On Sunday July 7, three Palestinian detainees who on July 1 began a hunger strike were put in solitary confinement by the Israeli prison service. The detainees who are currently being held in a prison in the Negev desert joined the hunger strike started by other Palestinian political prisoners to protest administrative detention.
The Palestinian Commission of Detainees and Ex-detainees’ Affairs stated that the three prisoners who were put in solitary confinement are Mohammed Nidal Abu Aker, Mohammed Attia Hassanat and Huzaifa Halabiya. Hassanat is a former detainee from the Duhesha camp in Bethlehem who was abducted by the Israeli security forces on June 5, 2018. He was given an administrative detention order for six months and it has been renewed three times.
Halabiya is also a former detainee hailing from Abu Dis in Jerusalem who was picked up on May 18, 2018, and put in administrative detention that has been renewed twice since then. Halabiya suffers from severe burns, and in the past, was treated for leukemia.
Mohammed Nidal Abu Aker is from Bethlehem and was abducted on November 11, 2018. He was also given an administrative detention order that was later renewed two more times.
The Palestinian Prisoners Center for Studies reported that besides these three, four other detainees are continuing their open-ended hunger strike against administrative detention without charge or trial. It also reported that six detainees had suspended their hunger strike after reaching agreements with the Israeli prison service.
The Palestinian Prisoner Society reported that 24-year-old Fida Mohammad Daamas who has been held for the last 14 months at Damoun prison in central Israel without charge or trial, began an open-ended hunger strike on Sunday July 7. Fida, who is also a student at the Al-Quds Open University, was detained in May 2018. Previously, she spent nine months in prison for resisting the occupation.