WEST BANK (Dispatches) – A Zionist court has rejected a request to release Sheikh Khader Adnan, a senior member of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad resistance movement who has been on hunger strike for some 80 consecutive days in the occupying regime’s prisons, despite repeated warnings about his serious health condition.
The Palestinian Safa news agency cited Adnan’s lawyer as making the announcement, saying the 45-year-old had been once again denied release on bail by an Israeli military court after nearly 80 days of hunger strike in a row.
Adnan attended the court session via video conference, during which he lost consciousness several times over his deteriorating health condition, according to the Palestinian Prisoners’ Society (PPS).
The lawyer stressed that Adnan was unable to communicate with his family, who attended the court, and his wife also passed out several times before being transferred to the hospital in the northern West Bank city of Jenin.
Adnan began his open hunger strike from the moment of his arrest on February 5 after the occupation forces stormed his home in Arraba town, southwest of Jenin, and wreaked havoc there before arresting him.
Earlier in the week, the PPS warned of the death of Adnan, who is being held in the Ramla prison’s infirmary and is facing a very serious health condition. The advocacy group said Adnan, who is under security camera surveillance in the prison’s clinic, refuses to take any kind of intravenous fluids and medication or even undergo medical tests.
The group said in a statement that the prisoner has reached a very dangerous stage and he is at risk of martyrdom at any moment.
Khaled al-Batsh, a member of the politburo of the Islamic Jihad, held the Zionist regime on Tuesday fully responsible for any harm to its high-profile official and warned of a harsh response if he loses his life. Batsh also called on international bodies and institutions to exert pressure on the occupying regime and force it to end Adnan’s suffering before it is too late.
Adnan, who has been imprisoned for several times over the past few years as a result of his political and anti-occupation activities, is already suffering from severe health problems as a result of the strike, including frequent vomiting of blood, severe weakness, frequent loss of consciousness, difficulty in speaking, movement, sleep and concentration, and severe pain all over his body.
There are reportedly more than 7,000 Palestinians held in the Zionist regime’s jails. Hundreds of the inmates have been apparently incarcerated under the practice of “administrative detention”. Human rights organizations say the occupying regime violates all the rights and freedoms granted to prisoners by the Fourth Geneva Convention.
Palestinian detainees resort to open-ended hunger strikes in an attempt to express outrage at their detention.