Palestinian Detainee Bilal Kayid Suspends Hunger Strike after 71 Days
Local Editor
Palestinian detainee Bilal Kayid suspended his hunger strike after spending 71 days without food to protest being held in administrative detention by the "Israeli" occupation entity, detainees' rights group Addameer General Director Sahar Francis announced on Wednesday.
Kayid went on hunger strike in June after Zionist authorities sentenced him to administrative detention -- internment without trial or charges -- on the day he was scheduled to be released from prison after serving a 14-and-a-half year sentence.
Francis said that Kayid suspended his hunger strike after reaching an agreement with "Israeli" authorities to end his administrative detention at a specific date.
However, anonymous Palestinian sources said that the agreement set the date for Kayid's release to December 12.
The announcement came the same day as a protest in support of Kayid in occupied East al-Quds was repressed by "Israeli" occupation forces, who violently assaulted the demonstrators at Damascus Gate in the Old City before detaining three.
Kayid has been hospitalized after his health severely deteriorated due to his hunger. However, the "Israel" Prison Service [IPS] has kept him shackled to his hospital bed and has had guards surrounding him at all times, policies the Palestinian Prime Minister's office said amounted to "torture."
The Palestinian Prisoner's Society [PPS] "saluted Kayid for his fight against administrative detention which lasted 71 days."
PPS called on Palestinians to keep supporting four other prisoners on hunger strike -- Malik al-Qadi and Ayyad al-Hreimi, who have been on strike for 40 days; Muhammad al-Balboul who has been on strike for 49 days; and his brother Mahmoud Balboul, who has been on hunger strike for 52 days.
Kayid is one of the most high-profile hunger strikers since Palestinian journalist Muhammad al-Qiq came near death during a 94-day hunger strike protesting his administrative detention order, before he was finally released in May.
Source: News Agencies, Edited by website team
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