Israel has issued 1,595 administrative detention orders against Palestinians in the occupied territories in 2021, with 200 Palestinians detained under the inhumane policy in May when the regime launched the 11-day war on the besieged Gaza Strip, a new report says.
The Palestinian Prisoners Society (PPS) said on Sunday that 1,595 new and renewed administrative detention orders were issued by the regime during the preceding years, adding that Israel uses the administrative detention policy to stifle the Palestinian political activists.
The PPS said 60 Palestinian detainees, who were mostly held in administrative detention, have resorted to hunger strike to regain their freedom, including Hisham Abu Hawwash who has been on hunger strike for 139 consecutive days and is in a critical condition.
Abu Hawwash, a 40-year-old father of five children, was arrested in October 2020 and held in an Israeli jail under administrative detention. According to the doctors, he is facing the risk of sudden death at any moment.
- Hisham Abu Hawwash has lost his eyesight and hearing.
— REMAN S 🇵🇸𓂆 (@RmanEng98) December 28, 2021
- Hisham Abu Hawwash can't speak.
- Hisham Abu Hawwash wasn't allowed to shower for 70 days.
- Hisham Abu Hawwash isn't only in a critical condition, it's beyond critical.#الحرية_لهشام_أبو_هواش#FreeHishamAbuHawwash pic.twitter.com/RWbaaVPfv5
Abu Hawwash’s supporters and relatives rallied in his village of Dura west of Hebron in the occupied West Bank on Sunday to demand his release.
According to Israeli rights group B'Tselem, 376 Palestinians, including two minors, were held under administrative detention at the end of September 2020. Israel has declined to update the figure ever since.
However, hundreds of Palestinians are estimated to be held under the inhumane policy, under which the regime incarcerates Palestinians indefinitely without pressing formal charges or putting them on trial.
Rights groups describe Israel’s use of administrative detention as a “bankrupt tactic” and have long called on Israel to bring its use to an end.
According to the Palestinian Prisoner Society, 500 Palestinian administrative detainees in Israel have declared their boycott of the Israeli courts starting on Sunday, because “they feel the courts always side with the military government and its orders, and do not treat them fairly.”
There are reportedly more than 7,000 Palestinians held in Israeli jails. Human rights organizations say Israel violates all the rights and freedoms granted to prisoners by the Geneva Convention.
Israeli jail authorities keep Palestinian prisoners under deplorable conditions lacking proper hygienic standards.
Palestinian inmates have also been subjected to systematic torture, harassment, and repression.