The Israeli occupation authorities on Friday froze the administrative detention of the Palestinian prisoner Khalil Awawda, who has been continuing his open hunger strike for nearly half a year.
Khalil Awawda is one of the Palestinian detainees who have been on a prolonged hunger strike for years in protest of his administrative detention.
The Palestinian Prisoners Club said that the military commander of the Israeli army decided to freeze the administrative detention of the detainee Khalil Awawda, who has been on hunger strike for 160 days, in protest against his administrative detention.
According to the Prisoner’s Club, the decision to freeze the detention order was “based on medical data and reports from the hospital indicating a danger to his life, but if his health condition improves and the detainee decides to leave the hospital, his administrative detention will be activated immediately.”
The Prisoner Club stated that this decision “came in anticipation of the Israeli Supreme Court session, which was decided next Sunday to consider a petition submitted to it against his arrest.”
According to the Prisoner Club, the freezing “does not mean the cancellation of administrative detention,” as Awawda demands.
Awawda’s lawyer, Ahlam Haddad, said that her client will not end his hunger strike until the Israeli military government accepts his demand in canceling it, and not simply freezing the order.
She explained that Khalil’s health condition is very dangerous, and he is unable to move or talk, noting that the security of Asaf Harofeh Hospital prevented her from entering his room.
Khalil Awawda, rejected a decision and therefore decided to continue with his hunger strike demanding the cancellation of the order.
Awawda confirmed, in a video clip, that the occupation’s decision to freeze his administrative detention “is not an end to the strike.”
On Tuesday, August 16, the lawyer for a Palestinian prisoner said that her client will appeal his case to Israel’s Supreme Court.
On Monday, August 15, the Israeli occupation court rejected a request for the release of Khalil Awawda.
On Thursday, August 11, Israeli occupation forces transferred the prisoner Khalil Awawda, on his 152nd of his hunger strike, to Asaf Harofeh hospital from Ramleh prison after a serious deterioration in his health condition, amid warnings of his sudden death.
He launched his hunger strike in March and went for 111 days before ending it on June 21 after the Israeli authorities promised to end his administrative detention. However, he resumed his fast on July 5 after Israel reneged on its promise and instead of releasing him at the end of his administrative detention in June, renewed it for four more months.
He was last arrested on December 27, 2021, on charges of incitement, and an administrative detention order was issued against him for a period of six months. Awawda has been arrested four times since 2002, and this is his fifth arrest.
Administrative detention is a decision to imprison by an Israeli military order, alleging the existence of a secret file of the detainee, without filing an indictment, and it extends for 6 months, which can be extended several times.
Israel is currently holding some 4,450 Palestinian prisoners. Around 670 Palestinians are currently being held in administrative detention, a number that jumped in March as Israel began near-nightly arrest raids in the occupied West Bank.
Among the thousands of Palestinians detained in Israeli prisons, 175 are children and 27 are women, according to the latest figures published by the Addameer Foundation for Prisoners’ Rights.
