UN sounds alarm over health condition of Palestinian hunger strikers

The United Nations (UN) has raised the alarm over the health conditions of hunger-striking Palestinian inmates in Israeli prisons.

“I am especially alarmed by reports of punitive measures by the Israeli authorities against the hunger strikers, including restricted access to lawyers and the denial of family visits,” said UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra’ad al-Hussein in a statement on Wednesday.

Since April 17, more than 1,600 Palestinian prisoners have been refusing to eat food as part of a protest action dubbed the Freedom and Dignity Strike, led by imprisoned Marwan Barghouti, a former top leader of the Palestinian Fatah Movement.

The strikers are demanding basic rights, such as an end to administrative detention, solitary confinement, and deliberate medical negligence.

The much-criticized administrative detention is a policy under which Palestinian inmates are kept in Israeli detention facilities without trial or charge. Nearly 700 prisoners are currently held in administrative detention. Some of them have been held in such detention for up to 11 years.