(MENAFN- Qatar News Agency) Ramallah, August 08 (QNA) - Seventy-seven Palestinian detainees in Israeli jails have begun an open-ended hunger strike in solidarity with five hunger striking administrative detainees, according to the Commission of Detainees and Ex-Detainees Affairs.
The commission said the five detainees – namely Belal Kayed, Mohammad Balboul, Mahmoud Balboul, Ayyad Heremi, and Malek Qadi – have seen rapid deterioration in their health conditions due to their continuing hunger strike in protest of being detained without charge or trial.
The commission also warned about the serious health condition of detainee Belal Kayed who has been on hunger strike for 57 days, saying he could die at any moment, according to (WAFA) news agency.
Under administrative detention rules, Israel may detain Palestinians without charge or trial for up to six month intervals that can be renewed indefinitely by military courts on the basis of secret evidence.
The international community and many human rights groups, including Israeli and Palestinian, have strongly criticized the administrative detention policy, accusing Israel of using it as a routine form of collective punishment against Palestinians as well as using it when failing to obtain confessions during interrogation.
Palestinian detainees have continuously resorted to open-ended hunger strikes as a way to protest their illegal administrative detention and to demand an end to this policy, which violates international law. (QNA)