Israeli Detainee Tal Dradik Faces Life-Threatening Condition Amid 16-Day Hunger Strike

The legal rights organization Honenu has urgently appealed to the Israel Prison Service to transfer detainee Tal Yinon Dradik to a hospital due to his rapidly deteriorating health. Dradik, held in a Jerusalem detention center, has been on a hunger strike for 16 consecutive days, suffering repeated fainting, significant weight loss, critical drops in vital signs, and a dangerously low body temperature of 34 degrees Celsius. Honenu warned that his life is at serious risk and demanded immediate comprehensive medical examinations and hospitalization.

The appeal, sent to the commander of the Jerusalem detention center, Nadav Fahima, emphasized that Dradik is protesting an administrative detention order that requires him to remain confined without formal charges or trial. According to Honenu, the order violates his rights and those of his family, prompting Dradik to resort to a hunger strike as his last form of protest.

Likud MK Amit Halevi also joined the call for urgent medical care, highlighting Dradik's status as a farmer from the Benjamin Regional Council in the West Bank and condemning the use of administrative detention orders exclusively against West Bank settlers. Halevi criticized the exemption of other groups, including those involved in violence or smuggling, from such orders and urged Defense Minister Israel Katz to complete the abolition of administrative detentions.

Dradik was arrested about two weeks ago following allegations of violating an administrative order issued by Central Command Chief Avi Blot. The security establishment accuses him of involvement in a violent incident in the Jordan Valley village of Humsa in March, where Jewish attackers allegedly assaulted Palestinians, including women and children, with clubs, resulting in injuries requiring medical treatment. Dradik began his hunger strike immediately after his arrest to protest the measures taken against him.

The situation remains critical as authorities have yet to respond to the urgent medical requests, raising concerns over the detainee's survival and the broader implications of administrative detention practices in the West Bank.