Abu Sir: Gaza child launches hunger strike for imprisoned father; prison services attempt to bargain with prisoners’ healthcare

28 April 2012

Former prisoner Samer Abu Sir reported that Israeli prison administration forces attempted to bargain with imprisoned patient Akram Rakhawi in Ramle hospital, saying they would provide him with inhalers and oxygen if he broke his hunger strike. Rakhawi refused, saying that despite his heart disease, shortness of breath, and diabetes, he woould not break his strike.

He also reported that Jumana Abu Jazar, 11, has launched a hunger strike in solidarity with her imprisoned father, the Fateh representative in the strike’s leadership. Jumana has spoken to Palestinian and Arab media in the past about her situation – her mother is dead, and she lives with her grandfather in Rafah. Her father is serving a 19-year sentence in occupation prisons, and she is one of the victims of the Israeli policy of denying family visits to prisoners in the Gaza Strip. Abu Sir noted that the leadership of the prisoners rejected a proposal by the Israeli prison officials for Gaza families to see their imprisoned relatives via video conferencing, demanding ordinary visits like all other prisoners.

Abu Sir also called to expand the activities on April 17 for the International Day of Solidarity with Palestinian Prisoners, noting that of course it is not enough to have one day, the 17th of April as a day of the Palestinian prisoner for solidarity and to stand alongside the captives behind the bars of the occupation. He said that this day of action is a strong support for international solidarity mobilization and engagement with the issue of prisoners, and a tool to put pressure on international institutions, in particular the United Nations.

Statement No. 2 from Strike Leadership: We will continue until our demands are met

28 April 2012

The Leadership Committee of the Prisoners’ Hunger Strike issued a second statement about the continuing open hunger strike, emphasizing that the strike will continue until their demands are achieved and stating their willingness to die to achieve a decent life for themselves and their sisters and brothers.

The Committee released a Statement No. 2 (see Statement No. 1) from the prisons of the occupation, as follows:

Statement No. 2
Issued by the Higher National Leadership Committee of the Prisoners’ Struggle

This is the moment of truth, where hunger grips our bleeding wounds. This is a call of duty that only the weak or cowardly can ignore. We are facing a real massacre committed by the Zionist jailers against our individual and collective rights, where we are confronted by torture and abuse on a daily basis, around the clock, in an attempt to force all of the hunger strikers to break the strike.

We are at a crucial and dangerous stage, and inspired by our hunger and our pain, speak to your conscience and affirm the following:

First, we will continue our strike. We will not go back, except by achieving our demands. We will not be defeated by their crimes and cruelty as we draft a vision for a decent life.

Second, we will take qualitative and unprecedented steps if the Prison Service continues to refuse our demands, and we will not announce these steps until the moment of implementation.

Third, we call on the masses of our people in the beseiged Gaza Strip, the brave West Bank and all of Palestine, and our families at home, to organize mass rallies and marches toward Israeli checkpoints in order to confront the occupation.

Fourth, we expect our Arab brothers and sisters in Egypt and Jordan to encircle the embassies of the Zionist entity in order to force it to respond to our demands.

Fifth, we call upon the free people of the world and the Arab and Muslim communities in all countries of the world to implement rallies, protests, occupations and sit-ins at Israeli embassies as an expression of solidarity with the prisoners’ cause and to expose the crimes of the Zionists.

Sixth, we value highly the reporting of Palestinian and Arab satellite channels in their coverage of our strike, including Al-Jazeera, that is consistent with the pulse of our nation and its identity, as well as al-Aqsa TV, al-Quds TV, and call upon the Arab and Palestinian media to exercise their duty to our just and humanitariian cause.

Seventh, we are looking forward to an important and active Egyptian role in support of our cause and we appeal to the ruling power in sister Egypt to do all in its power to compel the Zionist entity to commit to our demands, including ending the policy of solitary confinement and isolation and the abolition of the “Shalit law.”

