647 Palestinians Held in Administrative Detention since October 2015

Israeli forces placed 647 Palestinians in administrative detention without trial or charge since October 2015, said Palestine Prisoner’s Society (PPS) on Thursday.

PPS said the number of Palestinians held in administrative detention has reached about 750 for the first time since 2008.

It added Israeli military courts have issued 1,144 administrative detention orders against Palestinians since the first of October 2015.

Israeli forces have resorted to the policy of administrative detention on a large scale following government’s instructions.

Under administrative detention rules, Israel may detain Palestinians without charge or trial for up to six month intervals that can be renewed indefinitely by military courts on the basis of secret evidence.

The international community and many human rights groups, including Israeli and Palestinian, have strongly criticized the administrative detention policy, accusing Israel of using it as a routine form of collective punishment against Palestinians as well as using it when failing to obtain confessions during interrogation.

Palestinian detainees have continuously resorted to open-ended hunger strikes as a way to protest their illegal administrative detention and to demand an end to this policy, which violates international law.

The last hunger-striking detainee was Sami al-Janazreh, 43, from the Hebron refugee camp of al-Fawwar. He suspended his 70-day hunger strike for a week after Israeli court decided to postpone reviewing his appeal until next week.

Al-Janazreh, whose medical condition has recently deteriorated and now weighs only 47 kilograms, pledged to continue with his strike if Israeli military courts decide to extend his administrative detention after the period declared by the court next week.

Last year Palestinian journalist Muhammad al-Qiq came close to death following more than 90-day strike against his detention. Also last year, Muhammad Allan went on a 66-day hunger strike that raised fears that Israeli authorities would force feed him.

Source: WAFA