Egypt, UN call on Israel to release Palestinian hunger striker Abu Hawash

Egypt and the United Nations are trying to pressure Israel to end the detention of Palestinian prisoner and hunger striker Hisham Abu Hawash, media reported yesterday.

Al-Mayadeen quoted sources as saying that the Palestinian Islamic Jihad Movement Secretary-General, Daoud Shehab, informed Egyptian authorities that the resistance would not remain “silent upon Israel’s attempts to kill Abu Hawash.”

In a statement, Shehab warned that the movement would consider Abu Hawash‘s martyrdom as an “assassination carried out by the Israeli occupation with premeditation”.

READ: Islamic Jihad warns against death of Palestinian prisoner on hunger strike

“If Abu Hawash is martyred, the PIJ will deal with the matter in accordance with its commitment to respond to any assassination,” Shehab stressed.

In a similar context, the spokesman for the Gaza-based Palestinian Prisoners Information Office, Moaz Abu Sharkh, said that Abu Hawash’s life was “in grave danger,” noting that he had lost the ability to hear and speak.

The Palestinian Prisoners and Ex-Prisoners Affairs Commission recently reported that Abu Hawash’s health was at a “very critical and dangerous stage.” The commission’s spokesperson, Hassan Abd Rabbo, said that the hunger-striking prisoner now weighs 40 kilogrammes and his organs were “shutting down”. Abu Hawash has been on hunger strike for 136 days.