Finally, We swear to continue to strike until our demands are met, no matter what the cost. We believe in our right to a dignified life even if we fall as martyrs. Our dignity is the greatest cost; we are committed before God; we must live with dignity or die.

Higher National Leadership Committee of the Prisoners’ Struggle
April 28, 2012

Sa’adat: Hunger Strikers confident of victory, call for unity and support

28 April 2012

The following letter was written by Ahmad Sa’adat from his isolation on the eighth day of the Karameh Hunger Strike, and smuggled out to the world. It calls for support for the hunger strike on Palestinian, Arab and international levels:

Dearest Umm Ghassan, and all my loved ones;

Ghassan, Amal, Iba, Loay, Sumoud, Yassar, and my whole family;

Do not worry, my health is much better than in the previous hunger strike, and I am confident it will remain so. Thank you for your continual support to my position in this hunger strike. As is the case in every strike, they took all of our electrical appliances, canteen, clothing…we only have left prison clothes, some change of underwear, pajamas, towels, soap and toothpaste.

All of us have lost about 5-7 kilograms in weight, but everyone is in good health and most importantly, high morale, and are determined to continue the strike. We are confident of victory, relying on the justice of our cause and our demands, and the support of the masses of our people, our nation, and the free world – individuals, organizations and institutions – standing, as always alongside our just struggle.

These demands include a number of legitimate human rights under international law, including abolition of solitary confinement as a dangerous form of torture with no security or legal justification and contrary to international humanitarian law and all international conventions that prohibit torture. We are also demanding an end to the prohibition of family visits to the prisoners from Gaza for more than seven years, as well as interference with family visitors from the West Bank under the pretext of ‘security reasons’, and demanding that such visits be allowed for extended as well as immediate family.

What we need from the masses of the people, political forces and institutions is to raise the voices and the call of our just demands of the prisoners with a unified voice, and not subject the cause of the prisoners to internal disputes or the management of division.

This strike includes participation from all political forces and factions, without exception, and the best gift from the political forces supporting us is to implement agreements for unity, on which the ink is not yet dry. Such unity is an essential foundation, the most important pillar to achieve our just national goals.

In conclusion, I salute and thank all of the Palestinian, Arab and international forces standing beside our just struggle.

Forward to victory!

Ahmad Sa’adat
April 24, 2012
Eighth day of hunger strike

Wife of isolated captive Abbas al-Sayyed expresses fear for his life

28 April 2012

TULKAREM, (PIC)– Mrs. Ikhlas al-Sweis, wife of isolated prisoner Abbas al-Sayyed, expressed great fears for her husband’s life because he joined the hunger strike while he is in very bad health specially after being beaten unconscious, a few weeks ago, by occupation soldiers in Jalbo’ prison causing him serious injuries.

Al-Sweis told the PIC correspondent: that Sayyed was still suffering from injuries sustained in three assaults on him by Israeli occupation soldiers during in the course of last month because he refused to give samples for DNA testing.

She stressed that Sayyed joined the hunger strike on 18 April, just one day after a mass hunger strike was declared by the prisoners, because he did not know that the strike started except when a lawyer visited him on 18 April, when he immediately declared his hunger strike.

She added that the prison administration punished him by confiscating electric equipment from his cell including his television and radio sets.

Abbas al-Sayyed is serving 36-life sentences plus 200 years accused of helping Abdel-Basit odeh to carry out an attack against occupation in 2002.

Gaza: Ex-Detainee Fahmi Abu Salah in ICU after 7 days of hunger strike for solidarity with his sons

28 April 2012

GAZA, (PIC)– Medical sources said on Saturday that the ex-detainee Assaad Fahmi Abu Salah, 50, was transferred to intensive care in Beit Hanoun hospital, north of the Gaza Strip, after his health deteriorated due to his open hunger strike in solidarity with his detained sons.

