Sami Janazrah suspends hunger strike, Majdi Yassin ends strike

janazrahhOn Wednesday, 11 May, Sami Janazrah, Palestinian prisoner held in Israeli administrative detention without charge or trial, announced that he was suspending his hunger strike for seven days subject to the outcome of the investigation for one week being engaged in by the military prosecutor following Tuesday’s Israeli supreme court hearing.

Janazrah said, through the Palestinian Prisoners’ Society, that during that time he will consume only liquids. He stated that if his administrative detention is resumed after the week, he will return to his hunger strike, which he conducted for 69 days.

Late Tuesday, 10 May, Majdi Yassin, 33, a Palestinian and Swedish citizen who has been on hunger strike since his arrest at the border crossing with Jordan on 26 April while returning to Sweden, also announced that he is ending his hunger strike; he is being transferred to a prison and his interrogation ended. He will be brought before a military court next Tuesday.

Several other Palestinian prisoners, including Fouad Assi, Adib Mafarjeh,  Muhannad Al-Azzeh, and Mohammed Qawasmeh, remain on hunger strike in protest of their imprisonment without charge or trial, isolation, or medical neglect. Mansour Moqtada, a seriously ill Palestinian prisoner permanently held in Ramle prison clinic, is continuing his liquid-only fast; the Palestinian Prisoners’ Commission is pursuing a demand for his early release on medical grounds. Moqtada is serving a life sentence; he was gravely injured by Israeli occupation forces in 2002 when he was arrested.