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Palestinian prisoners resort to hunger strikes

Hunger strikes by Palestinian detainees are sweeping Israeli prisons in protest of what looks like a pattern of abusive administrative detention rulings.
Palestinian protesters hold placards depicting their relatives during a demonstration to show their solidarity with hunger-striking Palestinian prisoners held by Israel, outside the Red Cross building in Jerusalem June 12, 2014. Some 70 protesters took part in the demonstration on Thursday. Hundreds of Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails have joined a hunger strike since late April, in protest over an Israeli policy allowing indefinite detention without trial. REUTERS/Ammar Awad (JERUSALEM - Tags: POLITI
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RAMALLAH, West Bank — Umm Mohammed from Arraba, a Palestinian town near the city of Jenin in the northern West Bank, sobs and prays for her son Sheikh Khader Adnan, long detained in an Israeli prison.

Adnan, 37, was arrested for the 10th time on July 8, 2014. He has been on hunger strike since May 5 in protest of the prison authorities’ decision to renew his administrative detention for the third time in a row. Israel had initially referred Adnan to administrative detention for a period of six months. At the end of that period, his detention was renewed for another six months (which was later shortened to four months), followed by a third four-month extension.

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