RAMALLAH, Thursday, January 28, 2021 (WAFA) – Bassam and Bilal Diab, two Palestinian brothers from the town of Kafr Ra'i in the north of the occupied West Bank, remain on hunger strike for the tenth day a row today in protest of their re-detention by the Israeli occupation authorities.
The two brothers were detained by the Israeli occupation army on January 19 during an overnight raid into their homes in their hometown, and are currently incarcerated in the Al-Jalama interrogation center near Haifa.
Bilal, 36 years old, had been detained five times by Israeli occupation authorities in 2003, 2011, 2012, 2017 and 2019. During his detention in 2012, he underwent a 78-day hunger strike in protest of his detention without charge or trial, which ended up in his release.
Bassam, 37 years old, had also been detained three times by the occupation authorities in 2003, 2013 and 2018.
Usually, Palestinian prisoners would start individual hunger strikes in protest of administrative detention, an Israeli policy which allows detention of Palestinians without a charge or trial. Yet, the Diab brothers case is a precedent since it is the first time two Palestinian prisoners engage in a hunger strike in protest of re-arrest by the occupation authorities.
The Israeli occupation authorities are still incarcerating more than 5,000 Palestinian and Arab prisoners for resisting its occupation of their homeland. Many of these prisoners have been in prison for more than 25 years.
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