From his hospital bed at the Shamir Medical Center in Be’er Ya’akov, central Israel, his face emaciated, Khaled Awawdeh struggles to keep his eyes open. He nevertheless wanted to publish a video of him, Wednesday August 31, announcing his release on October 2, after 172 days of hunger strike. “It’s a huge victory, which adds to all those that the people have managed to achieve” Palestinian, he articulates with great difficulty, thanking his supporters. On Tuesday again, the Israeli Supreme Court refused to order his release.
The 40-year-old prisoner, whom the Israeli press presents as a member of Islamic Jihad, protested against his administrative detention, a regime inherited from the British occupation that Israel uses for the most part against the Palestinians: the file is secret, the detention renewable every three to six months, indefinitely. At the end of June, on the broken promise that he was going to be released, he had briefly interrupted his fast by taking vitamins.
In early August, as part of a ceasefire brokered through Egypt after three days of Israeli bombardment of Gaza, Islamic Jihad announced its release and that of another prisoner, a senior the Islamist organization. Israel denied it. According to the Israeli daily Ha’aretzan Egyptian source would have confirmed the involvement of Cairo in the release of the prisoner on August 31.
After his arrest at the end of December 2021, no evidence was presented against him. His hunger strike, which began in early March, is one of the longest ever led by a Palestinian prisoner. A few months ago, another administrative detainee, Hisham Abu Hawash, had fasted for 141 days before being released in early January.
“In the past, they would have been released earlier, after sixty or ninety days of strike, notes Hadeel Shatara, spokesperson for the Palestinian prisoners’ defense organization Samidoun. In 2018, six prisoners went on a hunger strike, which lasted sixty-two days. At the time, popular support played a big role. So we have a responsibility as Palestinians. »
Today, Hisham Abu Hawash, a construction worker, hardly works anymore, unable to keep up with the grueling pace of the construction sites. “I will never be like before, I have memory loss, explains this father of five children. I take medicine, I have problems with my legs, my back, my stomach, I don’t eat as much as before. » At the end of his strike, he weighed only 39 kg – he weighs 70 today.
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