OIC calls for release of hunger-striking Palestinian prisoner

ISTANBUL

The Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) on Tuesday called for the release of a Palestinian prisoner, who has been on a hunger strike for 141 days in protest against his detention without trial by Israel.

Hisham Abu Hawwash has staged an open-ended hunger strike to protest his arrest under Israel’s policy of administrative detention, which allows Tel Aviv to detain anyone for six months without charge or trial.

In a statement, OIC Secretary-General Hussein Ibrahim Taha said he is "deeply concerned about the critical health condition of Palestinian prisoner Hisham Abu Hawwash, in protest of his administrative detention in Israeli occupation prisons."

“The organization stands by the Palestinian detainees in the prisons of the Israeli occupation and works to convey their voice and their suffering to the whole world,” he added.

The OIC chief called on human rights groups and international organizations to intervene to release the Palestinian detainee and “to put pressure on Israel, the occupying power, to fulfill its obligations under international human rights law, international humanitarian law and the Geneva Conventions regarding the treatment of Palestinian prisoners."

A father of five, Abu Hawwash, from the town of Dura in southern West Bank, was detained by Israeli forces on October 27, 2020 and placed under administrative detention.

According to prisoner affairs’ organizations, there are around 4,650 Palestinian detainees in Israeli jails, including at least 500 held without charge or trial.

*Writing by Bassel Barakat in Ankara