Khalil Awawdeh, the Palestinian on a hunger strike since March

Palestinian prisoner Khalil Awawdeh is on a starvation strike demanding Israel finish his continued detention with out cost.

Protesters collect exterior the hospital in Be'er Yaakov the place Palestinian Khalil Awawdeh is clinging to life, on August 13, 2022 [Tsafrir Abayov/AP]

The case of Palestinian prisoner Khalil Awawdeh was thrust into the highlight throughout Israel’s latest bombardment of the blockaded Gaza Strip.

The 40-year-old Awawdeh has been on a unbroken starvation strike for greater than 160 days in protest at his continued detention by Israel with out trial or cost, a course of generally known as “administrative detention”, since his arrest in December 2021.

What's Awawdeh’s present well being situation?

• As he nears the sixth month of his starvation strike, Awawdeh is in a important well being situation, weighing 38 kilogrammes (84 kilos).
• Docs and prisoner rights teams have warned that the daddy of 4 from the village of Ithna, within the southern occupied West Financial institution, may die at any second.
• A physician with Physicians for Human Rights, Lina Qasem-Hassan, who visited Awawdeh on August 11, mentioned his life was in speedy hazard.
• Qasem-Hassan additionally mentioned there have been indicators of neurological harm, together with reminiscence and a near-total lack of imaginative and prescient, in addition to difficulties concentrating.

Is Awawdeh prone to be launched by Israel?

• The Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) armed resistance group had demanded that Awawdeh be launched as a part of the situations of an August 7 ceasefire settlement that ended Israel’s three-day bombardment of Gaza, during which 49 Palestinians have been killed, together with 17 youngsters.
• Nonetheless, Israeli authorities have to date refused to launch him, and on Sunday the Israeli Supreme Court docket rejected an enchantment filed by his lawyer for his speedy launch.
• The PIJ has mentioned that Awawdeh ought to have been launched as a part of the August 7 ceasefire deal, as Egypt had promised to work in direction of his launch.
• Israel initially arrested Awawdeh on suspicion of being a PIJ “operative”, an allegation his lawyer has denied.
• “I demand to be launched in any case this struggling. My starvation strike is just like the bleeding of a protracted damage that has lasted for nearly half a 12 months,” Awawdeh instructed Al Jazeera from the Assaf Harofeh hospital, southeast of Tel Aviv. “Freedom is extra worthwhile than the rest, dignity above every thing. We're a nation that won't be defeated. God prepared, we'll get to our victory or we'll die.”

Has Awawdeh been on a starvation strike earlier than?

• Awawdeh has spent a complete of 12 years in Israeli prisons because the early 2000s, together with 5 years in administrative detention, break up into two intervals.
• After his arrest in December, Awawdeh went on a starvation strike for 111 days, earlier than breaking it following an settlement with Israeli jail authorities to finish his administrative detention.
• Awawdeh resumed his starvation strike per week after breaking it, after authorities reneged on their guarantees to launch him.
• “There are numerous [Palestinian] prisoners who've been by this expertise and have been victorious,” Awawdeh’s spouse, Dalal, instructed Al Jazeera. “Khalil, along with his will and willpower, might be victorious.”

What's administrative detention?

• Out of the roughly 4,450 Palestinian prisoners presently held by Israel, about 670 are presently being held in administrative detention, a quantity that has elevated since March as Israel stepped up its raids within the occupied West Financial institution.
• Administrative detention is an Israeli coverage that enables the indefinite detention of prisoners with out trial or cost based mostly on “secret proof” that neither the detainee nor his lawyer is allowed to see.
• Human rights teams describe Israel’s use of the observe as “systematic and arbitrary”, and a type of collective punishment, noting that its in depth use constitutes a violation of worldwide regulation. Additionally they say it denies prisoners due course of.
• Israel claims the coverage is important for safety causes and permits the federal government to carry “harmful suspects” with out revealing intelligence data. Additionally they say that it was used throughout the British Mandate for Palestine.

Why do prisoners determine to go on starvation strikes?

• Awawdeh is the most recent of a variety of Palestinian prisoners in administrative detention to have launched into particular person starvation strikes to safe their freedom since late final 12 months.
• Starvation strikes have been utilized by prisoners all over the world as a technique of nonviolent resistance.
• For Palestinian prisoners, it may possibly draw worldwide consideration to their plight, which they hope will put stress on their jailers and spur a coverage change.
• Wholesome people can survive as much as eight weeks with out meals, however the threat of hunger differs from one particular person to a different relying on physique weight, genetics and different elements.
• The tactic was utilized by British and American suffragettes within the early twentieth century, Irish republicans, and most notably, Mahatma Gandhi, amongst many others. Underneath worldwide human rights norms, starvation placing is seen as a type of freedom of expression, and a civil and political proper.