PA Says Israel Trying to Kill Hunger-striking Palestinian Prisoner

Israeli forces detain a Palestinian following a protest in support of Palestinian prisoners on hunger strike [File: Ammar Awad/Reuters]
Israeli forces detain a Palestinian following a protest in support of Palestinian prisoners on hunger strike [File: Ammar Awad/Reuters]
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PA Says Israel Trying to Kill Hunger-striking Palestinian Prisoner

Israeli forces detain a Palestinian following a protest in support of Palestinian prisoners on hunger strike [File: Ammar Awad/Reuters]
Israeli forces detain a Palestinian following a protest in support of Palestinian prisoners on hunger strike [File: Ammar Awad/Reuters]

The Palestinian Commission of Detainees Affairs accused Israel of seeking to end the life of Kayed Fasfous, who has been on a hunger strike for 108 days.

The Commission said reactivating the administrative detention means "an execution attempt of a slow death sentence."

Seven prisoners in the Israeli Occupation prisons continue their hunger strike in protest of their administrative detention, including Fasfous, Miqdad Al-Qawasmeh (101 days), Alaa Al-Araj (83 days), Hisham Abu Hawwash (74 days), Shadi Abu Akar (67 days), Ayyad Al-Harimi (38 days), and Louay Al-Ashqar (20 days ago).

Also, prisoner Rateb Hrebat has been on a hunger strike for 22 days in solidarity with the seven prisoners.

The Commission warned that Fasfous's health was deteriorating.

"At any moment, he could be transferred to the Ramleh prison clinic, despite his deteriorating health."

Regarding Qawasmeh, the commission stressed that his condition is also worrying, as he suffers from blood poisoning, and problems in his heart, lungs, kidneys, and liver, which affect his ability to move, speak and see.

The rest of the prisoners are in the Ramleh prison clinic.

The Commission highlighted that the “possibility for the prisoners to become martyrs increases every moment with the oppressive measures of the Israeli Occupation against them.”

There are around 450 detainees in the administrative detention out of 4,700 prisoners. Since 1967, the cases of administrative detention exceeded 54,000.

The head of the Commission Qadri Abu Baker commenced a two-week visit to meet with international parties such as Egypt, France, and Belgium.

Abu Bader would discuss the prisoners’ cause and the administrative detention in addition to putting an end to the prisoners’ agony.



Israel Says Killed Nabil Qaouq, Another High-Ranking Hezbollah Official, in an Airstrike

Nabil Qaouq, the deputy head of Hezbollah's Central Council. (Local media)
Nabil Qaouq, the deputy head of Hezbollah's Central Council. (Local media)
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Israel Says Killed Nabil Qaouq, Another High-Ranking Hezbollah Official, in an Airstrike

Nabil Qaouq, the deputy head of Hezbollah's Central Council. (Local media)
Nabil Qaouq, the deputy head of Hezbollah's Central Council. (Local media)

The Israeli military said Sunday that it killed another high-ranking Hezbollah official in an airstrike as the Lebanese armed group was reeling from a string of devastating blows and the killing of its overall leader, Hassan Nasrallah.

The military said Nabil Qaouq, the deputy head of Hezbollah's Central Council, was killed on Saturday. There was no immediate comment from Hezbollah, and it was not known where the strike took place.

Several senior Hezbollah commanders have been killed in Israeli strikes in recent weeks, including founding members of the group who had evaded death or detention for decades and were close to Nasrallah himself.

Hezbollah has also been targeted by a sophisticated attack on its pagers and walkie-talkies that was widely blamed on Israel. A wave of Israeli airstrikes across large parts of Lebanon has killed at least 1,030 people — including 156 women and 87 children — in less than two weeks, according to Lebanon's Health Ministry.

Hundreds of thousands of people have been driven from their homes in Lebanon by the latest strikes. The government estimates that around 250,000 are in shelters, with three to four times as many staying with friends or relatives, or camping out on the streets, caretaker Environment Minister Nasser Yassin told The Associated Press.

Hezbollah has continued to fire rockets and missiles into northern Israel, but most have been intercepted or fallen in open areas, causing few casualties and only scattered damage.

Qaouq was a veteran member of Hezbollah going back to the 1980s and served as Hezbollah's military commander in southern Lebanon during the 2006 war with Israel. He often appeared in local media, where he would comment on politics and security developments, and he gave eulogies at the funerals of senior fighters. The United States had announced sanctions against him in 2020.

Hezbollah began firing rockets, missiles and drones into northern Israel after Hamas' Oct. 7 attack out of Gaza triggered the war there. Hezbollah and Hamas are allies that consider themselves part of an Iran-backed “Axis of Resistance” against Israel.

Israel has responded with waves of airstrikes, and the conflict has steadily ratcheted up to the brink of all-out war, raising fears of a region-wide conflagration.

Israel says it is determined to return some 60,000 of its citizens to communities in the north that were evacuated nearly a year ago. Hezbollah has said it will only halt its rocket fire if there is a ceasefire in Gaza, which has proven elusive despite months of indirect negotiations between Israel and Hamas led by the United States, Qatar and Egypt.