RAMALLAH, Palestine

Palestinian detainees in an Israeli jail on Tuesday refused food in protest of Israel's policy of administrative detention, a local NGO said.

In a statement, the Palestinian Prisoner Society said 151 Palestinian detainees in the Ofer military prison, west of Ramallah in the occupied West Bank, refused to take their meals.

“The move is the first step in a series of measures that may include staging a hunger strike to protest the administrative detention,” it said.

The policy of administrative detention allows Israeli authorities to extend the detention of a prisoner without charge or trial.

There are around 5,300 Palestinian detainees in Israeli prisons, including 520 administrative detainees, according to institutions concerned with prisoners’ affairs.

*Ahmed Asmar contributed to this report from Ankara.