RAMALLAH (Ma'an) -- After the UN Human Rights Council voted to launch an international investigation into Israeli settlements last week, the PA prisoners ministry is preparing to ask a UN meeting to force an end to Israel's detention of Palestinians without charge.
Minister of Prisoners’ Affairs Issa Qaraqe said Monday the PA is launching a legal campaign for the a UN meeting on Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails in Geneva starting next Monday.
Officials will ask the meeting to end Israel's policy of administrative detention, which allows the country to hold prisoners for renewable terms of six months without pressing charges.
Over 300 Palestinians are held in administrative detention in Israeli prisons, using laws dating back to the British Mandate period.
Qaraqe slammed the regulations as a "dangerous Israeli policy which turned Palestinian prisoners into hostages of the Israeli security services in breach of international human rights law."
The minister was speaking during visits to families of hunger-striking prisoners in Hebron, Jenin and Tubas.
Visiting the village of hunger-striking prisoner Hana Shalabi near Jenin, Qaraqe slammed the refusal of an Israeli military court to overturn her administrative detention. Shalabi has been on hunger-strike since she was seized from Birqin village 41 days ago.
The minister visited families of Thaer Daraghmah, on hunger strike for 13 days, and Muhammad at-Taj, on hunger strike for 15 days, in northern West Bank town Tubas.
He also saw relatives of Adeeb Abu Hussein, on hunger strike for 25 days, in Jenin city, and Murad Fashafsha, on hunger strike for 24 days, and Murad Malaysha, hunger-striking for 28 days, in nearby Jaba village.
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