News / Palestine

Palestinian prisoner on 70th day of hunger strike as his wife calls for help

Sunday, 04 October 2020 4:02 PM [ Last Update: Sunday, 04 October 2020 4:58 PM ]

Palestinian prisoner Maher al-Akhras

Palestinian prisoner Maher al-Akhras has entered the 70th consecutive day of his open-ended hunger strike against Israel’s administrative detention while his wife has launched an international appeal for his life.

The Palestinian Commission for Detainees and Ex-Detainees Affairs said on Sunday that his health condition was now at a life-threatening stage.

The commission said Akhras would only end his strike if he was released immediately.

His wife said in a press statement on Saturday that his condition is extremely dangerous, he loses consciousness from time to time and cannot move.

She added that her husband has constant seizures, and sometimes he does not know who is standing before him.

"His only condition for ending his hunger strike is freedom and he keeps saying from his bed at Kaplan Hospital 'either freedom or martyrdom'," she emphasized.

Hundreds of detainees are under administrative detention, in which Israel keeps the detainees for up to six months, a period which can be extended an infinite number of times. Women and minors are also among these detainees.

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Such detentions take place on orders from a military commander and on the basis of what the Israeli regime describes as ‘secret’ evidence.

Palestinian detainees have continuously resorted to open-ended hunger strikes in an attempt to express their outrage at the detention.

More than 7,000 Palestinians are reportedly held in Israeli jails.

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Whilst the United States calls upon countries such as Iran, to release more prisoners from its jails during the Covid-19 Pandemic, Israel, the US’s self described closest ally is yet to release a single Palestinian political prisoner.

In May 2019, a study revealed that Israel had arrested some 16,500 Palestinian children since the outbreak of the Second Intifada (uprising) in late-2000.

In recent months and in the wake of the novel coronavirus, several Palestinian prisoners have been infected in an Israeli detention center amid mounting concerns about medical negligence by Israeli authorities.