A lawyer from the Palestinian Prisoner’s Society (PPS) said in a statement Thursday that an appeal has been filed with the Israeli Supreme Court after the court confirmed the administrative detention — internment without charge or trial — of Palestinian hunger striker Ammar Ibrahim Hamour, who has gone without food for 24 days in protest of his detention.

PPS lawyer Ahmad Safiya said that the organization was still awaiting the court session that would issue a final order regarding the appeal submitted against Hamour’s administrative detention, noting that the hunger striker’s detention is set to end on Feb. 14, 2017.

Hamour, 28 declared a hunger strike last month in protest of being held without charge or trial for more than nine months. He is currently being held in solitary confinement in Israel’s Ashkelon prison.
Israeli authorities have issued two six-month administrative detention orders against Hamour since he was initially detained by Israeli forces.

Hamour is from the village of Jabaa in the Jenin district of the northern occupied West Bank. He has been held in administrative detention since Feb. 16.

Meanwhile, three other Palestinian prisoners have also launched hunger strikes, with Anas Shadid and Ahmad Abu Farah abstaining from food for 83 and 84 days, respectively. Both hunger strikers have experienced a severe deterioration of their health conditions, with the Palestinian Committee of Prisoners’ Affairs releasing a statement on Wednesday warning of the prisoners’ “imminent death.”

The Israeli Supreme Court rejected an appeal on Monday filed by Shadid and Abu Farah’s lawyers, which included an extensive medical report, demanding the hunger strikers’ immediate release due to their critical health conditions.

Shadid and Abu Farah, both residents of the southern occupied West Bank village of Dura, announced on Monday that they had decided to stop drinking water and to boycott Israeli courts in response to the Israeli Supreme Court’s rejection of their appeal.

Up until then, Abu Farah and Shadid had gone without food and refused all forms of nutrition except water in protest of being placed under administrative detention — an Israeli policy of internment without charge or trial based on undisclosed evidence.

An Israeli court suspended the prisoners’ detention orders on Nov. 18 due to the deteriorating health of the hunger strikers, but the two have expressed their commitment to continue with their hunger strikes until their administrative detentions were lifted completely.

Rights groups have claimed that Israel’s administrative detention policy has been used as an attempt to disrupt Palestinian political and social processes, notably targeting Palestinian politicians, activists, and journalists.
According to Addameer, 7,000 Palestinians were being held in Israeli prisons as of October, 720 of whom were being held in administrative detention.

[Source: Ma’an News]