A long-time detainee in Israel’s Ofer prison, Khalil Awawda, 40 years-old, from the town of Idna in the Hebron governorate, reached the 18th day of his open hunger strike today in protest against his “administrative detention”.
Awawda began his hunger strike on 3 March, demanding the lifting of his administrative detention and immediate release.
Awawda currently suffers restricted mobility, and from problems with his neck and back, for which he requires surgery and physical therapy. However, the prison clinic supplies him only with aspirin.
Awawda is married and the father of four children. He has spent 12 years in total in Israeli prisons, including five years under administrative detention. He was last released in June 2016.
Since 1 January of this year, administrative detainees have continued to boycott all courts related with the order, inn co-ordination with Palestinian prisoners across the Israeli penal system, in protest against the system’s abuses against them.
Administrative detention involves detention without charge or trial, as based on files that neither the detainee nor their lawyer can access. Such detention orders can last up to six months, though can be renewed an unlimited number of times.
Israeli occupation authorities currently administratively detain approximately 500 prisoners of 4,600 Palestinian prisoners overall.
