Activists shut down Int'l Red Cross office in Gaza over jailed reporter

Palestinian activists on Monday shut down the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) office in Gaza for two hours, protesting its "silence" toward the case of hunger striking prisoner Mohamed Al-Qiq.

The protesters said in a statement the ICRC's "silence makes it an accomplice in the murder of journalist Al-Qiq, who is protesting administrative detention."

The activists called on the ICRC chief and other senior officials to visit Al-Qiq to oversee the reality of his situation.

An Israeli court suspended Al-Qiq's administrative detention last week but he refused to end his hunger strike that he started 76 days ago. Later, the court offered to release him in early May, but he demanded to be freed immediately.

On Sunday, the ICRC said it would halt its Gaza office operations temporarily over security concerns after a group of protesters "raided the office" in solidarity with Al-Qiq.

An ICRC spokeswoman told Xinhua that the operations were resumed after deliberations between ICRC officials and local authorities in Gaza.

Al-Qiq, a 33-year-old TV reporter working for a Saudi station, was arrested in November 2015, and started an open-ended hunger strike a few days later.

Several Palestinian prisoners have protested Israel's administrative detention policy through open-ended hunger strikes, most of whom have been offered deals for their detention orders not to be renewed.

Administrative detention is a measure through which the Israeli military holds Palestinians into custody without charges or trial, based on secret intelligence, for prolonged periods of time. Endit