NABLUS (Dispatches) –
Zionist occupation forces rearrested former detainee, Hisham Abu Hawash, during a massive arrest campaign last night in a number of cities and towns across the occupied West Bank.
According to the Times of Israel, Abu Hawash was among the 13 Palestinians arrested on the pretext that they are wanted by Zionist troops.
Overnight raids by the regime are a near daily practice in the occupied West Bank. The occupying regime claims that they are essential for intelligence purposes, but rights groups have slammed the practice, insisting that the goal is to oppress and intimidate the Palestinian population and increase the regime’s control.
Father of five Abu Hawash, 40, from the town of Dura, west of Al-Khalil city in the south of the West Bank was arrested in October 2020 and went on hunger strike for 141 days in protest of being held under the so-called administrative detention – without charge or trial.
During his detention, he was hospitalized but refused medical treatment. After days of protests by Palestinians calling for his release, and mounting fears in the occupied territories of widespread unrest if he died in custody, the regime yielded on 5 January and agreed to release him in February. He then ended his hunger strike.
The occupying regime detains about 4,500 Palestinians, including about 500 prisoners in the so-called administrative detention, a procedure that allows regime authorities to hold a person without charge for renewable periods of six months.