Ramallah, July 23 (RHC)-- Israeli authorities have refrained from providing medical check-up and healthcare for three prisoners, two Palestinians and a Jordanian, on hunger strike in the regime’s jails, a senior Palestinian official says.
The two Palestinians, identified as Mohammad Allan and Udai Steiti, have staged the hunger strike in protest against the so-called administrative detention, Issa Qaraqe, the head of the Palestinian Authority’s committee for prisoners, said on Tuesday.
Abdullah Abu Jaber, the third inmate who is a Jordanian citizen, has joined the strike in order to be sent back to his country after spending 15 out of 20 years in an Israeli prison. Qaraqe also warned about the deteriorating health condition of the prisoners and added that the Israeli regime is responsible for their lives.
Administrative detention is a sort of imprisonment without trial or charge that allows the Tel Aviv regime to incarcerate Palestinians for up to six months. The detention order can be renewed for indefinite periods of time.
Israeli human rights group B’Tselem has said the use of administrative detention by Israel “blatantly violates the restrictions of international law,” adding that the Tel Aviv regime conducts it “in a highly classified manner that denies detainees the possibility of mounting a proper defense.” And B'Tselem added: “Moreover, the detention has no upper time limit.”
Palestinian prisoners often stage open-ended hunger strikes to protest against their illegal administrative detention and with the hope of ending the inhumane practice that violates international law.
Meanwhile, media reports warned about the worsening health condition of another Palestinian prisoner from the besieged Gaza Strip. The 34-year-old prisoner, Zamel Abu Shallouf, who is being held in Israeli Eshel prison, has reportedly been subject to deliberate medical negligence and is suffering from various health problems.
According to non-governmental Palestinian prisoner support and human rights association, Addameer, Israeli officials “regularly neglect their duties to provide medical support for Palestinian prisoners in their care, as required by the Geneva Conventions.”
Over 7,000 Palestinians are reportedly incarcerated in 17 Israeli prisons and detention camps.
