WEST BANK (Dispatches) – Hunger-striking Palestinian inmate Hisham Abu Hawwash’s life is at risk nearly 130 days after the prisoner began his hunger strike in protest at his indefinite imprisonment by the Zionist regime, his lawyer says.
Jawad Boulus, Abu Hawwash’s lawyer, said on Thursday that his client, who has been on hunger strike for the past 129 days, has lost his ability to move, and is suffering from speaking difficulty, Palestine’s official Wafa news agency reported.
He warned that although Abu Hawwash is in critical condition and in dire need for medical follow-up and hospitalization, the occupying regime has kept him in prison and refused to move him to hospital for due treatment.
Earlier this month, the Prisoners and Ex-prisoners Affairs Authority said that Abu Hawwash was in “tragic condition.” The rights group said the 40-year-old inmate suffers from weakness in the bones and muscles, a sharp weight loss, and sharp pains all over his body.
He has also become unable to move or to speak, but Zionist regime courts continue to reject his release appeals, it added.
Abu Hawwash’s family has already warned that he may die any moment as a result of his prolonged hunger strike, calling for urgent action to save his life before it is too late.
Abu Hawwash is one of the four prisoners who went on extended hunger strikes against their detention without charge. The other prisoners were Kayed Fasfous, Ayyad al-Harimi, and Lo’ai al-Ashqar.
Meanwhile, at least three Palestinian female prisoners in solitary confinement at a Zionist jail have gone on an open-ended hunger strike in protest at their mistreatment.
The Palestinian Asra Media Office, which focuses on prisoner affairs, reported that the rest of the female inmates at the notorious Damon prison will join the hunger strike in stages.
The hunger strikers were identified as Mona Qaadan, Marah Bakir and Shurouq Duwaikat from the occupied Palestinian territories.
Their decision came amid reports of the abuse and mistreatment of female prisoners at the prison.
The Palestinian Prisoners Society (PPS), in a recent statement, said Zionist troops had violently raided the cells of the female Palestinian detainees and severely beaten them, injuring some of them.
One of the prisoners lost consciousness during repeated attacks by regime troops who removed the headscarves of the prisoners and grabbed them by neck and pulled their hair.
According to the PPS, dozens of Palestinian women have currently been languishing behind bars at the regiem’s notorious Damon prison. They are subjected to very harsh conditions and constantly monitored through surveillance cameras.
The female Palestinian prisoners have to spend most of their days in damp and humid rooms, particularly in the winter, the PPS said.
A number of rights advocacy groups earlier this year reported on the occasion of International Mother’s Day that Israel was holding several Palestinian mothers in jail, adding that they are subject to various kinds of torture and not allowed to meet with their relatives.
Since 2015, the number of Palestinian women who have been arrested has reached more than 900, among them mothers of prisoners, martyrs and minor girls, according to a report by the Palestinian Prisoners Club (PPC) and the Addameer Prisoner Support and Human Rights Association.
More than 7,000 Palestinian prisoners are currently held in some 17 Israeli jails, with dozens of them serving multiple life sentences.