After 25 days of hunger strike, the health of the Palestinian detainee, Khalil Awawda, is deteriorating.
Detained in an Israeli occupation prison, Awawda’s hunger strike is a protest against his “administrative detention.”
Awadeh suffers from headaches, chills, and nausea; he has lost at least 9 kilograms, and much of his mobility.
Awawda has suffered from serious neck and back problems for the past five years, and requires both surgery and physical therapy, both of which have been denied by the prison authorities. Instead, the clinic provides Aspirin.
Awawda began his hunger strike on 3 March, and is calling for the abolition of administrative detention and his own release.
Awawda, 40 years-old and from the Hebron Governorate, in the south of the occupied West Bank, is married and the father of four children. He has spent 12 years in Israeli prisons, five of which were under administrative detention.
Since 1 January 2022, administrative detainees have boycotted all courts related with the order, in collaboration with prisoners across the Israeli prison system, who are protesting against the various abusive measures taken against them.
“Administrative detention” means detention without charge or trial, as based on case files that neither the detainee nor their lawyers are able to access. Such orders can last up to six months, though can be renewed an unlimited number of times.
Israeli occupation authorities administratively detain approximately 500 prisoners, of roughly 4,500 Palestinians across the occupied West Bank.
