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Palestinian detainees Raed Rayyan and Khalil Awawdeh. Published by the Palestinian News Agency (WAFA)


RAMALLAH, Sunday, July 24, 2022 (WAFA) – Some 75 Palestinian detainees imprisoned by Israel started today an open hunger strike in solidary with the two striking administrative detainees Khalil Awawda and Raed Rayyan.

Hasan Abed Rabbo, spokesman for the Prisoners Affairs Commission, told WAFA that as Rayyan, 28, has been on hunger strike for 109 days demanding an end to his illegal administrative detention without charge or trial.

Khalil Awawda, 40, from the town of Ethna in the southern West Bank district of Hebron, has been on hunger strike for 23 days in protest of his prolonged administrative detention without charge or trial.

Last month, Awawda broke a 111-day fast after being reassured by Israeli prison authorities that his administrative detention will not be renewed, but he resumed the hunger strike a week later after the occupation authorities reneged on their promise not to end his unfair detention order.

Israel’s widely condemned policy of administrative detention allows the detention of Palestinians without charge or trial for renewable intervals usually ranging between three and six months based on undisclosed evidence that even a detainee’s lawyer is barred from viewing.

Currently, Israel is holding over 680 Palestinians in administrative detention, deemed illegal by international law, most of them former prisoners who spent years in prison for their resistance of the Israeli occupation.

Amnesty International, has described Israel’s administrative detention policy as a “cruel, unjust practice which helps maintain Israel’s system of apartheid against Palestinians.”