Hisham Abu Hawwash, a Palestinian prisoner who has been on hunger strike for 138 days, has entered an extremely critical health stage, the Detainees Affairs Commission said on Saturday.
Abu Hawwash, a father of five, has been on hunger strike in protest of his detention without charge or trial based on Israel’s administrative detention policy, which allows Palestinians to be held in prison indefinitely on the basis of a ‘secret file’ that even the detainee’s lawyer is not allowed to view.
#Breaking | "We held the Israeli occupation forces liable for the critical deterioration of health of the Palestinian prisoner Hisham Abu Hawwash who has been on hunger strike for 138 days", the Islamic Jihad movement said.#FreeHisham #FreeThemAll pic.twitter.com/xVPlRGsh5s
— Quds News Network (@QudsNen) January 1, 2022
Hasan Abed Rabbo, a spokesman for the Commission, told WAFA that Abu Hawwash has lost his ability to move and is speaking with difficulty.
On Friday, the Palestinian Ministry of Health said a delegation of its own visited Abu Hawwash at the Israeli medical center of Assaf Harofeh and found that his health condition was seriously dangerous as he suffers blurry vision, significant muscular atrophy and inability to move and talk.
Pro-Palestine activists in Berlin marked the New Year in solidarity with Palestinian detainee Hisham Abu Hawwash as he entered the 138th day of an open hunger strike against his administrative detention without charge or trial.#FreeHisham pic.twitter.com/sPgJyZMwHd
— PALESTINE ONLINE 🇵🇸 (@OnlinePalEng) January 1, 2022
The Ministry said its delegation tried to obtain the medical examinations that had been carried out to prisoner Abu Hawwash, noting that a December 16 examination suggests a critical shortage of potassium salt and an increase in liver enzymes. No other examinations were conducted for Abu Hawwash after that date, the Ministry added.
The Ministry pointed out that it had reached out to international human rights organizations to demand that Abu Hawwash be moved to a Palestinian hospital after the serious deterioration in his health condition.
The widely condemned Israeli policy of administrative detention allows the Israeli occupation military to sentence Palestinians up to 6 months in Israeli detention on secret information without charging them or allowing them to stand trial.
(WAFA, PC, Social Media)
