Palestinian Hunger Striker’s Health Deteriorating
Local Editor
A Palestinian prisoner's health is "rapidly deteriorating" as he enters the 12th day of his hunger strike, his father said.
Hassan Showka, from the occupied West Bank city of Bethlehem, was arrested on September 29 without charges for a second consecutive time. He is being held in administrative detention at Zionist Ofer prison.
"He does not have family visitation rights, so we can't see him, but we're in touch with his lawyer, who is able to see him every now and then," his father, 57-year-old Hassanein Showka, told Al Jazeera.
Hassan, 29, has been denied the right to see his family members, including his toddler.
Administrative detention is an ‘Israeli' procedure that allows the Zionist entity to imprison Palestinians from the occupied West Bank and the Gaza Strip without charge or trial, for renewable periods of up to six months. ‘Israeli' authorities have been using this procedure for more than 50 years, based on secret evidence.
"The lawyers who manage to see him [Hassan] depict to us his current state, but most times we're unsure whether the picture depicted is 100 percent accurate - usually they want to spare us the pain," Hassanein said.
"They don't want us to worry about him, but we know he's unwell."
Earlier this year, Hassan went on another hunger strike to protest his previous term of administrative detention, his father said. He was arrested again days later.
Today, there are some 600 administrative detainees in ‘Israeli' prisons, 16 of whom are children.
"Administrative detention is a real problem. We've been trying to understand why, what's the purpose behind his arrest, but we're still left wondering and haven't been provided with a valid explanation," Hassanein said. "From the day they took him and until this very moment, we're all confused ... This is our son and he's precious to us."
Hunger strikes have traditionally been used as a way to pressure the Zionist entity into improving living conditions in prisons and to push for basic rights, including visitations.
Source: News Agencies, Edited by website team
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