Three Palestinian prisoners currently held by Israel in administrative detention, without charges being filed or being brought to trial, have declared hunger strikes. In a statement issue by the Palestinian Prisoners’ Society (PPS), it was announced that Jamal Abu al-Leil and Raed Fayez Mteir declared their hunger strikes to protest their administrative detention – an Israeli policy of imprisonment based on undisclosed evidence, almost exclusively used against Palestinians.

The PPS said that Abu al-Leil and Mteir were initially detained a year ago, on February 14 and 17, 2016, respectively. Since then, Israeli authorities have issued six-month administrative detention orders for the two prisoners three times, the latest being with the completion of a full year in prison for each of them. According to the PPS, Abu al-Leil is a former member of Fatah’s Revolutionary Council, while Mteir is head of the Qalandiya youth center in the central occupied West Bank. Both are from the Qalandiya refugee camp in northern Jerusalem and have previously been detained several times.

Palestinians protest in solidarity with Bilal Kayed and other political prisoners in the West Bank city of Nablus on August 8, 2016 (Photo: Activestills)

The prisoners have joined imprisoned journalist Muhammad al-Qiq, who has been on his latest hunger strike for at least 10 days to protest his own administrative detention. Al-Qiq, a resident of Ramallah originally from Dura in the southern occupied West Bank district of Hebron, was released from prison in May last year after he refused food for a grueling 94 days – also in protest of his administrative detention at the time.

However, al-Qiq was detained again in mid-January of this year after he participated in a protest in the occupied West Bank city of Bethlehem demanding the release of the bodies of slain Palestinians held in Israeli custody. Al-Qiq was one of a number of prominent Palestinian hunger strikers in 2016, among them the Balboul brothers who went without food for 77 and 79 days, Malik al-Qadi who continued his strike for 68 days, and Bilal Kayid who fasted for 71 days.

Palestinians and Israeli human rights groups have claimed that Israel’s administrative detention policy is being used in an attempt to disrupt Palestinian political and social processes, notably targeting Palestinian politicians, activists, and journalists. According to Addameer, as of January of this year, 6,500 Palestinians were being held in Israeli prisons, 536 of whom were being held under administrative detention.

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