Israel puts hunger-striker in solitary confinement

The Israeli occupation authorities have placed the Palestinian hunger-striker Mohamed Al-Qeq in solitary confinement inside Al-Jalama Prison in an attempt to pressure him to stop his protest, family sources revealed on Tuesday.

Speaking to Quds Press, Al-Qeq’s wife, Fayhaa Shalash, said that the Israeli Prison Services put her husband in solitary in a “new attempt to undermine his hunger-strike.” This measure, she added, is part of a series of other expected measures that the Israeli occupation is planning to take against him if he continues his protest.

Read: Al-Qeq starts new hunger strike in Israeli jail

Shalash said that the officials in Hadarim Prison, where her husband was kept before he was moved to Al-Jalama, told their lawyer that he could visit the prisoner, “but when he went for the visit, he found that he had been moved to Al-Jalama Prison.” She pointed out that the prison authorities have refused to let the lawyer visit Al-Qeq since he started the hunger-strike.

Al-Qeq’s wife blamed the Israelis for anything that happens to her husband while he is on hunger-strike and in solitary confinement in a prison full of criminals.

Also read: Israeli soldier and settler threaten to kill Al-Qeq

The hunger-strike was started by Al-Qeq on 6 February in protest against being held in administrative detention. He was arrested on 15 January, just six months after he was released from a previous administrative detention during which he was on hunger-strike for 94 days.

According to Shalash, there is no reason for her husband to be detained. The Israelis use administrative detention to keep Palestinians in prison with neither charge nor trial; the reasons are kept secret, even from the defendants’ lawyers.