The Palestinian Prisoners Information Office on Sunday published painful pictures of Khalil Awawda who has been on a hunger strike in the Israeli occupation prisons.
The pictures circulated on social media showed the serious deterioration in his health, as he appeared with a slender body resembling a skeleton as a result of his strike.
40-year-old Palestinian prisoner Khalil Awawda, from the town of Idna in the city of Hebron in the southern occupied West Bank, has been on a hunger strike for nearly 170 days, in refusal to be administratively detained.
On Monday, August 29, the Palestinian Prisoner Club said Awawda sent a message this morning, via a short video, from the Asaf Harofeh hospital where he is admitted.
In the video, prisoner Awawda said, “O people of the world, this rickety body, of which nothing remains but bones and skin, does not reflect the weakness and nakedness of the Palestinian people, but rather is a mirror in the face of the real occupation that claims to be a democratic state, while there is a prisoner without charge in detention. The barbaric administrator to say in his flesh and blood: No to administrative detention, no to administrative detention.”
“We are people whose cause is just, and it will remain just, and we will continue to stand against it. Administrative detention, even if the flesh and skin melt and the bones perish, and even if the lives are gone, be confident that we have the right and that our cause is just, no matter how high the price paid,” he added.
He is in a critical health condition and faces the threat of sudden death, weighing 38 kilogrammes (84 pounds).
On Sunday, August 28, activists protested outside Assaf Harofeh Hospital in support of Khalil Awawdeh, calling for his immediate release.
On Thursday, August 25, Awawda said that he is going on an indefinite hunger strike “for freedom, even if his flesh perishes and his body perishes.”
This came in a video clip of the striking prisoner who can be seen embracing his young daughters after they were able to visit him at Harofeh Hospital, to which he was transferred after his health deteriorated.
“My daughters are the joy of my soul, a piece of my heart… For them, my country, my loved ones, and the free people of the world, I will lose my body,” Awawda added.
He continued, “My flesh perishes, and my body perishes for the sake of freedom and dignity.”
On August 25, Khalil Awawda met his family, after the Israeli occupation authorities allowed them to visit him at the Israeli “Asaf Harofeh” hospital.
A video recording showed Khalil Awawda’s mother embracing and kissing him in the first meeting since he began the hunger strike, and she said, “You are a hero… Freedom, my love, Yama… But we want freedom.”
In March, Awawda began a hunger strike to demand his release, and his lawyer, Ahlam Haddad, said he has only lived on water since then.
The release of Awawda was part of a ceasefire agreement to end the recent Israeli aggression on the Gaza Strip, which lasted for 3 days.
An Egyptian-brokered ceasefire was agreed upon with Israel after Cairo “promised to work for the release of the two prisoners, Khalil Awawda and Bassam al-Saadi”.
On Friday, August 19, the occupation army temporarily suspended the administrative detention order for Awawda, due to the deterioration of his condition. But a military spokesman said he was not allowed to leave the hospital.
It is noteworthy that administrative detention is a decision to imprison by an Israeli military order, alleging the existence of a “secret file” for the detainee, without filing an indictment, and extends for 6 months, which can be extended several times.
Out of the approximately 4,450 Palestinian prisoners currently held by Israel, about 670 are currently being held in administrative detention, a number that has increased since March as Israel stepped up its raids in the occupied West Bank.