Abdullah Kandil, the spokesman of Waad association for free detainees, affirmed, in an exclusive statement to PIC, that Abu Salah was transferred yesterday evening to hospital after his health deteriorated because of his hunger strike in solidarity with his sons, his brother, and his brother’s son.

He pointed out that the ex-detainee, who had participated in many activities in solidarity with the Palestinian prisoners, has many health problems.

The PIC had met previously the ex-detainee Abu Salah in a solidarity activity last Thursday where he said “I have four of my relatives in the occupation prisons, and I will continue the hunger strike until their release”.

Abu Salah expressed deep concern about his relatives, saying that the prisoners’ families have no idea about their sons’ conditions.

He condemned the Arab and Muslim world’s passive position towards the prisoners’ issue, calling for more support for the prisoners’ just demands.

PFLP prisoners reject occupation offer to end Sa’adat’s isolation in exchange for end of hunger strike

28 April 2012

Prisoners of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine in Mejiddo prison rejected an offer by Israeli prison officials to end the isolation of Ahmad Sa’adat on the condition that they end their hunger strike on Saturday, April 28, reported Fuad al-Khafsh of Ahrar Centre for Prisoners.

Israeli prison officials approached PFLP hunger strikers in Mejiddo, offering to end the isolation of Sa’adat, the General Secretary of the PFLP, who has been held in isolation cells for over three years. Sa’adat’s isolation was one of the main triggers of the September-October 2011 hunger strike among Palestinian prisoners that inspired the ongoing wave of hunger strikes. This open-ended hunger strike, which launched on April 17, Palestinian Prisoners’ Day, began with 1600 hunger strikers and has grown by hundreds daily, with a thousand more expected to join in the coming week. It includes prisoners from all Palestinian political parties and factions, and demands an end to isolation, end to administrative detention, and access to family visits, education and media.

In response to this offer, the PFLP prisoners refused to end the strike, saying that “the issue of isolated prisoners is a single case and cannot be divided. It is not for the end of isolation of Sa’adat only but for all prisoners.” Khafsh said to Safa agency that Israeli occupation officials have presented similar offers to prisoners fom different factions in an attempt to foment disunity among the prisoners, and has failed in such attempts.

Until Freedom or Martyrdom: Thaer Halahleh on 60 Days of Hunger Strike

28 April 2012

Dylan Collins published the following profile of Thaer Halahleh in the Palestine Monitor, Saturday April 28, 2012:

Kharas, occupied West Bank—Two year old Lamar Halahleh has never met her father outside of a prison cell. In fact, she wasn’t able to lay eyes upon him until she was nearly half a year old.

Thaer Halahleh, Lamar’s father, has not only spent the last two years in the Israeli prison system, the 33 year-old has actually been detained for the majority of the past nine years due to Israel’s exploitive practice of administrative detention.

ThaerHalahleh-082-300x199 — Photo by Dylan Collins

“The only way she [Lamar] knows her father is through pictures,” says Lamar’s mother and Thaer’s wife, Shireen. “She has hundreds of pictures of Thaer. When she goes to sleep at night, she tucks his picture into bed with her.”

Always held without charge or trial, Thaer’s only officially stated wrongdoing has been his affiliation to Islamic Jihad, a political party officially outlawed by Israel.

Thaer’s most recent arrest came on 26 June 2010 during a midnight raid on his home in the small village of Kharras, near Hebron in the occupied West Bank. Nearly 50 Israeli soldiers stormed the Halahleh’s home. Without knocking, the armed forces kicked down the door, made the women and children go outside in their bedclothes, and proceeded to search the house with two dogs for nearly an hour.

After a thorough search of the house, the troops then told the family they had an order to arrest Thaer. When asked why, the officer in charge responded that Thaer was a “threat to the public.”

Thaer had only just recently ended a year long stretch in administrative detention. He was home for all of about 14 days before being re-arrested and presented, yet again, with three- month administrative detention order.

