ASHKELON , Israel, Aug. 14 (UPI) — A Palestinian, on a hunger strike in an Israeli jail for the past 60 days, has entered into a coma, his lawyer said Friday.
Alleged “Islamic Jihad” member Mohammad Allaan, arrested in November 2014 and placed under administrative detention for two six-month periods but never charged, is protesting his detention by refusing food.
“Mohammed slipped into a coma last night,” his lawyer Jamil el-Khatib told Al Jazeera. “He is on mechanical respiratory support now.”
Allaan is unconscious at Barzilai Medical center in Ashkelon, Israel, where he has not been force-fed but injected with supplements necessary for his survival. Although the Red Cross warned last week his life is in danger, the hospital follows an Israeli Medical Assn. ruling, defended by the United Nations, describing force-feeding as the equivalent of torture, and a violation on patients’ rights. An Israeli law, passed in July but under challenge by Israeli doctors, permits force-feeding of prisoners on hunger strikes. It remains unclear if Allaan will be force-fed.
His situation also focuses attention on Israel’s controversial administrative detention law, which allows suspects to be detained without charge and is largely used in Israel against Palestinian suspects.
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