WEST BANK (Dispatches) – A Palestinian commission for prisoners says thirteen Palestinian inmates are still on hunger strike in the Zionist regime’s prisons in protest at their indefinite and unexplained imprisonment at the hands of the occupying regime.
In a statement released on Sunday, the Palestinian Commission of Detainees’ and Ex-Detainees’ Affairs said 40-year old prisoner Salem Ziadat is the longest hunger striker among the thirteen Palestinian inmates, who has been on hunger strike for 28 days in protest at his detention without charge, Palestine’s Wafa news agency reported.
The commission further noted that the number of detainees who were on hunger strike was fifteen until yesterday, when two of them reached an agreement with the Zionist regime was forced to limit the so-called administrative detention for two of them. The detention is a form of imprisonment in which the individual is never tried and can be held indefinitely.
Hundreds of Palestinian prisoners are held under “administrative detention”, in which the regime keeps the detainees without charge for up to six months, a period which can be extended an infinite number of times. Women and minors are among those detainees.
The detention takes place on orders from a military commander and on the basis of what the regime describes as ‘secret’ evidence.
Some prisoners have been held in administrative detention for up to 11 years.
Administrative detention is illegal under international law. However, the occupying regime uses it to repress the Palestinian people.
Palestinian detainees have continuously resorted to open-ended hunger strikes in an attempt to express their outrage at the detention. Palestinians hold Zionist regime authorities fully responsible for any deterioration of the circumstances in jails.
Human rights organizations say the Zionist regime continues to violate all rights and freedoms granted to prisoners by the fourth Geneva Convention and international laws.
More than 7,000 Palestinian prisoners are currently held in some 17 the regime’s jails, with dozens of them serving multiple life sentences.