Originally posted to The Middle East Monitor website, 9 July 2021,
Hunger striking Palestinian prisoner Al-Ghadanfar Abu Atwan is being released today after abstaining from food for 65 days.
The 28-year-old was protesting against being held under administrative detention – imprisonment without charge or trial – by Israeli occupation forces.
Al-Ghadanfar’s sister, Benazeer, and his lawyer, Jawad Boulos, confirmed that he will be released later today and the administrative detention order against him cancelled.
His family has confirmed that he will not end his strike until he is with his family and outside Israeli prison.
Al-Ghadanfar had been detained in October 2020 and held under administrative detention for six months this was later renewed, prompting him to launch a hunger strike on 5 May, and since then he has refused all forms of food, including vitamins and supplements.
The effects of the strike have taken a toll on his health.
“Now he looks like a ghost of himself,” his mother Majdoleen said after visiting him last week. “His cheeks are hollow, his body is so frail, he can barely speak, he can’t walk or even move,” she said.
Al-Ghadanfar had spent nearly seven years of his life since the age of 19 in Israeli detention, having been arrested and imprisoned by Israel four times. Three of his four detentions, including the latest imprisonment, were administrative detention sentences and amount to nearly five years in prison.
Link to the original post: https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20210708-hunger-striking-palestinian-prisoner-al-ghadanfar-abu-atwan-is-being-released-today-after-abstaining-from-food-for-65-days/
