trial, and without any access to the case against him. There are approximately 700 Palestinians currently held according to such orders, which last a maximum of 6 months, but that can be extended an infinite number of times.
Al-Awawdeh is one of many Palestinian detainees who continues to protest against administrative detention. Many such detainees have upheld a boycott of all judicial proceedings related to the order.
Given al-Awawdeh’s massively deteriorated health condition and the basic injustice of his detention, AOHR UK joins the calls from Palestine and around the world to free Khalil, and end administrative detention.
