EXPLAINER
Khalil Alwawdeh, a Palestinian prisoner is on a hunger strike asking Israel to end his continued detention.
The case of Palestinian prisoner Khalil Awawdeh was thrust into the spotlight during Israel’s recent bombardment of the blockaded Gaza Strip.
The 40-year-old Awawdeh has been on a continuing hunger strike for more than 160 days in protest at his continued detention by Israel without trial or charge, a process known as “administrative detention”, since his arrest in December 2021.
What is Awawdeh’s current health condition?
- Awawdeh, who has a hunger strike in the sixth month, is in a critical state of health. He weighs 38 kilogrammes (84lbs)
- Doctors and prisoner rights organizations have warned that the father-of-four from the village Ithna in the southern occupied West Bank could die at any time.
- Lina Qasem, a doctor with Physicians for Human Rights (PHR), visited Awawdeh August 11 and said that his life was in danger.
- Qasem Hassan said that there were also signs of neurological damage. These included memory loss, near-total vision loss, and difficulties concentrating.
Is Awawdeh likely be released by Israel
- The Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) armed resistance group had demanded that Awawdeh be released as part of the conditions of an August 7 ceasefire agreement that ended Israel’s three-day bombardment of Gaza, in which 49 Palestinians were killed, including 17 children.
- Israeli authorities have refused to release him so far. His lawyer filed a appeal for his immediate release, but the Israeli Supreme Court denied it.
- According to the PIJ, Awawdeh should be released under the August 7 ceasefire agreement. Egypt had previously promised to work towards his release.
- Israel initially arrested Awawdeh on suspicion of being a PIJ “operative”, an allegation his lawyer has denied.
- “I demand to be released after all this suffering. My hunger strike is like the bleeding of a long injury that has lasted for almost half a year,” Awawdeh told Al Jazeera from the Assaf Harofeh hospital, southeast of Tel Aviv. “Freedom is more valuable than anything else, dignity above everything. We are a nation who will not be defeated. God willing, we will get to our victory or we will die.”
Has Awawdeh ever been on a hunger strike?
- Awawdeh spent 12 years in Israeli prisons between the early 2000s and now, with five years in administrative detention.
- Awawdeh was arrested in December and went on a hunger strike of 111 days. He ended it after a deal with Israeli prison authorities that allowed him to be released from administrative detention.
- Awawdeh began his hunger strike again a week after breaking it. This was after authorities had reneged on their promises of his release.
- “There are many [Palestinian] prisoners who have been through this experience and were victorious,” Awawdeh’s wife, Dalal, told Al Jazeera. “Khalil, with his will and determination, will be victorious.”
What is administrative detention?
- About 670 of the 4,450 Palestinian prisoners held by Israel are currently in administrative detention. This number has risen since March when Israel increased its raids on the occupied West Bank.
- Administrative detention is an Israeli policy that allows the indefinite detention of prisoners without trial or charge based on “secret evidence” that neither the detainee nor his lawyer is allowed to see.
- Human rights groups describe Israel’s use of the practice as “systematic and arbitrary”, and a form of collective punishment, noting that its extensive use constitutes a violation of international law. They also claim it denies prisoners due procedure.
- Israel claims the policy is necessary for security reasons and allows the government to hold “dangerous suspects” without revealing intelligence information. They also claim that it was used during British Mandate for Palestine.
Why do prisoners go on hunger strikes?
- Awawdeh is one of many Palestinian prisoners held in administrative detention who have started individual hunger strikes to get their freedom since late last.
- Prisoners around the globe have used hunger strikes as a form of nonviolent resistance.
- It can be a powerful tool for Palestinian prisoners to draw international attention and pressure their jailers to change their policies.
- Healthy people can live up to eight weeks without food. However, the risk of starvation varies depending on body weight and genetics.
- The tactic was used in the early 20th-century by American and British suffragettes, Irish republicans, and Mahatma Gandhi among others. International human rights norms consider hunger striking a form of freedom and a civil or political right.
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