Palestinian detainee Khaled Farraj suspended his open hunger strike after 29 days, on Thursday.
The Detainees and Ex-Detainees’ Affairs Committee said that Farraj, age 31, who is a resident of Dheisheh refugee camp, in the southern occupied West Bank district of Bethlehem, suspended his 29-day hunger strike after his lawyer reached an agreement with the Israeli prosecution.
The agreement stated that Farraj’s administrative detention would not be renewed, meaning he is to be released by October 23rd, 2019.
Farraj was detained on January 23rd, 2018, from the southern West Bank district of Bethlehem; Israeli authorities immediately issued an administrative detention order against him.
On March 26th, 2019, Farraj declared an open hunger strike, as a form of protest against his administrative detention. However, he was forced to suspend it, as his health was deteriorating.
According to prisoners rights group Addameer, there are 5,450 Palestinians being held in Israeli prisons, of whom 497 are kept in administrative detention. Of these, 48 are female and 205 are minors, 32 of whom are under 16 years old.
Rights groups say, according to Ma’an, that Israel’s administrative detention policy has been used as an attempt to disrupt the Palestinian political process, particularly targeting Palestinian activists, journalists, and politicians.