Like all other administrative detainees, Thaer is being held on ‘secret evidence’ and has never been officially charged nor convicted of anything.

Cyclical and ambiguous arrests have plagued the lives of Thaer and his family. Every one of his four brothers, and even his father, has been held in administrative detention at some point. Thaer himself has been arrested 8 times and spent a collective six and half years total in administrative detention.

Thaer’s most recent administrative detention order has been renewed every three-months. The uncertainty of his detention’s length has been nerve racking to say the least. Thaer’s wife, Shireen, argues neither she nor Thaer, nor Thaer’s lawyer know whether the order will be renewed until the day it concludes. Shireen reveals that several times, Thaer has been directed to collect his belongings and prepare to go home only to be turned back at the gates of the prison with a renewed three-month detention order.

How to Fight Ambiguous Detentions

Thaer’s detention was most recently extended in January for a period of six-months. Left with little other options and encouraged by Sheikh Khader Adnan’s recent 66-day feat in protest of administrative detention, the exact same directive that has controlled Thaer’s life for the past nine years, he too entered into his own open-ended hunger strike on 28 February while in Al-Naqab prison.

Saturday 27 April 2012, Thaer entered into his 60th day with out food.

“He is determined,” said Thaer’s older brother Mohammed. “He will either be set free or become a martyr.”

When asked if they thought Thaer would be willing to accept an exile deal similar to the one Israel reached with hunger striker Hana Shalabi, through which she had been exiled to Gaza for the following three years, his family responded with a resounding no. “It was good for Hana,” says Thaer’s Uncle Wahib, “but Thaer would never agree to anything of the sort.”

On 28 March, Thaer was transferred to Israel’s Ramleh medical prison along with another hunger striking prisoner, Bilal Diab. According to Addameer, both men have been held in isolated cells in the general prison section. Despite numerous requests, Addameer lawyers have been denied access to Thaer and Bilal since their transfer.

Despite his rapidly deteriorating condition, Thaer Halaleh’s appeal against his administrative detention was rejected by an Israeli military judge at the Ofer military court on Monday 23 April.

Thaer’s wife Shireen has little faith in receiving justice from the Israeli military court system. “How can we have any faith in the court hearings. How can we believe that a just verdict will be reached when we are barred from even attending the trial, when the entire trial is conducted in Hebrew, and when the only people present are the Israeli judge, the Israeli translator, the Israeli prosecutor, and the mukhabarat [Israeli secret service]?”

Power in Numbers

Approximately 1,200 Palestinian prisoners from all political factions began a unified open-ended hunger strike on 17 April 2012 in commemoration of Palestinian Prisoners’ Day and in protest of Israel’s exploitive use of administrative detention as well as its poor treatment of Palestinian prisoners.

Since its beginning, the movement has only been getting stronger.

In an April 25th update published by Addameer the estimated total number of prisoners on hunger strike had risen to nearly 2,000, a number which has most certainly risen since and has plans to increase in the coming days.

In Hasharon prison, six female prisoners have announced they will enter into the open-ended hunger strike on 1 May 2012. An additional 120 prisoners in Ofer prison are expected to join the hunger strike on 29 April.

The movement—“The War of Empty Stomachs”—has been effectively launched. It is, perhaps, a last resort by Palestinian prisoners to finally obtain just and fair treatment.

Thaer Halahleh, having reached his 60th day without food along with his compatriot Bilal Diab, is at the movement’s forefront.

Their demands, as well as those of the other active “Empty Stomach Warriors,” are neither absurd nor inappropriate. They are simply demanding a fair judicial process and improved living conditions but are risking their lives in the process.

