WEST BANK (Dispatches) – A European Union delegation to the Palestinians say it was “shocked” to see pictures of the frail body of prisoner Khalil Awawdeh, who has been on hunger strike in a Zionist regime jail since March.
“Shocked by the horrible pictures of Awawdeh who is hunger striking... in protest against his detention without charges and is in imminent danger of dying. Unless charged immediately, he has to be released,” the delegation tweeted.
Awawdeh’s family has released a video message from him while on a hospital bed.
Awawdeh said in the message that “this body, on which only bone and skin remain, does not reflect the weakness and nakedness of the Palestinian people, but rather reflects and mirrors the face of the real occupation.”
He added that the Zionist regime “claims to be a democratic regime, while there is a prisoner without any charge who has stood against the barbaric administration detention to say in his flesh and blood no to administrative detention.”
Doctors have warned that Awawdeh is at risk of imminent death, his body reached a frail stage after losing tens of kilograms, and his skeleton and chest bones have protruded.
The lawyer Awawdeh also said on Sunday the 40-year-old inmate is facing terribly difficult health conditions.
The Palestinian prisoner’s lawyer added that Awawdeh has lost half of his weight and his ability to speak, Palestine’s official Wafa news agency reported.
Awawdeh, a father of four, has been arrested five times since 2005 for political activism, and has been placed under so-called administrative detention three times ever since.
He initially staged a 111-day hunger strike, which he suspended in light of a promise by the occupying regime to release him. He resumed the protest action when the regime’s prison officials reneged on their promise to let him go free.
On August 19, a military court urgently suspended the administrative detention of the hunger-striking Palestinian. However, his lawyers said Awawdeh will press ahead with his hunger strike until he is granted a full release.
He is one of several Palestinian prisoners who have gone on prolonged hunger strikes over the years to protest so-called administrative detention.