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Palestine calls on Red Cross to intervene and save prisoner’s life 

July 8, 2021 at 9:55 am

Palestinians hold placards during a protest in solidarity with prisoner in Israeli jails Ghadanfar Abu Atwan, in the West Bank city of Hebron on July 4, 2021. [WAFA/Apaimages]

Palestinian Foreign Minister Riyad Al-Maliki yesterday called on the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) to urgently intervene to save the life of detainee  Al-Ghadanfar Abu Atwan, who has been on hunger strike for 65 days.

In an urgent request addressed to the president of the ICRC in Geneva, Peter Maurer, the minister called on the International body to “assume its legal responsibilities and intervene quickly to save Abu Atwan’s life.”

Abu Atwan, 28, has been on hunger strike for 65 days and on Sunday announced that he would no longer accept water. He is protesting against his continued administrative detention – imprisonment without charge or trial – at the hands of occupation authorities.

Al-Maliki added that “the policy of arbitrary administrative detention is illegal and constitutes a flagrant violation of the responsibilities and obligations of the Israeli occupation towards the Palestinian people.”

READ: Israel raids Palestinian prison cells, moves detainees

Going on to accuse Israel of “practicing slow murder against Abu Atwan.”

Prisoner Abu Atwan is from the southern occupied West Bank town of Dura. He has been detained since October, with Israeli intelligence services issuing two administrative detention orders against him, for a period of six-month each.

Israel holds about 5,300 Palestinians in its prisons, including 40 women and 250 children. Approximately 520 are held as administrative detainees, according to official Palestinian data.