The suffering of Palestinian detainees held by Israel is continuing as the Israeli Prison Service (IPS) revoked commitments agreed last year that end inhumane, degrading treatment of Palestinian prisoners and detainees held in Israeli prisons; including extensive administrative detention and solitary confinement.
According to information collected by the Al Mezan Center for Human Rights, Addameer Prisoner Support, the Human Rights Association, and the Palestinian Prisoners Club, prisoner Samer Tareq Al A’isawi, 33, has been on hunger strike for the 175th consecutive day.
  On 7 July 2012, the Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) re-arrested him after as he was released in a prisoner swap on 18 October 2011.
Now, he suffers from pain in the heart, oscillations of heart rate, pain in his kidneys and head, and shivers in his body.
Prisoner Ayman Ash-Sharawna, 37, from Dura, West Bank, started a hunger strike on 1 July 2012 and ended it on 3 January 2013 due to a severe deterioration in his health condition.
He was on hunger strike for 193 consecutive days.
On 16 January 2013, he resumed his hunger strike in protest of his re-arrest.
On 18 October 2011, he was released in a prisoner swap after having served ten years in prison.
Ja’far Eiz Ad-Din, 41, and Tareq Qa’adan, 40, from ‘Arrabeh, near the West Bank city of Jenin, as well as Yousif Yassin, 29, from ‘Aneen village in Jenin, were arrested by the IOF on 22 November 2012.
  On the same day, they were placed under an order of administrative detention for a term of three months.
  On 28 November, the three men started a hunger strike in protest of their detention and treatment, and for Yousif Yassin, his re-arrest.
Today is their 55th consecutive day on hunger strike.
The suffering of Palestinian detainees held in Israeli prisons has continued in spite of the agreement reached with Egyptian mediation on 14 May 2012, an effort to end a mass hunger strike in protest of ill treatment, solitary confinement, and the extensive use of administrative detention without charges.
  The detainees ended the strike, which they had started on 17 April 2012, upon reaching an agreement in which the IPS promised to revoke the so-called “Shalit Law,” return the situation inside Israeli prisons to what it had been prior to start of the Al-Aqsa Intifada in September 2000, reduce administrative detentions, and provide appropriate medical treatment for detainees.
  The IPS is now attempting to backtrack on the agreement.
The Al Mezan Center for Human Rights expresses its deep concern for the life and wellbeing of hunger striking detainees’, and for the general wellbeing of all Palestinian and Arab detainees in Israeli prisons.
Al Mezan holds the Israeli authorities responsible for their wellbeing.
  Al Mezan strongly condemns Israel’s abuses of Palestinian detainees, starting with illegal detention without trial as unlawful combatants or administrative detainees, and numerous procedures that violate their rights and dignity, including solitary confinement, medical negligence, barring of family visitations, and other practices.
  Al Mezan calls on the international community - especially the High Contracting parties to the Fourth Geneva Convention – to put pressure on Israel to respect its obligations under international law and end the ill-treatment and interment of Palestinians under Israel’s occupation.
Israel must uphold the United Nations Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners of 1955, and other relevant international standards.
  There must also be steps taken towards a guarantee of the release of all Palestinian prisoners imprisoned without charge or fair trial, including appeal to all means of defense.
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