The Israeli military court at Ofer rejected the appeal of hunger-striking Palestinian administrative detainee Sami Janazrah on Thursday, 8 April. Janazra, 43, a Palestinian refugee living in Al-Fuwwar camp, has been imprisoned without charge or trial since 15 November 2015; on 3 March he launched an open-ended hunger strike demanding his freedom.
Palestinian lawyer Jawad Boulos said that he would appeal to the Israeli supreme court against Janazrah’s detention. Janazra has lost 16 kilograms (approximately 33 pounds) since he began his hunger strike and has had a sharp drop in his blood pressure.
Janazrah is one of seven Palestinian prisoners on hunger strike against administrative detention and the use of solitary confinement. His fellow strikers include Abdel-Rahim Sawayfeh, Abdul-Ghani Safadi, Fouad Assi, Adib Mafarjeh, Nahar Saadi, and Mohammed Daoud. Like Janazrah, Sawayfeh, Safadi, Assi, and Mafarjeh are all imprisoned without charge or trial under administrative detention; Saadi has been isolated for three years and is demanding release from solitary confinement. Daoud is a re-arrested former prisoner, released in 2011 in the Wafa al-Ahrar prisoner exchange with the Palestinian resistance, whose remaining five-year term was arbitrarily reimposed without charge or trial by the Israeli military in late 2015.
Mafarjeh, who has been imprisoned since 10 December 2014, launched his strike on Monday. He was removed to solitary confinement in Beersheva prison in order to pressure him to end his hunger strike.