Al-Akhbar: Empty Stomach Warriors (II): Bilal Thiab Chooses the Life He Wants to Live

28 April 2012

Linah Alsaafin published the following profile of hunger striker Bilal Diab, who has been on hunger strike for 60 days, in Al-Akhbar English on Friday, April 27, 2012. Addameer has also released a profile of Diab: http://www.addameer.org/etemplate.php?id=462

Even as a young boy, Bilal Thiab despised authoritative oppression. He refused to listen to adults telling him off for innocent mistakes and later that personality trait solidified into one that openly challenged the men in uniform trampling on people’s freedom.

Thiab was just 18 years old and a high school senior when he was first arrested by the Israeli occupying army in October 2003 from his village of Kufr Rai. He was sentenced to prison for seven and a half years for what Israel called his “political activism in the Islamic Jihad group.”

When he was arrested, he defied the Israeli soldiers’ commands to look at the ground instead of at their faces, and when he refused they threatened to shoot him. Thiab was unshaken, and replied scathingly that either way, death is inevitable. These comments caused a significant amount of distress for his mother who was listening in on the exchange from the other room, confined there by the soldiers.

After his release in February 2010, life was never the same for Thiab. He was arrested for short periods of time and was repeatedly summoned by the Israeli intelligence for interrogations, which usually lasted for days. One interrogation in May lasted for seven days. Thiab was also arrested by the Palestinian Authority for 28 days, a subject his mother, 65-year-old Umm Hisham is not keen to discuss.

“There is no point in talking about this now,” she murmured, turning away with one hand on her face. “We need all the support we can get, from President Mahmoud Abbas and [Prime Minister] Salam Fayyad.” She looked up with a worn out smile. “He went on hunger strike for 14 days after the PA arrested him.”

Adjusting to “freedom” after prison was a hardship in itself, especially since Thiab found himself being constantly called for interrogations by Israel and intermittently, by the PA.

“He wanted to live his life the way he imagined, but couldn’t because the occupation stole any meaning of life from him,” Umm Hisham said. “He has such a strong respectable character, but he was denied leading a life any young man of his age should be able to, such as starting a family, going to wedding parties outside the village, and visiting other towns and cities.”

Thiab’s restricted freedom of movement was illustrated emphatically in January 2011, after he tried to go to Jenin to visit his sister-in-law after she had given birth to twin boys. A flying checkpoint was waiting for him just outside Kufr Rai, and he was subsequently strip-searched and detained for several hours before being sent home again. “He left prison for a bigger prison,” Umm Hisham underlined.

After apprenticing as a barber, Thiab opened a barbershop in his village. Barely 12 days later, he was taken away by Israeli forces yet again for interrogation, during which they goaded him and made fun of his profession. When he returned home, he never went back to his barbershop again.

On 17 August 2011, Thiab was hanging out with four of his neighbors on his brother’s roof. It was in the middle of the month of Ramadan, and the villagers have a habit of staying up late during the holy month. At 1am, sound bombs suddenly went off around the house, and the courtyard was rapidly swarming with a special unit of Israeli soldiers, all dressed in civilian clothes. Another group of soldiers, this time easily distinguishable from their uniforms, made their way up to the roof and detained all of the five young men. The soldiers then rounded up all the women and children into one room. Isam, one of Thiab’s brothers, was handcuffed in a different room, and the soldiers kept stomping on his body. The soldiers released the four men who were with Thiab, but handcuffed and blindfolded him and proceeded to drag Thiab on his knees to where the army jeep was standing, about 200m away.

Thiab went on 14 days of hunger strike in solidarity with Khader Adnan, and later for another 12 days in solidarity with Hana Shalabi. When the Israeli Prison Service (IPS) renewed his detention for another six months at the end of February 2012, Thiab immediately began his hunger strike with his friend and fellow inmate Thaer Halahleh. They were separated and placed in different cells, and when it became clear they were not going to end their hunger strike the IPS moved them both to solitary confinement. On March 28, Thiab and Halahleh were hospitalized, and are currently in the Ramle prison hospital.

Jamil Khatib, the lawyer for Thiab and Halahleh and other hunger strikers who have also been hospitalized, last visited them on Wednesday, April 25.

