Despite his serious health deterioration, the Palestinian detainee in the Israeli prisons, Khalil Awawda, 40, from Hebron, has continued his hunger strike for 145 days, in protest against his administrative detention.
Awawda suffers from severe joint pains, headaches, and uses a wheelchair for movement.
The occupation prisons administration transfers him to civilian hospitals to undergo medical examinations; however, they always return him back to prison without having them, claiming that his situation is not dangerous.
Awawda went on a hunger strike for 111 days and ended it after a false promise to release him from prison. On July 2, he went on a new hunger strike after receiving a new administrative order for another 4 months.
He previously leaked a message from his cell in Ramle prison, where he wrote: “The occupation prisons administration holds me incommunicado in a civilian section, in an empty cell that only has a mattress and a dirty blanket. They refuse to give me clothes or any basic needs, because I’m on a hunger strike.”
“My health condition is very poor. I am vomiting blood and I cannot drink water and I suffer from severe dehydration, pain in my two sides and difficulty standing.”
Awawda, a father of four girls, had been arrested by the IOF on December 27, 2021, and had been under administrative detention without any charges since then. He had been previously arrested by the IOF several times.
Administrative detention is a detention without charge or trial, with a secret file that neither the detainee nor his lawyer have access to. According to the military orders of the occupation, an administrative detention order can be renewed unlimited times, for a maximum renewable period of six months.
The number of Palestinian prisoners in the occupation’s prisons is about 4,650, including 30 female prisoners, 180 children, 650 administrative detainees, 6 MPs from the Palestinian Legislative Council, 500 sick detainees, and 13 journalists, according to the latest statistics of the Prisoners and Ex-Prisoners Affairs Authority.
