Dozens of Palestinians held a vigil today in the town of Ya’bad, in the West Bank province of Jenin, in support of visually impaired Palestinian detainee Izz al-Din Amarneh, who has been on hunger strike for six days in protest of his detention without charge or trial by the Israeli occupation authorities.

The protesters waved pictures of the visually impaired detainee as well as banners rejecting the Israeli policy of administrative detention, which allows for the unfair detention of Palestinians without charge or trial under the so-called secret file.

Amarneh, 52, a blind man from Ya’bad who suffers from several health problems, was arrested by the Israeli occupation authorities in February 2022, and has been held in administrative detention ever since. He is a former prisoner in Israeli jails.

Amarneh has five sons and daughters. His male sons, Ahmad and Mujahed, are also currently imprisoned by the Israeli occupation authorities.

International human rights organizations, including Amnesty International, have described Israel’s use of administrative detention as a bankrupt tactic, and have long urged Israel to bring its use to an end.

Palestinian detainees have continuously resorted to open-ended hunger strikes as a way to protest their illegal administrative detention and to demand an end to this policy, which violates international law.

Source: Palestine News & Information Agency