A Palestinian flag is pictured on the fence of the Israeli regime's Ofer prison near the city of Ramallah in the Tel Aviv-occupied West Bank. (File photo)

Ramallah, June 7 (RHC)-- Palestinian prisoners held under Israel's so-called administrative detention policy, are planning a mass open-ended hunger strike in protest at their unlawful and indefinite imprisonment without trial or charge.

The protest action is to start on Sunday, June 18th, the official Palestinian Wafa news agency reported on Monday, citing the Palestinian Administrative Detainees' Committee.  Palestinian inmates will also keep up their boycott of the regime's courts "as a means of drawing attention to the violation of their rights," the committee added.

It noted that the detainees' key demand is for the regime to end its practice of administrative detention, while also seeking to "oblige Israel to respect its obligations under the international humanitarian and human rights law."

Under its policy of administrative detention, the occupying regime detains Palestinians without trial or charge for up to six months; a period which can be extended for an indefinite number of times.

The UN has once again called on Israel to release Palestinian prisoners held in Israeli jails.
The detention takes place on the orders of 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.

According to the latest figures released by Addameer Prisoner Support and Human Rights Association, Israel is currently holding around 5,000 Palestinian political prisoners in its prisons and detention facilities, including 155 children and 32 women.  The figure also includes 1,014 Palestinians, who are being kept under the regime's administrative detention policy.

Palestinian detainees have resorted to open-ended hunger strike on frequent occasions to express outrage at their plight under the occupying regime's inhumane detention policy.

The committee said the plan to hold a mass open-ended hunger strike came after its negotiations with the Israeli Prison Service (IPS) failed.  During the talks, the committee demanded, among other things, an end to Israel's administrative detention regime and lifting of the penalties and other forms of collective punishment targeting prisoners affiliated with the Islamic Jihad movement.   The committee also urged the regime to end the solitary confinement of female detainees at Ramleh Prison.

The committee stated that the IPS and Israeli intelligence turned a deaf ear to all of the above demands and even resorted to threats.