RAMALLAH, Friday, December 18, 2020 (WAFA) – A Palestinian prisoner today started an open-ended hunger strike in protest of his ongoing detention despite the completion of his sentence in Israeli custody.
Jibril Mohammad Zubaidi, a resident of Jenin refugee camp, announced going into an open-ended hunger strike in protest of being placed under extended detention although he completed his 10-month sentence in Israeli custody.
Jamal Zubaidi, a former prisoner, confirmed that the Israeli occupation authorities rejected to release his nephew, Jibril, who was placed in detention for 12 years and released in December 2016, before being detained once again for 10 months.
It is worth noting that Jibril’s mother, Samira, and brother, Taha, were killed by Israeli forces during the Israeli military’s bombardment of the refugee camp, that is just 0.4 square kilometers and hosts about 15,000 people, for more than 10 days in April 2002.
The bombardment occurred as part of Israel’s so-called Operation Defensive Shield, during which it sent troops into the heart of six major West Bank cities and surrounding towns and refugee camps that were ostensibly under the Palestinian Authority’s control.
Jibril’s brothers, Yahya, Daoud and Zakaria are currently in Israeli detention. Zakaria, a leading Fatah member, was rounded up during a raid in Ramallah in February 2019.
Israel’s widely condemned practice of administrative detention that allows the detention of Palestinians without charge or trial for renewable intervals ranging between three and six months based on undisclosed evidence that even a detainee’s lawyer is barred from viewing.
The US State Department has said in past reports on human rights conditions for Palestinians that administrative detainees are not given the “opportunity to refute allegations or address the evidentiary material presented against them in court.”
Amnesty International has described Israel’s use of administrative detention as a “bankrupt tactic” and has long called on Israel to bring its use to an end.
Palestinian detainees have continuously resorted to open-ended hunger strikes as a way to protest their illegal administrative detention and to demand an end to this policy, which violates international law.
K.F.
