Jordanian hunger strikers suffering medical crisis, demand action

 

inminds-jordan6Palestinian lawyers reported on July 6 that the conditions of three Jordanian prisoners on hunger strike in Soroka Hospital, Mohammad Rimawi, Muneer Mar’i and Alaa Hammad, had become very serious.

Muneer Mar’i said that the Jordanian government bears responsibility for failing to communicate with the prisoners, intervene, or respond to their demands for freedom and return to Jordan, and called on the Jordanian government to put real pressure on the Israeli occupation to put an end to this ongoing situation that will not end inside the prisons.

Mohammad Rimawi is suffering serious chest pains and fever, has been vomiting blood, and is no longer able to walk. All of the strikers have lost significant weight and are bound to their hospital beds.

Rimawi, Mar’i and Hammad are three of five prisoners holding Jordanian citizenship on hunger strike. They have been on hunger strike for 66 days, alongside their fellow strikers Hamza Othman al-Dabbas and Abdullah Barghouthi. Barghouthi, who is held in Afula hospital, was severely assaulted earlier in the week by his jailers, who keep him chained to his hospital bed.