“On the 59th day of his hunger strike, Bilal’s health is at a very dangerous level,” Khatib stressed. “He has lost 25kg, has difficulty speaking, a low blood sugar level, and constant pain in his stomach. His hair is falling out, and suffers from frequent dizziness in addition to falling unconscious at times. He is very weak, and can’t move on his own.”

On Monday, April 23, the Israeli military court rejected Khatib’s appeal to release both Thiab and Halahleh. The next day, Khatib appealed to the High Israeli court in Jerusalem and demanded two things: to process the appeal as soon as possible, and to transfer Thiab and Halahleh to court in ambulances, not military jeeps.

Khatib says that a deal to exile both prisoners in return for an end to their hunger strike wasn’t officially presented to him by the Israeli intelligence, since he has made it clear to them that he will not negotiate on this condition. Furthermore, Thiab and Halahleh have made it clear that they refuse to be exiled anywhere outside their own villages.

“I expect them to continue with their hunger strike, on the path that Khader Adnan spearheaded,” Khatib said. “They are determined to hunger strike until freedom or martyrdom. This is their latest message to us. They also ask for more positive support and for a clear strategy from media and organizations in covering their case.”

Azzam, another of Thiab’s brothers, is on his 30th day of hunger strike in solidarity with his brother, regardless of the fact that he is carrying out a life sentence since 2001.

“Bilal is the youngest of my 13 children,” Umm Hisham said. “His father died when he was 8 months old, so he was always spoiled by his brothers and sisters. I ask everyone, anyone whose human rights means something to them, to help us, to release Bilal, to free Bilal.”

Prisoners in Negev engage in medicine strike; Khader Adnan reports arrest of activist

28 April 2012

Khader Adnan reported on Saturday April 28 that the Israeli occupation today seized Mohammed Abdul Latif al-Shaibani, 37, of Arraba near Jenin like Adnan, according to Ma’an. Adnan reported that al-Shaibani previously spent six years in the occupation prisons and was released in 2008, and is an activist with Islamic Jihad.

Adnan also reported that, like other hunger striking prisoners, Sheikh Tariq Kaadan of Islamic Jihad, a prominent leader, was denied legal visits today in Jilboa prison because he is participating in the hunger strike, and that prisoners in Eshel prison were isolated after Friday prayers yesterday, where calls were issued for all prisoners to join the hunger strike.

Addameer has reported that none of its lawyers have been permitted to visit any of the prisoners on hunger strike, barred by the Israeli occupation.

The administrative detainees in Section 9, who suffer from chronic diseases of Negev desert prison issued a statement on Friday saying that they had undertaken a one-day medicine strike in addition to their hunger strike as part of their escalation of protest.

Palestine football star seriously ill from four-week hunger strike

28 April 2012

Rami Almeghari reported the following story, about Palestinian political prisoner and footballer Mahmoud Sarsak, for The Electronic Intifada. Sarsak has been on hunger strike for five weeks, protesting his indefinite and arbitrary administrative detention as an ‘illegal combatant’ from Gaza; he was abducted by the Israeli occupation when he entered the West Bank to join the Palestinian national football team.

Rafah

20 April 2012

Gaza native Mahmoud Sarsak is a member of the Palestinian national football squad. Yet it is not his prowess on the pitch that is foremost on the minds of Palestinians at the moment. The 25-year-old is seriously ill in a hospital in Ramle, a city in Israel, after being on hunger strike for four weeks. He is one of many prisoners depriving himself of food to demand liberty and justice.

Sarsak has been imprisoned for three years now. Although he has never been tried for any recognizable offense, Sarsak’s detention has been continuously renewed every six months. Israel’s internal intelligence service, the Shabak (also known as the Shin Bet) has claimed that Sarsak is imprisoned under an “illegal combatant” law.

