A Palestinian prisoner who has been on a 141-day hunger strike in protest of being held without trial has consented to break his fast after striking an agreement with Israel to be freed next month, his lawyer said.
Hisham Abu Hawwash, a 40-year-old father of five, is the latest Palestinian to go on hunger strike in protest of being jailed indefinitely without indictment or trial under “administrative detention.”
Administrative prisoners are detained based on “secret evidence” and are not informed of the charges against them. They are also not permitted to defend themselves in court.
According to Abu Hawwash’s lawyer, Jawad Boulos, he consented to cease his hunger strike on Tuesday when Israel vowed to free him on February 26. Israeli authorities had no quick response.
Palestinians have gathered in solidarity with Abu Hawwash throughout the occupied West Bank and the besieged Gaza Strip.
Prisoner advocacy organizations have told Abu Hawwash that he was at “imminent risk of death.”
Abu Hawwash is the latest in a series of detainees who have boycotted food and drink in recent weeks in protest of their confinement. Typically, hunger strikers are hospitalized for extended periods of time until Israeli authorities agreed to release them.
Abu Hawwash, like many others before him, was hospitalized last month. According to local media accounts, he lapsed into and out of a coma during the previous several days, briefly losing his vision and capacity to communicate.
