Asia

Home page

Asia

UN chief voices concern over Palestinian hunger-striking detainees

06 June 2014 22:00 (UTC +04:00)

Baku-APA. UN Secretary-General Ban Ki- moon on Friday expressed his concern about the well-being of Palestinian hunger-striking detainees in Israeli jails, APA reports quoting Xinhua.

"The secretary-general is concerned about reports regarding the deteriorating health of Palestinian administrative detainees who have been on hunger strike for over a month," said a statement issued here by Ban's spokesperson office.

"He reiterates his long-standing position that administrative detainees should be charged or released without delay," the statement said.

According to the statement, the United Nations on the ground is closely following the overall situation of Palestinian detainees and the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay recently reiterated to the government of Israel the UN chief's concerns on these issues.

"The secretary-general has taken note of the related concerns raised recently by various human rights organizations and has responded, reiterating the United Nations well known positions," the statement added.

On April 24, around 120 Palestinian detainees in Israeli jails went on a hunger strike to protest their indefinite administrative detention. Some 30 more administrative detainees later joined the hunger strikers who now amount to approximately 150 persons.

In all, 180 of around 5,000 Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails are being held in administrative detention.

Israel has been largely criticized for its administrative detention policies that enable the country to keep Palestinians in prisons without trial using renewable six-month extensions.

According to official Palestinian data, Israel has issued 23, 000 administrative detention orders since the outbreak of violence in 2000, during the second Palestinian Intifada, or uprising.

In 2012, around 1,500 Palestinian prisoners ended their 28-day hunger strike after Egypt brokered an agreement between the prisoners and Israel to improve day-to-day prison conditions.

However, Palestinian officials have accused Israel of failing to implement the agreement.