Palestinian prisoner Ayoub al-Asa is currently on his 19th day of hunger strike in protest of the extension of his administrative detention – imprisonment without charge or trial – by the Israeli occupation military for an additional six months.
On Saturday, 27 January, he was transferred from isolation in Ofer prison to isolation in the Negev desert prison. He was isolated in retaliation for his hunger strike and the use of transfers, which are exhausting, is a frequent tactic of Israeli prison officials in an attempt to break Palestinian prisoners’ hunger strikes.
Al-Asa is one of approximately 500 Palestinians jailed without charge or trial under so-called administrative detention orders, which are indefinitely renewable. There are approximately 6,150 total Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails today. Administrative detention was introduced to Palestine by the British colonial mandate and continues to be imposed as a primary means of repression against active Palestinians. Al-Asa, 33, has been imprisoned since 21 June; he is married with three children and previously spent five years in Israeli jails.
