8 Palestinians Sentenced by Israeli Court, 26 Given Administrative Detention, Hunger Strike Imemnent

An Israeli military court has sentenced eight Palestinians from the occupied West Bank to serve between 10 and 42 months in the Israeli prison system, according to the Palestinian Prisoner’s Society (PPS). PPS also stated that Israeli authorities issued administrative detention orders against 26 Palestinian detainees. Detainees throughout the system are set to embark on an extended hunger strike against the unacceptable and repressive measures imposed against them.PPS identified the first 8 prisoners as:

Udai Ba’jawi
Jenin
42 months
4,000 shekels ($1,000)

Emad Daraghmeh
Tubas
14 months
5,000 shekels ($1,250)

WAFA Palestinian News & Info Agency further reports that, according to PPS, Israeli authorities issued administrative detention orders against 26 Palestinian detainees.

24 had their orders renewed for the third and fourth times, including some who have served years under administrative detention, for either continuous or interval periods.

The remaining two received new detention orders without charge or trial. The period of the detention varied between two to six months.

Administrative detention is a procedure which allows the Israeli military to hold prisoners indefinitely on secret information without charging them or allowing them to stand trial.

B’Tselem, the Israeli information center for human rights stresses: “International law stipulates that it may be exercised only in very exceptional cases – and then only as a last possible resort, when there are no other means available to prevent the danger.”

In the case of Palestinian detainees, Israel routinely uses this archaic policy which dates back to the time of British Mandate Palestine. Statistics show that, over the years, thousands of Palestinians have been held in Israeli custody as administrative detainees for extended periods of time.

Related: Ferwana: “6059 Palestinians Kidnapped By The Army in 2014”

The following are the names of the 26 detainees who received administrative detention orders:

Adaib Mafarjeh
Ramallah
Six months

Ahmad Ash-shaikh
Bethlehem
Four months

WAFA further reports that, according to the Detainees and Ex-detainees Affairs Committee, Palestinian detainees in Israeli jails are set to embark on an extended protest against the prison administrations’ arbitrary and repressive measures against them.

The committee said, in a press statement, that prisoners are planning to go on a hunger strike to protest their inhumane conditions of detention; Palestinian prisoners are detained in overcrowded cells which lack the least acceptable standards of living.

Prisoners will carry out a hunger strike on the 10th of March to get the prison administration to respond to their demands, which revolved around several issues, including ending solitary confinement and administrative detention without charge or trial, providing them with the necessary medical treatment, and ending the policy of collective punishment against them, including surprise night raids on their cells.

The committee added that prisoners gave prison administration up until the 10th of March to reconsider their arbitrary measures against them, stressing that, if the former fails to meet their needs, they will further escalate their protest steps, given their unbearable conditions of detention.

Detainees have appealed to all relevant organizations to support them in their struggle to gain their basic rights.

Palestinian prisoners are held in overcrowded cells which lack basic health standards, including the infestation of insects and rats, extreme cold and lack of heating methods, and wastewater leakage into their cells, which further aggravates their already poor conditions.

Prisoners are often subjected to physical abuse during their detention, interrogation and transfer between prisoners, which is prohibited by international law.

Under this law, it is illegal to transfer prisoners outside of the occupied territory in which they are detained and it is very difficult for the families of Palestinian detainees to obtain permits to visit their detained relatives.

Meanwhile, PPS further stated that Palestinian prisoners in Etzion prison are suffering from extreme cold as a result of being denied warm blankets and heating methods.

According to PPS, prison administration provided prisoners with damp blankets in light of the current snowstorm which hit the region on Thursday.

Related: Aida Refugee Camp Flooded by Excess Settlement Water

It also reported that prisoners were tied hand and leg, and put inside cold barracks, where they were left without food and water for several hours, awaiting for their transfer to Ofer military court for their hearings.

PPS also said that several cases of physical abuse against prisoners were reported during the arrest of a number of prisoners, including beating them up and spraying them with pepper spray.

See also: Palestinian Children Subjected to Torture in Israeli Prisons

Meanwhile, in Asqalan and Ofer Israeli prisons, detainees complained about their deteriorating health conditions as a result of being denied the needed medical treatment, stating that several cases are in desperate need of immediate medical treatment.

The detainees and ex-detainees affairs committee reported on the case of prisoner Ala’ al-Hams; he is a resident of Gaza’s Rafah city who has been suffering from serious life-threatening diseases, since his arrest in 2010.

Al-Hams has been suffering from Tuberculosis and blood clots in his lungs since the 2010 arrest. The prison administration provided him with some kind of a treatment which further aggravated his condition and caused him serious complications, including a tumor in his lymph glands which causes him to wake up every morning and find blood in his mouth.

Prison administration continues to deny him the treatment he desperately needs, as he has developed tumors and malicious diseases.

Al-Hams lives in constant pain throughout his body, nausea, loss of weight and a colon infection, in addition to involuntary urination and poor vision.

More than 6,500 Palestinian political prisoners are currently held in Israeli jails, of whom dozens serve multiple life sentences. About 1,500 prisoners are believed to have health problems due to medical negligence.

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