Prisoner Iyad Khudair to start hunger strike to protest prison extensions

Palestinian prisoner Iyad Abu Khudair, who has been in jail since April 2005, finished the second extension to his prison term without any indication that the Israeli prison authority would release him or extend his detention, according to the prisoners' center for studies. Director of the center Ra'fat Hamdouna said that prisoner Abu Khudair had ended his eight-year prison sentence 44 days ago before the Israeli prison authority extended it for one month and then 14 days at the pretext that he does not hold any Palestinian identity card and no country accepts to take him in. Umm Baha, the wife of the prisoner, told the center that her husband would abstain on Monday, May 27, from having food and water in protest at the extension of his detention. The wife appealed to minister of civil affairs Hussein Al-Sheikh to urgently intervene to have Abu Khudair released. She said that she had submitted a reunion request to the Israeli authorities in 1999 in order for her husband to get an ID, but since then they have been waiting for approval, although many Palestinians who came later were given IDs, noting that Jordan revoked his citizenship after he came to occupied Palestine. Prisoner Abu Khudair was taken prisoner at a military checkpoint near Netzarim settlement and was charged with intending to carry out an operation against Israel and possessing a firearm.