Israel court rejects appeal to release Palestinian hunger striker

An Israeli military court rejected on Sunday an appeal submitted for the release of a Palestinian detainee, Hisham Abu Hawash, who has been on hunger strike for 118 days in protest of his administrative detention.

The court declined to release Abu Hawash despite his critical condition, his lawyer Jawad Boulus said, noting that the court decided that he should complete the term of his administrative detention, which ends after four months.

Boulus said that the detention was decided despite Abu Hawash’s deteriorating health condition, adding that he is going to appeal the military court’s decision to the Israeli High Court.

Abu Hawash, 40, from the town of Dura in the south of the occupied West Bank, has been on hunger strike for 118 consecutive days in protest against his prolonged detention without charge, according to the Palestinian Prisoner Society (PPS).

Boulus said Abu Hawash is suffering from severe pains all over his body, is unable to sleep because of the pain, unable to walk straight, moves on a wheelchair, lost weight and vomits continuously.

Abu Hawash, who is married and father of five children, was detained on 27 October 2020 and has spent three consecutive terms of administrative detention orders, each for six months but the last one was reduced from six to four months.

He spent a total of eight years in Israeli prisons for resisting the occupation, including 52 months in administrative detention before deciding to go on hunger strike to force an end to his detention without charge.

READ: Palestinian hunger striker remains defiant in face of Israeli detention