RAMALLAH, September 9, 2015 (WAFA) – Six hunger-striking Palestinian detainees have demanded that an international committee of inquiry to be formed in order to investigate the arbitrary administrative detention of Palestinian detainees, according to a Detainees and Ex-detainees Committee’s report.

The Committee highlighted the health condition of six Palestinian detainees, who have been on hunger strike in protest of their detention without charge or trial, and reported that they continue to be relocated by Israeli Prison Service (IPS) from one jail to another and held in solitary confinement as a means to prevent attorneys from visiting them.

The six detainees are identified as lawyer Nidal Abu ‘Akr, 45, Sahdi Ma‘ali, 39, Ghassan Zawahra, 32, Bader al-Ruzza, Munir Abu Sharrar and Amir Shammas.

The detainees started their open-ended hunger strike on August 20 and gave the IPS until September 1 to respond to their demands to end their administrative detention. They have already warned that if IPS fails to do that, they would stop taking liquids as well.

The Committee noted in the report that the health condition of hunger-striking detainees is “seriously deteriorating” and that it has requested the Red Cross to intervene in order for them to be hospitalized.

Youssef Nasasrah, an attorney representing the Detainees and Ex-detainees Committee, said Nidal Abu ‘Akr, whose health condition has deteriorated, has been relocated to Ayala prison in Beer al-Sabe‘ (Beersheba) in southern Israel.

Nassasrah added that before being finally relocated to Ayala prison, Abu ‘Akr had been held in Nafha prison, Ohalay Kedar, Ramla and Askalan.

Highlighting the deteriorating health condition of Abu ‘Akr, Nassasrah said Abu ‘Akr, who is a father of three children and has been held in administrative detention since 28 June 2014,  has lost 10 kilograms and has been suffering from stomach and arterial problems and high cholesterol.

Abu ‘Akr previously underwent a knee replacement surgery and used to take five types of medication. He has already warned that he and the rest of hunger strikers would boycott Israeli courts for holding false and unjust trials.

Having no access to evidence that led to their detention, Abu ‘Aker said these pieces of evidence are merely malicious files.

Furthermore, Nassasrah noted that the health condition of Ghassan Zawahra, a Palestinian from the Bethlehem refugee camp of Ad-Duheisha who has been hunger striking since August 20 in Ayala prison, has seriously deteriorated. Zawahra stopped taking water for two days.

Nassasrah reported that the six detainees would not end their hunger strike unless a set of demands is met.

The hunger strikers demanded the abolishment of detention without charge or trial, the formation of an international committee of inquiry to be tasked with investigating the arbitrary administrative detention, the provision of emotional and financial compensation for administrative detainees and the termination of the Israeli force-feeding law.

Under administrative detention rules, Israel may detain Palestinians without charge or trial and on the basis of secret evidence for up to six months, indefinitely renewable by Israeli military courts.

The use of administrative detention dates back to the emergency laws of the British colonial era in Palestine, said the Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network.

Many human rights groups have accused Israel of using administrative detention as a routine form of collective punishment against Palestinians, as well as using it when failing to obtain confessions during interrogation.

There are around 500 detainees serving administrative detention in Israeli jails. 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/M.H