Blind Palestinian prisoner starts hunger strike inside Israel jails

Sheikh Izzedine Amarneh, a blind Islamic religious scholar, has started a hunger strike in protest against his administrative detention by the Israeli occupation, his family announced yesterday.

Amarneh, who has recently received his doctorate from a university in Malaysia, was detained during a raid on his family house in Yabad, near the occupied West Bank city of Jenin, on 21 February 2022.

He was almost immediately handed a six-month administrative detention order – imprisonment without charge or trial based on ‘secret evidence’. He has been under administrative detention for 14 months.

“The hunger strike came following a difficult time of waiting for Israeli courts, which proved they lack the basics of justice,” his family said in a statement, pointing out that he called his battle “a scream of honour.”

The family appealed for global solidarity with Amarneh and all other Palestinians suffering under administrative detention.

In February 2023, an Israeli military court renewed Amarneh’s administrative detention for a further four months.

According to rights groups, there are 4,900 Palestinian prisoners inside Israeli jails, including 34 females and over 150 children.

The number of administrative detainees inside Israeli jails exceeded 1,016 in March, including six children and a woman.

Sheikh Izzidine has two sons who are also being held under administrative detention inside Israeli jails – Mujahed and Mohammad, and a third son – Ahmad – who is being detained by the Palestinian Authority.

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