PA condemns Israel, as prisoner remains on hunger strike for 70 days

The Palestinian Authority’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Expatriates today expressed its deep concern regarding the health of Palestinian prisoner Maher Al-Akhras, reported Wafa news agency.

Al-Akhras, a 49-year-old father of six children from Silat Ad-Daher town, south of Jenin, has been on hunger strike for 70 consecutive days.

He is currently in a critical condition, having been diagnosed with hypertension in 2018, and now suffering from significant weight loss.

Since his arrest, Israel has prevented his wife, Umm Islam and her sons from meeting their father in prison or even in the hospital, and visits to his lawyer were limited to two or three only.

His wife said that her husband was subjected to solitary confinement and abuse and has been transferred between prisons, including to the Ramla Prison Hospital, which lacks adequate standards of medical care.

The ministry condemned the illegal Israeli practice of administrative detention, which the occupying power employs as a tool of collective punishment against the Palestinian people, including children, activists, human rights defenders and journalists.

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Earlier this week, the Palestinian Prisoners’ Society called on all the competent authorities and international human rights institutions to intervene and put an end to the suffering of prisoners who are unable to speak up, pointing out that while demands are mounting for the release of prisoners around the world, the Israeli occupation continues to arrest citizens and detain them in harsh conditions.

The Palestinian Authority Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Expatriates stressed that the Israeli legal system, including military occupation courts, is complicit in enforcing such discriminatory regime against protected prisoners.

“It is part of the system of occupation and subjugation, and must be exposed and condemned by states, governments, parliaments around the world as well as the UN system as a whole,” it stressed.

“Israel is primarily responsible and accountable for the life of Palestinian detainees, including the life of Maher Al-Akhras.”