The Israeli prison administration is trying to break the hunger strike of Palestinian prisoner Imad Batran, held under administrative detention without charge or trial, said the Prisoners’ Affairs Commission on Thursday, 31 March.

Batran has been held under administrative detention on multiple occasions; in his last imprisonment without charge or trial, he conducted a 105-day hunger strike for his release. He began his current hunger strike on 25 February.

He has been repeatedly transferred from prison to prison; in the past week he was transferred from Megiddo prison to Asqelan prison and then again today to solitary confinement in Elah prison.

In the case of Sami Janazrah, also held under administrative detention without charge or trial, the Palestinian Prisoners’ Society reported that he is now being held in isolation in the Naqab desert prison. Striking since 3 March, he is now suffering pain in the kidneys, chest and teeth. Janazrah reported to his lawyer that Israeli authorities had spoken to him about agreeing to not renew his detention, but that there were no commitments and that his strike is ongoing.

Another Palestinian prisoner has joined the growing hunger strikes – Mohammed Daoud, 34, a Palestinian refugee living in Dheisheh refugee camp, has now been on hunger strike for eight days. Daoud is one of the prisoners released in 2011 in the prisoner exchange with the Palestinian resistance; he was re-imprisoned last November and his former sentence reimposed with no charges against him under vague grounds of “security.” Daoud is now being held in solitary confinement in Ofer prison; he was serving a 10-year sentence, of which he had served five before his release in 2011. The Israeli military has now ordered the reimposition of the remaining five years of his prior sentence. There are dozens of former, re-arrested prisoners facing similar circumstances.

Palestinian prisoners in Etzion detention center in the southern West Bank announced that they were engaging in an open hunger strike beginning Thursday, 31 March, in protest of the worsening conditions inside the prison.

Several weeks ago, 18 prisoners engaged in an open hunger strike demanding transfers to other prisons. Etzion is a detention center typically used only for short-term and temporary confinement of Palestinians arrested by Israeli occupation forces; due to the ongoing mass arrests, Palestinians are being held in the overcrowded detention center for lengthy periods of time.

Amina Tawil of the Palestinian Prisoners’ Center for studies said that Palestinians detained in Etzion are subject to ongoing harassment and beatings by occupaion soldiers, and daily inspections and ransacking of their cells. They are denied medical care and are transported via “Bosta” to the military court in trips that take over four hours.

Palestinian lawyer Hussein al-Sheikh reported testimonies of prisoners beaten at Etzion during detention and interrogation. Sameh Abu Sall, 19, from Al-Aroub refugee camp, was beaten with fists, kicks and rifle butts after his home was invaded after midnight, said al-Sheikh, and he was taken to the Etzion center. Ahmed Raed Jadallah, 18, from Ramallah area, was beaten for four hours after being brought to Etzion by occupation forces, said al-Sheikh, who said that this also involved fellow prisoners Mohammed Othman and Samer Othman, from the same village.

Al-Sheikh reported that there are dozens of young men in Etzion facing charges of “incitement” for posting on Facebook.