35-year-old Raed Moussa, currently being held in an Israeli prison, has been on hunger strike for nearly a month, now, in protest against being held without charge or trial for nearly a year, under Israeli Administrative Detention policy.The Palestinian Prisoners’ Society (PPS), in Jenin, said in a statement that Raed was detained in Jenin on Nov. 29, 2013, and sentenced to six months of administrative detention, according to Ma’an.
Moussa’s detention was then extended for four more months, the PPS statement added, upon which he began an open-ended hunger strike for 34 days, until he was finally promised by prison authorities that there would be no more extensions to his detention.
He began the strike again, this September, when Israeli Prison Service re-sentenced him for another four months of administrative detention.
Raed is now being held in solitary confinement, at Ktziot prison, in the Negev desert. He has spent a total of seven years in Israeli jails in separate periods, according to Ma’an.
Administrative Detention procedures, the use of which by Israel dates back to the British mandate period, allows them to hold prisoners indefinitely without chage or trial, on the basis of secret information. The conditions under which prisoners are kept are often quite harsh, during such a sentence, with basic needs and medical care being neglected by Israeli authorities.
According to the PPS, the number of Palestinian prisoners held in administrative detention has now doubled, since the beginning of 2014. Some 500 Palestinian are being held under administrative detention, some of whom are members of Palestinian parliament.
This past April, Palestinian prisoners launched a massive hunger strike, in demand of an end to this policy. The strike lasted two months, and multiplied to around 270 prisoners, but failed to affect the Israeli policy.
Israel had promised to ease up on the practice, under a previous agreement which ultimately ended another similar strike, in years past. However, a Gaza election victory by Hamas compelled Israeli officials to again renege on their promises, implementing even further restrictions and collective punishments for Palestinians across the occupied territories.
