Palestinian administrative detainees to go on hunger strike

Hundreds of Palestinians held under administrative detention in Israeli prisons are planning to go on hunger strike on June 18 to demand an end to their incarceration without trial or charge. 

Since the beginning of the year, the administrative detainees and other Palestinian security prisoners have threatened more than once to go on hunger strike but backtracked in the last minute. 

It’s believed that Hamas and other Palestinian factions, especially those based in the Gaza Strip, have been trying to incite the detainees and prisoners to go on hunger strikes to embarrass and increase the pressure on both the Palestinian Authority and Israel. 

The PA has long been accused by several Palestinians of not doing enough to secure the release of detainees and prisoners. A hunger strike could trigger a wave of protests throughout the West Bank against both the PA and Israel. 

A senior PA official said on Sunday that contacts were underway between the representatives of the detainees and the Israeli authorities to reach a solution before next week that would prevent the hunger strike. “We are also holding urgent contacts with other parties, including Arab and Western governments, to warn about an explosion if Israel continues with its policy of holding people in detention without trial,” the official said.

“Every morning we wake up to hear about new repressive measures imposed against the detainees by [Minister of National Security] Itamar Ben-Gvir and his right-wing extremist government.

Hunger strikes not out-of-the-ordinary

The official pointed out that the death of senior Palestinian Islamic Jihad operative Khader Adnan in Israeli prison a few weeks ago was one of the reasons behind the last round of fighting between Israel and PIJ. Adnan, 44, died on May 2 after an 86-day hunger strike. He was arrested for membership in a terrorist organization and incitement.  

Last week, the administrative detainees formed a committee to prepare for a series of protests against the policy of administrative detentions, which allows the authorities to hold suspects in prison for a period of up to six months if the military commander of the West Bank has “reasonable grounds to believe that reasons of regional security or public security require nation. that a certain person be held in detention.”

The commander may extend the original detention order for an additional six-month period “from time to time.”

According to Palestinian sources, more than 1,100 Palestinians are currently being held under administrative detention in Israeli prisons. In May, at least 100 new administrative detention orders were issued against Palestinians suspected of involvement in security-related offenses, the sources said. 

The planned hunger strike will be held under the slogan “Freedom Revolution – Intifada of the Administrative Detainees,” the committee representing the inmates said in a statement. 

The Palestinian Prisoners Club, a non-governmental organization that assists and supports thousands of Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails, claimed that Israeli authorities were trying to thwart the hunger strike by questioning and pressuring some of the administrative detainees. It further claimed that some of the detainees were promised that their detention orders would not be extended if they refrained from joining the hunger strike. 

The Hamas-controlled Ministry for Prisoners’ Affairs said hundreds of administrative detainees were planning to take part in the “open-ended hunger strike.” The Ministry added that the main demand of the detainees is that Israel “end the crime of arbitrary detention, which has remarkably increased over the past few months.”