Palestinian detainees Hisham Abu Hawash and Miqdad Al-Qawasmi returned home on Thursday, after winning a battle against the Israeli prison service that saw them carry out hunger strikes for over 110 days, the official Palestinian news agency WAFA reported.
Moments after being released, however, Al-Qawasmi – who has been arrested by occupation forces several times and has spent a total of about four years in Israeli prisons – was re-arrested by occupation forces. He was held for several hours before being allowed to return to his family.
After seizing his freedom, prisoner Hisham Abu Hawash is infected with COVID-19, and his family is demanding his transfer to a hospital in the occupied West Bank. pic.twitter.com/JrVhdqbyIE
— Aya Isleem 🇵🇸 #Gaza (@AyaIsleemEn) January 14, 2022
Both former detainees, WAFA reported, received a celebratory welcome from their families and friends.
Father of five Abu Hawash, 40, from the town of Dura, west of Hebron (Al-Khalil) was arrested in October 2020 and went on a hunger strike for 141 days in protest of being held under administrative detention – without charge or trial.
He was hospitalized but refused medical treatment. After days of protests by Palestinians calling for his release, and mounting fears in Israel of widespread unrest if he died in custody, on January 4, the Israeli government agreed to release him in February. He then ended his hunger strike.
Now from Hisham Abu Hawash house. pic.twitter.com/qbCrxNSDVk
— Basel Adra (@basel_adra) January 4, 2022
Al-Qawasmi also launched a hunger strike for 113 days in protest of his administrative detention, during which his weight nearly halved until Israeli prison authorities agreed to release him in February.
(MEMO, PC, Social Media)
