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Rights Groups Concerned About Life of Palestinian Prisoner on Hunger Strike

Rights Groups Concerned About Life of Palestinian Prisoner on Hunger Strike
folder_openPalestine access_time3 years ago
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By Staff, Agencies

Human rights groups expressed their concern over the critical condition of Palestinian prisoner, Maher al-Akhras, who is on a hunger strike for nearly 80 days.

The 49-year-old Palestinian prisoner is now in an ‘Israeli’ hospital suffering from heart pain and convulsions and has slipped occasionally into a coma, his wife said on Tuesday, Reuters reported.

According to his family, he has been drinking water but refusing solid food since he was moved to the hospital three weeks ago.

Akhras was detained on July 27, and was held under the administrative detention order, with no charge. This has led him to start a hunger strike in an attempt to seek justice against the unfair detention.

Akhras’ wife Taghreed said he knows that his life is in danger but believes that “this is the only way he can achieve justice.”

Meanwhile, the Zionist entity’s Supreme Court on Monday refused to order his immediate release.

Taghreed told Reuters at the hospital that Akhras would continue the hunger strike.

She said her husband is too weak to leave his bed and was not handcuffed in the hospital while there were no guards visible near his room.

The Gaza-based Palestinian Center for Human Rights called on international rights groups to intervene immediately to “save the life of Akhras before it is too late.”

The 'Israeli’ advocacy group B’Tselem also said in statement, “The responsibility for what happens next lies with those who can prevent his further deterioration and even death.”

The group, which is monitoring the case, added, “They can still stop this from happening.”

Qadri Abu Bakr, head of the Commission of Palestinian Detainees and Ex-Detainees, told the Arabic-language Voice of Palestine radio station on Sunday that Akhras’ health condition has entered the stage of extreme danger.

Last week, the Commission of Palestinian Detainees and Ex-Detainees said Akhras would only end his strike if he was released immediately.

Hundreds of Palestinian prisoners are under administrative detention, in which the Tel Aviv occupation regime keeps the detainees for up to six months, a period which can be extended an infinite number of times. Women and minors are also among these detainees.

Palestinian detainees have continuously resorted to open-ended hunger strikes in an attempt to express their outrage at the detention. Palestinians hold the Zionist authorities fully responsible for any deterioration of the circumstances in jails.

More than 7,000 Palestinians are reportedly held behind Zionist bars.

In May 2019, a study revealed that the Zionist entity had arrested some 16,500 Palestinian children since the outbreak of the Second Intifada [uprising] in late-2000.

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