GENEVA – Three Palestinians on hunger strike in Israeli detention will die unless authorities find a quick solution, the International Committee of the Red Cross warned Friday. Samer Barq, Hassan Safadi and Ayman Sharawneh have been on hunger strike for weeks to demand their release from administrative detention without trial, an ICRC spokesman said. The ICRC said it was “extremely concerned about the deteriorating health” of the men who are on long-term hunger strike. “These people are going to die unless the detaining authorities find a prompt solution,” the head of the ICRC delegation in Israel and the occupied territories, Juan Pedro Schaerer, warned in a statement.
He also stressed that Israel should respect World Medical Association resolutions that say detainees should be permitted to choose whether they are fed or receive medical treatment. “It is essential that their choice be respected and their dignity preserved,” he said. ICRC spokesman Hicham Hassan told AFP that the three men had launched their hunger strikes at different times but that for all of them “it is at least several weeks”. “What matters is their condition, not a matter of days,” he said, stressing that their condition is “very bad”. Amnesty International said last month that Safadi and Barq had refused food since May 22 and June 21 respectively to protest their administrative detentions, which a military court can renew for periods of six months. More than 1,500 Palestinian prisoners, including Safadi, in May ended a mass hunger strike for better conditions in a deal with prison authorities. One of the terms of the accord was that those held without trial in administrative detention would go free at the end of their current terms, unless fresh evidence emerged against them.
