WEST BANK (Dispatches) – Thirty Palestinian prisoners who are on hunger strike for the ninth day in the Zionist regime’s jails are set to continue their protest against being held under so-called administrative detention.
A statement released on behalf of the prisoners confirmed that they will continue their “battle” and hope that the Palestinian people “will continue supporting” their cause.
The prisoners described administrative detention as “arbitrary, Nazi, sadist and immoral.” The system allows Palestinian prisoners — it is never used for Zionists — to be held indefinitely with neither charge nor trial, based on secret evidence.
“This detention policy, which is illegal, is implemented against the Palestinians and seen as normal and even legal and moral,” said the prisoners. “All we want is freedom and dignity, as well as a quiet life with our children, wives, mothers, fathers and brothers away from bitter administrative detention.”
The prisoners insisted that they have taken the “final” decision that they will not surrender before putting an end to the “arbitrary” detention which prevents them from living with their loved ones.
In another development, the occupying regime has ordered the demolition of at least eight Palestinian homes in the occupied West Bank in line with the regime’s land-grab policy.
The Palestinian news agency Wafa quoted Fo’ad Le’mour, a local Palestinian activist, as saying Israeli soldiers stormed Ad-Deirat and Ar-Refa’iyaa villages in Masafer Yatta region, south of Al-Khalil.
The troops handed notices for the demolition of four homes in each of the two villages. Seven of the houses are already inhabited by local Palestinian families. Only one is currently under construction.
On May 4, a Zionist regime court gave the military the green light to displace over 1,000 Palestinians living in some eight communities in Masafer Yatta to turn the area into a firing zone.
The regime routinely demolishes Palestinian houses in the West Bank and East Al-Quds, claiming the structures have been built without the so-called permits, which are almost impossible to obtain. They also sometimes order Palestinian owners to demolish their own houses or pay the demolition costs.
The regime has occupied thousands of dunums of Palestinian agricultural land to construct and expand settlements in various areas of the West Bank.
The regime also plans to force out Palestinian families from neighborhoods in East Al-Quds in an attempt to replace them with settlers.
More than 600,000 Zionists live in over 230 settlements built since the 1967 occupation of the Palestinian territories of the West Bank and Al-Quds.
All the settlements are illegal under international law. The United Nations Security Council has condemned the regime’s settlement activities in the occupied territories in several resolutions.
Palestinians want the West Bank as part of a future independent state with East Al-Quds as its capital.