Hundreds of Palestinian prisoners still detained without trial

The Palestinian Office for Prisoners Affairs say that 700 Palestinian prisoners are currently being held in administrative detention by Israeli authorities.

Palestinian administrative detainees are held without charge or trial, often on the basis of secret evidence, for periods of up to six months, which are extendable indefinitely.

According to the report, nine children are also being detained without trial.

The UN has called on Israel to end the practice and to release or promptly charge all administrative detainees.

The practice has increased dramatically since the beginning of October, with 240 new administrative detention orders being issued in that time.

The report also added that a number of detainees have spent more than ten years during different periods in administrative detention, without being charged or having access to a fair trial.

"Seventy-five percent of the administrative detainees' arrests were renewed more than once, and were arrested on the basis of so-called secret evidence, which prevents lawyers from seeing the case," emphasised the report.

Based on the Prisoner Affair's statistics, 25,000 detention orders against Palestinians have been issued since 2000, and are said to be used as a substitute of a fair trial.

"Prisoners have fought against administrative detention with strikes, both individually and collectively," said the authority, adding that the practice contravenes the Geneva convention.

The report comes as Palestinian journalist, Mohammed al-Qiq has continued his hunger strike for over 75 days, in order to protest administrative detention.