On Sunday 7 July 2019, Addameer’s lawyer was able to visit the prisoners Huthaifa Halabia, Mustafa Hassanat and Mohammed Abu Akkar in the occupation prison in the Naqab prison. Today, the three prisoners are ending their first week of hunger strike in protest of the policy of adminstrative detention and demanding their release. Addameer’s lawyer reported that three prisoners have only been drinking water, without salt or any other supplements since the beginning of their strike on 1 July. They also suffer from pain in the joints, stomach, head and general emaciation and weight loss in their bodies. They have not been medically examined yet and they have the intention of boycotting the prison clinics.
Repressive Measures
In addition, since the beginning of their hunger strike, the prison administration has subjected the three prisoners to repressive measures in order to discourage them from continuing their strike. Addameer’s lawyer stated that after starting their hunger strike, the prisoners were transferred to solitary confinement cells that lack the most basic elements to support human life. They were deprived of visits and the canteen for a month and subjected to raids and inspections of their cells five times in one day. The prison administration also confiscated the striking prisoners’ mattresses daily from 6 in the morning to 7 at night. At this moment, Addameer’s lawyer has not received any response to negotiate between the three hunger strikers and the prison administration. It should be noted that Mustafa Hasanat has been boycotting military courts, since before his hunger strike.
Currently there are seven prisoners on hunger strike against administrative detention, including Jafar Ezeddin and Ihsan Othman who have been on hunger strike the longest, since 16 June, as well as Ahmad Zahran who has been on hunger strike since 20 June. Five prisoners, Mahmoud Fasfoos, Kayed Fasfoos, Abdelaziz Suweiti, Ghadnafar Atwan, and Saed Namoureh, suspended their hunger strike last Thursday, 4 July, after reaching agreements with the prison administration to stop the renewal of their administrative detention.
Addameer Prisoner Support and Human Rights Association affirms its full support for the striking prisoner’s demands and holds the occupying state fully accountable to the life and the safety of the prisoners on hunger strike as well as to the health conditions resulting from their delayed response to the strikers demands. Addameer emphasizes that the policy of administrative detention is used against Palestinians as a form of repression and collective punishment that violates all international norms and may amount to war crime. It is in this context that Addameer demands that the international community and all the state parties to the Fourth Geneva Conventions intervene and put pressure on the occupying state to stop its violations against the striking prisoners and their rights, stop the policy of arbitrary detention, release all adminstrative detainees and guarantee the rights of Palestinian prisoners under international law.