8 hunger strikers fight administrative detention; Sultan Khallouf ordered to four months imprisonment without charge or trial

There are currently 8 Palestinian prisoners on hunger strike against administrative detention, and 2 more on hunger strike to address abusive conditions of detention. These hunger strikes are coming amid ongoing tensions and struggles within the prisons, especially after multiple raids and forcible transfers by Israeli occupation forces.

On Friday, 18 August, the Higher Emergency Committee of the Palestinian Prisoners’ Movement announced that 1,000 prisoners who had gone on hunger strike in protest against these actions had suspended their strike after winning concessions from the occupation prison authority, but the prisoners’ movement was continuing its actions to demand justice and liberation. The Palestinian prisoners on strike against administrative detention — imprisonment without charge or trial — have continued their actions.

Currently, Kayed Fasfous and Sultan Khallouf have been on hunger strike since 3 August 2023, Osama Daqrouq since 6 August, and Abdel-Rahman Baraqa, Mohammed Zakarneh, Anas Kamil and Zuhdi Abido have been on strike since 10 August. Reports indicate that Seif al-Din Diab, from the village of Beit Awwa, launched an open ended hunger strike today, 20 August, joining his fellow strikers. On the other hand, Hadi Nazzal and Mohammed Ikhmeis suspended their hunger strikes today, 20 August, after agreements to end their administrative detention.

The occupation prison administration today ordered Sultan Khallouf, 42, from the town of Burqin near Jenin, on his 18th day of hunger strike, to four months in administrative detention. Khallouf launched his hunger strike immediately upon his arrest on 3 August; he previously won his freedom from administrative detention in 2019 in a 67-day hunger strike. He is being held in Megiddo prison in isolation, alongside his fellow hunger strikers who are also isolated. The use of isolation against the hunger strikers is a tactic used by the occupation to attempt to coerce them to end their strikes.

Like Khallouf, Fasfous is also a former long-term hunger striker who previously won his freedom from administrative detention. Fasfous, 34, has been detained since 2 May 2023. Fasfous, whose four brothers are also imprisoned under administrative detention, has spent 7 years in the occupation prisons in total, 4 of them in administrative detention, after he was first detained in 2007. He is held in the Naqab desert prison. In late May and the beginning of June, he went on hunger strike for 9 days, which he ended with a promise to set a limit for his detention. In 2021, Kayed Fasfous conducted a 131-day hunger strike; images of his emaciated body were widely circulated, in sharp contrast to his commitment to fitness and bodybuilding while free. Fasfous is married and a father of a daughter, Joanne. He has been denied family visits since his arrest in May.

There are also two more Palestinian prisoners on hunger strike against arbitrary and abusive prison conditions; they have been on strike for one week: Islam Bani Shamsa, against his transfer to Ramon prison, and Hatem al-Qawasmeh, to demand to see his fellow imprisoned brother, Hazem.

On Saturday, 19 August, a group of Palestinian prisoners continued to protest the attacks on Palestinian leaders, including imprisoned PFLP leader Wael Jaghoub, who has been held in isolation since 31 July, when he and several fellow leaders were seized from their room and taken to interrogation by occupation forces.

What Is Administrative Detention?

Administrative detention was first used in Palestine by the British colonial mandate and then adopted by the Zionist regime; it is now used routinely to target Palestinians, especially community leaders, activists, and influential people in their towns, camps and villages.

There are currently approximately 1200 Palestinians jailed without charge or trial under administrative detention, out of nearly 5,000 Palestinian political prisoners, the highest number in 20 years.

Administrative detention orders are issued by the military and approved by military courts on the basis of “secret evidence”, denied to both Palestinian detainees and their attorneys. Issued for up to six months at a time, they are indefinitely renewable, and Palestinians — including minor children — can spend years jailed without charge or trial under administrative detention. Hundreds of Palestinians have gone on hunger strike to win their liberation from this form of arbitrary detention, which is not only illegal under international law but a form of psychological torture and collective punishment targeting Palestinian families and communities, as detainees are unable to predict or plan for their release.