Alwaght- Palestinian prisoner Khalil Awawda has passed the 70th day of his hunger strike earlier this week with his health deteriorating quickly.
Awawda, 40, is protesting his continued administrative detention in Israeli prisons without trial or charge.
The father of four was arrested by Israeli forces from his home in the village of Ithna, south of Hebron city in the occupied West Bank, in December 2021.
Like 530 other Palestinians currently held under such orders, Awawda was placed in administrative detention. The policy allows Israeli authorities to imprison Palestinians indefinitely, based on “secret information” not accessible to the prisoner or their lawyer.
“Khalil underwent this hunger strike against a public Palestinian issue – administrative detention – which is a sword on the necks of all the Palestinian people,” his wife, Dalal, told Al Jazeera.
“What are rights groups and other organizations waiting for? For him to reach 100 or 140 days like the other prisoners? I call on all these institutions to intervene to save the life of Khalil before, God forbid, something happens to him.”
Israeli authorities transferred Awawda last Wednesday to an Israeli civilian hospital before he was returned to Ramle (Ramla) prison clinic where he is currently being held.
Awawda’s lawyer Ahlam Haddad, who visited him on Sunday, said in a statement that he is suffering from “fatigue and severe collapse” as well as “heavy pain in all parts of his body”. She noted he now moves on a wheelchair and cannot stand up or see clearly.
Awawda also told his lawyer that prison authorities are conditioning his transfer to an Israeli hospital on his agreement to take supplements, which he is refusing – living only on water.
Awawda’s wife said he lost 17kg since his hunger strike began on March 3. “I am very fearful over his life. He’s getting to the stage of severe danger.”
