Palestinian Prisoners to Launch Open-Ended Mass Hunger Strike

Date: 20 August 2022 - 21:37

News ID: ۱۰۵۹۳۳

WEST BANK (Dispatches) – Palestinians held in the Zionist regime’s prisons plan to launch an open-ended mass hunger strike in protest against the regime’s repressive measures, according to the rights group Palestinian Prisoners’ Club (PPC).

Quoting the Supreme National Emergency Committee for Palestinian Prisoners, it said in a statement on Saturday that several inmates will begin a hunger strike on Monday and Wednesday, before launching a mass strike in all Zionist jails, the Palestinian Information Center reported.

As an initial step, the prisoners will refuse to go out for security inspections during this week, the statement said, adding that the inmates seek to force the regime’s prison authorities to halt their repressive measures and reverse all the unjust decisions they have taken in recent months.

Awawdeh to Continue With Prolonged Strike

Meanwhile, lawyers for hunger-striking Palestinian prisoner Khalil Awawdeh say he will press ahead with his 168-day fast until he is granted a full release even after the regime was forced to temporarily freeze the 40-year-old’s detention.

Awawdeh’s lawyers made the announcement after a Zionist military court on Friday urgently suspended the so-called administrative detention of the hunger-striking Palestinian.

The court had earlier in the week rejected an appeal to free Awawdeh despite the worsening of his health condition after 168 days of abstinence from food.

Ahlam Haddad, one of Awawdeh’s lawyers, was quoted by the Palestinian media as saying his “hunger strike will not be suspended because he is asking for his release and not for a freeze of his detention.”

Stressing that her client’s health has been deteriorating and he is seeking to be released, Haddad said Awawdeh has not eaten since March 4, except for a 10-day period in which he received vitamin injections.

The Palestinian Commission of Detainees and Ex-Detainees Affairs derided the Zionist regime’s suspension of Awawdeh’s detention and called for further pressure on the regime for his full release.

“The decision to suspend prisoner Awawdeh’s administrative detention is laughable,” the commission said, adding, “We must ignore it in terms of the media and public. What is needed is more pressure on the occupation and the implementation of all means of support for this heroic [hunger] strike.”