Palestinian Maher al-Akhras is severely ill and at risk of death after 77 days of continuous hunger strike to protest his detention by Israel without charge or trial. Al-Akhras, 49, is from the occupied West Bank town of Silat al-Dahr, near Jenin.
He is married and has six children.
Israel has jailed him repeatedly and he has spent a total of five years in its prisons. Israeli forces arrested him again on 27 July and placed him in administrative detention for four months – which can be renewed indefinitely.
Israel’s use of administrative detention is a direct continuation of a British colonial practice, and according to prisoners rights group Addameer may amount to a war crime as it deprives prisoners of their right to a fair trial.
Administrative detainees are held on supposed “secret” evidence against them that neither they nor their lawyers can see. Al-Akhras launched an open-ended hunger strike soon after his detention began.
Israeli prison authorities have transferred al-Akhras to the Kaplan Medical Center in central Israel, where his condition is reported to be critical. He is refusing to take supplements that provide essential minerals in the absence of food.
The hospital moved al-Akhras this week to a different room after a nearby patient tested positive for the new coronavirus. “My death would be a murder by the occupation,” al-Akhras said in a video from his hospital bed earlier this month.
“It is not in my hands. Israel has the power to release or detain.” Al-Akhras said he will continue to refuse food and negotiations.
Last week, he rejected an offer by the Shin Bet – Israel’s domestic intelligence agency – to complete his current administrative detention term, which ends on 26 November, the Safa Palestinian Press Agency reported.
Ahlam Haddad, his lawyer, said he will persist with his strike until his immediate release.
“My only conditions are freedom or death,” al-Akhras said in the video.
Taghrid al-Akhras, his wife, announced last week that she was launching a hunger strike in solidarity with her husband.