Israeli occupation authorities arrested 417 Palestinians from the occupied territories in October including 75 minors and 16 women.

Detainees' institutions and human rights organizations the Commission of Detainees and Ex-detainees' Affairs, the Palestinian Society Prisoner's Club, Al Dameer Association for Human Rights) pointed out that occupation authorities arrested 188 citizens from Jerusalem, 30 from Ramallah, 60 from Hebron, 22 from Jenin, 22 from Bethlehem, 22 from Nablus, 26 from Tulkarem, 21 from Qalqilia, 5 from Tubas, 3 from Salfit, 9 from Jericho and 9 from Gaza Strip.

5000 detainees are currently imprisoned in Israeli jails including 40 women, 200 minors and 450 administrative detainees, while 85 administrative detention orders have been issued.

 

The battle of hunger strike is continuous

7 detainees in Israeli jails continued their hunger strike on October 2019 protesting against their administrative detention. Two of them made an agreement with the Israeli authorities to specify the period of their detention in exchange of ending their strike. Those detainees are Ahmad Ghannam who entered a strike for 102 days, Tareq Qa'dan 89 days, and Hiba Labadi 42 days.

Another 4 detainees continued their hunger strike: Ismail Ali since 111 days, Ahmad Zahran since 51 days and Mus'ab Hindi since 49 days. The detainee Yaqub Husain joined the strike at the end of October protesting against his solitary confinement.

Human rights organizations warned of the seriousness of health conditions for the detainees Ismail Ali, Ahmad Zahran and Mus'ab Hindi, where they are suffering from bad health conditions due to their strike such as weight loss, week vision, and inability to move.

However, the administration of prisons continues to implement systematic abusive measures against detainees on hunger strike through isolating them, holding them in narrow cells unfit for human life, depriving them of family and lawyer visits.

Administrative detention and minors

Israeli occupation forces use the policy of administrative detention as a collective punishment against Palestinian people. According to statistics in October 2019, occupation authorities issued 85 administrative detention orders, including 51 orders against persons arrested last month.

847 administrative detention orders were issued since the beginning of 2019, including 334 new orders.

Administrative detention is banned in accordance with International law, where Israeli militant laws related to administrative detention are based on the Mandatory Emergency law of 1945, in which the Israeli military commander depends on confidential files in most cases of administrative detention.

The Israeli Supreme court approved in many cases the possibility of not revealing this information, which violates the detainee's right to know the reason of his detention. Article 9 (2) of the International Special Covenant on Political and Civil Rights which stipulates "that any arrested person is entitled to be informed of the reason for his arrest and he shall be informed about any charge against him".

Most of male administrative detainees are currently imprisoned at Ofer and Megiddo prisons, where female detainees are held at Damoun prison. A case in point on minor detainees is the 17-year-old Suliman Abu Ghos from Qalandia refugee camp. He got arrested under administrative detention in 14\9\2019 for 4 months. It is worthy to mention that he was arrested in 14\1\2019 and sentenced to 4 months of administrative detention and a fine of NIS 1000 on the charge of incitement.

Another case in point is the 18-year-old Nidal Amer. He was sentenced to 1 year of real imprisonment, but when he finished the sentence they arrested him back and sentenced him to 6 months of administrative detention.

The 16-year-old detainee Hafeth Zayod from Jenin was arrested in 26/8/2019 and was sentenced to 4 months of administrative detention.