“To the best of my knowledge, Mahmoud is the only Palestinian prisoner who is being subjected to this law,” said Sarsak’s lawyer, Muhammad Jabareen. “The illegal combatant law is the Israeli copy or version of the US law introduced for suspected members of al Qaeda, who the US imprisoned in Guantanamo Bay, right after going to war in Afghanistan.”

Jabareen explained that Israel has applied the “illegal combatant” law to Gaza after it decided to withdraw its settlements from Gaza in 2005.

“Every time we ask the Shabak what charges they have against Mahmoud, they say he has connections with a terrorist organization and that Mahmoud poses a serious threat to the security of the state of Israel,” Jabareen said.

No answers from Israel

Sarsak’s family home is located in an alleyway in Rafah, near Gaza’s border with Egypt. His parents and siblings have not been allowed to visit him in prison.

“My family never imagined that Mahmoud would have been imprisoned by Israel,” said his older brother Imad. “Why, really why? This is a question that the Israelis have not yet answered clearly, even to Mahmoud’s lawyer. My brother was enrolled at university to study information technology. When Mahmoud was jailed, he was only 22 and was keen to do more sports activities.”

In July 2009, Israeli soldiers at the Erez checkpoint in the northern Gaza Strip took Mahmoud Sarsak into custody while he was en route to join the Palestinian national football team in the West Bank. Mahmoud’s travel itinerary was coordinated by the Palestinian Authority’s Ministry of Civil Affairs and Israel had issued a permit for him to pass through Erez. But that did not stop the soldiers from arresting him. He has been detained in theNegev (Naqab) desert.

“Mahmoud has been fond of football since he was a little child,” said Emad. “At the age of 14, Mahmoud joined local teams here in Rafah. At 17, Mahmoud participated in a contest in Norway, then he travelled to Iraq to take part in the Palestinian national team for teenagers.”

Last year, dozens of Palestinian sports clubs sent a letter to Michel Platini, the head of UEFA, expressing dismay at the organization’s decision to hold the 2013 Under-21 movement in Israel, and citing Sarsak’s arbitrary detention as one of the many abuses Israel carries out against the Palestinian athletic community.

Dearest son

A poster of Mahmoud Sarsak, and some of his athletic trophies.

(Rami Almeghari / The Electronic Intifada)

Umm Abelazziz, Mahmoud’s elderly mother, described him as her youngest and dearest son. She has five other boys, as well as five daughters. “May God allow me to see Mahmoud in front of me, before something happens to me or I pass away,” she said. “When I heard that he began a hunger strike, I was plagued with high blood pressure. I am very worried about him. What is going on? I wish he had not gone on a hunger strike. I would have preferred that he remained steadfast without that hunger strike.”
“Every time I go the local market, I just remember where Mahmoud used to stand and the groceries he used to buy. Also, whenever we make a dish he used to like, I start to cry.”

Kamel Sarsak, Mahmoud’s father, has sold fruit in Rafah for many years but has been unwell in recent times. “I still can’t understand why my son Mahmoud has been detained. I had a heart attack, right after I was informed that he was arrested three years ago.”

Mahmoud Abu Ahmad, a friend of Mahmoud Sarsak recalls: “The day Mahmoud was detained, he borrowed my sports shoes. We had trained and played a lot together. Once I had a fight with some folks in the neighborhood, then I phoned Mahmoud and when he came over, the fight was defused very smoothly. He was such a good-natured friend, a type of person that is rarely found.”

According to the PA’s Ministry for Prisoners’ Affairs, there are currently 4,700 Palestinian men, women and children detainees inside Israeli jails.

On 17 April, more than 1,000 Palestinian prisoners declared an open-ended hunger strike. About 2,000 more joined them in a single day of solidarity fasting, to protest against solitary confinement, inadequate medical care and denial of family visits.

Rami Almeghari is a journalist and university lecturer based in the Gaza Strip.

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No answers from Israel

Dearest son

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