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BREAKING: The Women of Umm Al-Kheir Go on Hunger Strike - Today (July 31), more than seventy women, ranging in age from 13 to over 70, from the village of Umm al-Kheir in Masafer Yatta, decided to begin a hunger strike immediately

demanding the return of the body of Awdah al-Hathaleen, a resident of the village who was murdered by a settler this past Monday while standing in the courtyard of the village’s community center.

Al-Hathaleen’s body is being held by Israel, and the police are imposing conditions for its release, such as limiting the number of participants in the funeral to just 15, and requiring his burial in one of the nearby cities rather than in the village itself.

The women declared that they will continue the hunger strike until his body is returned, so that he may be buried in the village and his family can accompany him on his final journey.

Additionally, the hunger strike is also a protest against the ongoing detention of the 6 residents of the village who remain in jail--Awdah's brothers and cousins.

“The strike will continue until they return the body of the martyr Awdah to us—until they bring back Awdah and also the young men they took for no reason. (...) They took 14 of our boys, and they want to imprison them, even though they did nothing wrong. (...)

Our boys are our strength, they are our protection, they are the ones who defend us.” The women also expressed anger at the nightly raids into their homes since the killing:

during which no man may see her except her brother, father, or other close male relatives who are permitted to. The army entered her room while she was in her ‘iddah.