Human rights groups have warned that Mahmoud al-Sarsak faces imminent danger of death.
Sarsak is a 25 years old Palestinian footballer from a refugee camp in Gaza who today Sunday 10 June has entered his 84 day of hunger strike in an Israeli prison.
Once a star player in the Palestinian national team, Sarsak was arrested under the ‘Unlawful combatants’ law’ as he left the Gaza Strip en route to a match in the West Bank in 2009. He had obtained the necessary permission by Israel to travel through Erez checkpoint and enter the West Bank.
Mahmoud Sarsak has since 2009 been held in Israeli prisons without trial or charge. He is the only person arrested under the ‘Unlawful combatants’ law’ and he doesn’t yet know what Israel accuses him of. He’s detained under worse conditions than his 308 fellows under administrative detentions.
They are all kept in prison without being charged. Israel can (and does so) extend their detention orders indefinitely. Since they are not formally accused, they can’t defend themselves.
Mahmoud Sarsak is one of a handful of Palestinian political prisoners who have rejected the so-called ‘deal’ with Israel that on May 14 ended a mass hunger strike of Palestinian political prisoners that had started on April 17 marking Prisoners’ Day.
The ‘deal’ did not put an end to administrative detentions nor to detentions under the ‘Unlawful combatants’ law’. Israel did not even guarantee the most basic human rights of Palestinian prisoners.
Since the signature of the ‘deal’, Israel has violated the agreement in numerous occasions.
Meanwhile, the 2012 Euro Cup has kicked off. So far no comments from UEFA.
[من فلسطين] 