The Palestinian Information Centre reported:
RAMALLAH, (PIC)– Lawyer of Addameer association for prisoners and human rights Mahmoud Hassan, who visited on Monday the hospital of Ramla prison, said he found hunger strikers Jafar Izzeddin and Mahmoud Sarsak, in very bad shape.
Lawyer Hassan stated that prisoner Sarsak has been on hunger strike for 47 days and now he is unable to move, suffer from eyesight problems and has been throwing up for five days, adding that he also underwent pancreas tests in Asaf Harofe hospital a few days ago.
Sarsak, 25, from Rafah refugee camp in Gaza, is one of the national Palestinian soccer players and was kidnapped on July 22, 2009 at Erez checkpoint as he was on his way to Nablus to join Balata Youth club.
Soon after his kidnapping, Sarsak was taken to Ashkelon jail and exposed to 30 days of intensive interrogation. Despite the failure of leveling charges and providing evidence against him, the Israeli prosecutor decided to classify him as an unlawful combatant and keep him in administrative detention for an unlimited period.
Sarsak has been on hunger strike since March 19, 2012 in protest at his detention without any guilt. On the eighth of April, he was transferred from Negev jail to an isolation cell in Eichel jail in Beersheba and later on 16 of the same month he was taken to the hospital of Ramla prison after his health worsened.
As for the other prisoner Jafar Izzeddin, on hunger strike for 48 days, lawyer Hassan said his health status is not reassuring especially since he feels constant pain in his head, heart, thigh muscles, and kidneys and are always dizzy which cause him once to collapse and hit his head strongly on the floor.
The lawyer noted that the two detainees are determined to continue their hunger strike until they restore their freedom and all the demands of the captive movement are met.
In a related context, director of Addameer association Sahar Francis condemned the Israeli higher court for rejecting the petition filed on behalf of detainees Bilal Diyab and Tha’er Halala against their administrative detention.
She said the Israeli higher court dedicated itself to serve the Zionist colonial project through providing legal cover for the repressive policies and crimes of the occupation regime as a state above the international law.
